Blog

We are just a few weeks away from Black Friday, the start of the busy season for skate sales, and then Christmas. That means parents will start asking the kids for Christmas suggestions very soon. This is the time to get your skate shop ready if you haven’t already.

A small size run of two or three skates is a tiny investment to make in your pro shop. You are so much more likely to sell skates if you have them on hand, simple size runs aren’t a big commitment to make to improve your skate sales. If you get started now, you can certainly have them in place in plenty of time for the rush.

We also have a full line of skate posters to help decorate, for free, just ask for some with your next order.

We received a new shipment from Vanilla. The Astro wheels are now back in stock (except for the green 65mm). Most of the Junior skates are back in stock, we even have all sizes in the Stealth available, but that isn’t guaranteed to last for long. So get an order together quickly if you’re interested.

Our annual tradeshow is coming up Oct 6 and 7 (Mon and Tues). It will be at our Roanoke warehouse. This is a great opportunity to visit with other rink owners, see new products, meet some of our vendors in person, and tour our facility. We often think of it as an unofficial kickoff to the busy skating rink season.

The show starts at 2pm on Monday afternoon. We will have a free catered dinner in our warehouse on Monday evening. After that, you’ll go to the Skate Center for a time of socializing, skating, and round table discussions with other rink owners and managers.

If you’re able to join us, please RSVP as soon as possible so we can get an accurate head count for the caterers. Make your hotel reservation by Sept 5 to secure the group rate on rooms at the Courtyard Marriott. You can call them at 540-563-5002 and mention the Southeastern Skate room block. Or click here for a link to book online.  After the September 5 date the hotel will be releasing the room block and we can’t make any guarantees that there will be space at the host hotel.

Roller Derby is introducing a new line of bearings under the Kemistry name. These come in an attractive black display box. There are three different versions, a Ceramic, a Swiss, and a Super 7 bearing, each of these come in the 8mm size, and they’re in stock now.

Our annual tradeshow will be at our Roanoke, VA warehouse on Oct 6 and 7 (Monday and Tuesday), 2025. This is a great opportunity to see our warehouse, meet with other rink owners, and learn more about the industry. We’ll have vendors here showing off their new products. We’ll have closeout specials on older discontinued merchandise. We’ll have a free dinner on Monday night. After the dinner there will be an event at the Skate Center rink with socializing, skating, and round table discussions put on by the local RSA Chapter.

We mailed out invitations two weeks ago with some details. Please remember to register with our office and book your hotel by September 2 to help with our planning. Also understand that this event is for customers only, it is not open to the public.

We will be at the RSA Sk8 Expo on August 25 and 26. If you’re there, please take a moment to swing by our booth and say “hi”.

We just received a new batch of the wheel washer machines. If you’ve been thinking about getting one, they’re currently in stock, and now would be a great time to make your skate rental employees very happy.

We have just received a new shipment from Vanilla that has some of their Tuxedo and Stealth skates. They are working on a second shipment soon that get us some more skates as well. We’ve started the process of reaching out to customers with these on backorder, and hopefully we will have some inventory left after the backorders have been processed.

Several vendors have recently had to issue price increases to help cover increased costs on shipments coming from overseas. We’ve sent out warnings from Bones, Vanilla, and Sure-Grip. Prices remain pretty volatile right now for many of our suppliers. We will do our best to keep everyone as updated as possible when we hear from our suppliers.

We are going to start creating our own line of rink signs. We don’t have them yet, we’re hoping for an ETA of approximately June 20. As soon as they’re ready we’ll let you know. But here is a sampling of the signs we’ll have available:

