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Vanilla teased this at our tradeshow and it is now getting close to happening.  They’re introducing two new wheels in very limited editions, a small batch item, called the Never Ever wheels.  The first batch of these wheels will come in two different colors, with two different hubs.  We expect to get them in stock sometime next week (by Dec 1).  We don’t anticipate them lasting long.  Strictly on a first come, first serve basis, we will not get enough of these to get each rink a set.

Fine print / Warning / Disclaimer:

They want these to go to as many rinks as possible, so there is a limit (at least initially) of one set per rink.  Some rinks might be doing contests or promos to decide which skater at their rink gets the rights to buy that set.

We have several different items that we should be receiving soon.

Boot Covers – We should be receiving a new batch of boot covers soon, hopefully next week.  Black will be back in stock and we’ll also get several new pattern designs.

Fuzzy Dice – A new batch of fuzzy dice are on the way.  These are 12 inches on each side, they’re in bright colors, and they’re perfect for the corner game that many rinks play.  These should arrive around Thanksgiving.

Uniq Era Skate – This is Uniq’s new quad speed skate.  We’re getting a very small batch in the first run of them, probably 20 pair, and they should be arriving early December.  As soon as we know more we’ll be sure to let you know.

We are just a few weeks away from Black Friday and the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season. That means that parents are starting to ask their children for gift suggestions. Make sure that skates are at the top of the list by distributing our retail catalogs (they’re free), decorating with promo posters (again, free), and stocking up your skate shop now. A small size run of one or two popular skates doesn’t cost much and can really make a huge difference in skate sales over the next few weeks.

Roller Derby’s Extreme inline rental skates are going to be discontinued. They are working on some new inline rental designs and we hope to have more details on these skates soon. Right now we have the Extreme skates still available in sizes 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11.

The Clean Skate Wheel Washer is a great tool for cleaning up your rental skates. These machines make cleaning rental wheels quicker and easier. Your employees will thank you and your rental skates will be cleaner. You can also use the machine to clean your customer’s wheels and charge them a fee for the service. The machines are somewhat portable, so if you own multiple rinks you could move the cleaner back and forth between locations.

We had several vendor specials and closeout deals available at our recent tradeshow.  We can now offer some of these to our customers that weren’t able to attend the show.

These are only for our customers, not for individual skaters.  If you typically buy from our Georgia office, they’ll be offering similar deals at their show, we ask that you contact them for more info.  But if you do quality, ask for a copy of the sales flyers with your next order.  Or, we can email you a copy if you provide us with your customer account number and a recent invoice number.

We would like to thank everyone that came out to our tradeshow, the customers and the vendors, for taking time out to come to Roanoke to invest in your business. It was great to see everyone. Here are some notes from the show we’d like to share with those that weren’t able to attend.

Sure-Grip introduced a new skate called the Rincon that is expected to arrive around Thanksgiving. It comes in solid black or black with purple accents and they will be lower priced than we’re used to seeing from Sure-Grip. Both colors will be available in sizes 4-10.

Vanilla showed a couple of new products that will be coming in the next few weeks. One was a smaller backpack that will be available in a few different colors. Another was a padded sleeve device called an Ankle Biter that will be worn over the ankle, that should serve as a blend between a sock and a blister pad. They also showed a couple of new products they’re working on. They’re working on a higher end aluminum plate that should arrive at some point in 2024. They’re also working on a “highly allocated” (they’re not making many) quad speed wheel with an aluminum hub that could hopefully arrive in November.

Uniq had a preview of their Era skate, a quad speed skate with a great looking tongue flap. These are expected later this year. They also showed their Icon 180 and Icon 360 boots on several different plate and wheel combinations. They’re working with Piper wheels who had several different inline race wheels as well as their new quad Legend wheels, designed for the more serious speed skaters with an aluminum hub.

We should have an updated version of our tradeshow closeout flyer ready soon as well as some specials the vendors were offering at our show that we’re hoping to be able to pass along to those that weren’t in attendance, so stay tuned for more info.

We just received a shipment from Sure-Grip and we now have the Boardwalk skates in a new dark blue shade they’re calling Blueberry.  These come with the dark blue boot and black wheels.  Sizes 4-10 are now in stock.

Our tradeshow is coming up in just a few weeks. It will be Oct 2-3 (Mon and Tues) here in our Roanoke warehouse. If you’re planning on attending, please register as soon as possible so that we can properly plan. If you’re staying at the Courtyard Marriott, be sure to get the reservations booked so they’ll have a spot for you. Their phone number is 540-563-5002, just tell them you’re with the Southeastern Skate Supply group to get the discounted rate.

The tradeshow is a great chance to meet with other rink operators and our vendors as the skate season begins. The local RSA chapter will be doing a program on Monday night with topics like editable flyers and snack bar items as well as a Section 12 election. You do NOT need to be a member for the discussions, but you would need to be a member to vote in the elections.

We are expecting two different big shipments from Roller Derby over the next week. We should be getting more of the Lucy skates back in stock and also more of the newest version of the Comet skate with the high top boot design.

We received a new shipment from Vanilla Skate and we now have the Tuxedo and the Code Red skates in size 14.   These are the first of the Junior skates to go that large.

We just received the new All American Gold wheels from Sure-Grip.  These are 59mm x 29mm and made from their original formula.  These are extremely hard, similar to the All American Plus wheels, but with a distinctive gold coloring.