While rollerblades all but made skates a thing of the past, the roller skates actually live on. Now Tomas Leszczynski of New York is looking to Kickstarter to bring out his concept Flexiskates. Unlike other “roller skates” offer an a way for skaters to carve into turns as in alpine skiing, and this can provide the stability that roller skates offer with the speed of inline skates. Time to get skating. Video after the jump
Tag: Roller skates
Roller Skating Tries to Make a Skatement
Roller skates have been around for a long time, but in the last two decades have taken much of a backseat to rollerblades and scooters. Before that roller skates faced competition from skateboards and an earlier generation of scooters. But now roller skate industry is looking to wheel back with a new industry campaign where roller skates “Make a Skatement.”
“While we have seen some double-digit growth in certain areas of the country over the past few years, we want to ignite a national movement to make roller skating more top-of-mind with young people and their families across the country,” says Ron Creten, an industry veteran of 35 years, who is leading the effort as president of Roller Skating Rocks, Inc. “When you look at research, America’s youth like to hang out with friends, listen to music, be active and go to social events. That’s roller skating! It’s our job to remind them of that.”
Based on a 2007 industry study commissioned by the Roller Skating Association (RSA), there are an estimated 39 million active roller skaters in the USA. In addition, there are approximately 1,500 roller rinks and hundreds of roller hockey teams across the country. Roller derby’s explosive growth from 350 teams to nearly 700 in a one-year span (according to research conducted by the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) continues to help the industry.
This new campaign will rely heavily on social media, mobile and digital mediums that will disseminate an exciting brand platform. The theme for the campaign is Make a Skatement – Join The Roller Revolution.
Creten is also looking for corporate partners that might interested in teaming up with the industry to gain exposure among skating’s core demographic age groups, which range from 6-29 years of age, and added that industry leaders would like to see a five percent per annum average growth rate over the next five years. “We recognize this is a journey that will take the next few years versus a quick sprint to the finish.”
That is a major skatement – or statement indeed.
Kinetic(Mis)Shift: Skataz Goes Electric
http://youtu.be/KIGTyCdo31U
While we love the idea of convergence and technology, we’re not sure everything benefits from being “juiced up,” and this includes roller skates. The latest to add some power to the skates is Skataz, a new version of the iShoes. Any trust us just because a products adds an “i” to the front, doesn’t make it better.
But judge for yourself in the video. Electric skates: just a bit silly or downright dangerous? Either way, we say powering up the traditional roller skate is just a Kinetic(Mis)Shift.
Kinetic(Mis)Shift are products that we think deserve to be called out for their utter lack of fitness benefits.
Wheels Keeping on Turning and Turning
While the general economy in the United States seems to be barely moving, Elasco, Inc. is just wheeling along. The company, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Deltron, has seen a significant increase in the sales of its high performance roller skate wheels. And we thought roller skates were as dead as disco.
But in fact Elasco has increased sales of its proprietary polyurethane wheels to existing quad skate OEM customers by 116 percent this year. Although part of this could be that consumers are replacing wheels on old skates, as roller skating as a retro activity is catching on, the other part of the equation is that roller derby is also hot again. Continue reading Wheels Keeping on Turning and Turning