Number Description Size
SGS400 Attn: Skate Return 16″ x 12″
SGA402 Notice: Own Risk 16″ x 12″
SGA406 Notice: Security Cameras 16″ x 12″
SGA408 Thank You 16″ x 12″
SGA410 Notice: No In-And-Out 16″ x 12″
SGS412 Caution: Enter Floor 16″ x 12″
SGS414 Caution: Step 16″ x 12″
SGS416 Warning: Insurance 16″ x 12″
SGS418 Important: Defective 16″ x 12″
SGS420 Notice: Do Not Carry 16″ x 12″
SGS422 Notice: No Entering 16″ x 12″
SGS424 Warning: Restroom Floors 16″ x 12″
SGA426 No Outside Food 16″ x 12″
SGA428 No Gum 16″ x 12″
SGA430 No Smoking 16″ x 12″
SGA432 No Vaping 16″ x 12″
SGS602 Notice: Skate At Own Risk 19″x14.25″
SGS604 Notice: Do Not Carry 19″x14.25″
SGA606 Notice: Own Risk 19″x14.25″
SGA608 No Outside Food 19″x14.25″
SGA610 No Food Or Drink Beyond 19″x14.25″

We’ve notified you recently about price increases from Bones and Vanilla.  We now need to let everyone know that Sure-Grip is also doing a round of price increases.  These will be effective starting on Tuesday May 27.  If you are a customer of ours, please be aware of this and double check before placing orders.

Last week we notified customers of a price increase on Bones bearings.  This week we need to let you know that the price on the Vanilla Junior skates are going up.  Vanilla has not had a price increase in several years, but the recent cost increases are too much to absorb, some of that will need to be passed on.  The new prices will become effective on May 20, 2025.  Please reach out to us for more details before placing an order for the Vanilla Juniors.  Thanks for your understanding.

Bones has updated their pricing on many items.  Their wheels are made here in the USA so those mainly stay the same (or even had small decreases).    But their bearings are going to have some increases, and some of those are significant, so we wanted to let everyone know immediately.

 

If you have an account with us please double check pricing before you place an order or ask for an updated price flyer.

Bones has added two new colors to their Team Bones wheels. They now come in yellow and blue. Both of the new colors are now in stock in both sizes (57mm and 62mm) and both hardnesses (98A and 101A).

Bones has also added a purple version of their Turbo speed wheels.in the 97A and 101A hardness. These are in stock now.

Vanilla is adding a black color to their line of Parfait skates. The new black ones are available in ladies sizes 5-11. While these are black boots, they’re ladies sizes, and the inner liner part of the boots are pink and purple.

There has been a lot of talk about tariffs recently. So far none of our vendors have increased pricing. We know that many vendors are telling their international factories to hold off on shipping merchandise until we know more. Many people are hoping deals will be reached and the tariff rates will go down, then they’ll tell the factories to go ahead and release shipments. This could certainly create product shortages as shipments are delayed or cancelled. Obviously, if we do start seeing big increases we will need to adjust our prices, but so far we have not seen any.

Piper is revamping a lot of their quad wheel lineup. Here are some highlights on the newer wheels that are now in stock. . .

Superlite – A new outdoor quad wheel. 65mm size, 78A hardness. Available in purple, red, or white.

Freaky Fast Pro – The new version of their Freaky Fast wheels now use a higher quality urethane. 63.5mm size. Available in black, white, or purple.

Superfly – They say this is the fastest dance wheel in the world. 57mm or 62mm size, 103A hardness. Available in white.

Ion Pro – 63.5mm. Available in white (XFast) or orange (XXFast).

Shuffle – This now comes in a 59mm (white) version with a nylon core called the Shuffle Junior or a 63.5mm (green or white) version with an aluminum core called the Shuffle Pro.

Freestyle Plus – A dance wheel in 50mm or 57mm sizes. Both sizes are black with a 101A hardness.

Super Lucky – A dance wheel in 50mm or 57mm sizes. Both sizes are red with a 98A hardness.

Griffin Brothers Wheel – Inspired by the popular Griffin Brothers skaters you may have seen online. This wheel is 63.5mm in a 95A hardness. They’re black with gold graphics and hubs.

We carry a full line of birthday party supplies in several different designs. We have cups, napkins, placemats, sporks, and invites. While working on inventory, we found a few boxes of these in an older balloon design. We have very few cups and plates (in the 7 inch or 9 inch size) in this balloon design that we can sell for half off the regular price. We don’t have many, they won’t last long, so act quickly if you’re interested.