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We received a new shipment of Vanilla Junior skates.  After pulling as many of the backorders and pre-orders as we could, we now have inventory in some sizes and colors available for purchase.  Here is a list of what’s currently in stock and ready to ship:

 

Stealth – sz 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13

Tuxedo – sz 3, 4, 5

Code Blue – sz 3, 6, 7, 8, 10

Code Red – sz 3

Silver – sz 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13

Junior Mint – sz 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12

Zona Rosa – sz 5, 8, 9, 10

To try to make this fair for everyone, we’re going to limit orders for the first week to existing customers and impose a six pair per rink limit.  Hopefully this will let as many as possible get at least some of these skates.

Vanilla has also said that they’re bringing back another batch of their Parfait skates.  These are colorful high top skates that they originally released last year.  They’ll come in purple, coral, and blue.  The sizes are women’s sizes 5-11.  We don’t have them yet, but we’re hoping to have them in stock soon, possibly by Jan 20.

We just received a batch of black Driftr skates with mint colored wheels, laces, and stops.  This is something we asked Roller Derby to do for us because the color combo looked so nice.  Sizes 4-11 are in stock now and ready to ship.

A long time ago, three gentlemen decided that they needed a business that would let them work nights and weekends.  E.W. Ramsey, Jimmy Robertson, and Henry Crum built a roller-skating rink in Roanoke called the Skate-A-Drome.

 

As the rink got established, they found themselves buying and selling supplies for other rinks in the area and a skate distributorship evolved out of that rink.  Eventually Mr. Robertson left the business.  Then Mr. Crum and Mr. Ramsey split the business with Mr. Crum (and his sons) taking the rink and Mr. E.W. Ramsey (and his sons, Glenn Sr. and Wayne) taking over the distributorship.

 

There have been twists and turns, including a bad fire that let us to move into the current Roanoke warehouse.  We opened a second location in Mableton, GA (an Atlanta suburb).  Some of the third generation got involved and even one from the fourth generation (you don’t see that real often).

 

But that first rink was started in 1947, so that makes 2022 the 75^th anniversary of the start of the business.  We’d like to thank everyone along the way that helped us out.  There are certainly too many to list off, we aren’t even going to try.  But we wouldn’t have made it this long without a lot of great suppliers, customers, employees, and so many others.

 

 

 

 

We just received a new quad high top skate from Roces called the Piper. These skates are made from a “vegan leather” material, they have nylon plates with aluminum trucks, ABEC7 bearings, and a 58mm indoor-outdoor wheel. They come in three distinctive colors (purple, pink, and leopard print). They’re available in ladies whole sizes 5-11 and are in stock now.

We also received another shipment of Boardwalk skates from Sure-Grip and now have the Tan Boardwalk skates in stock ready to ship.

The Chicago shipment arrived and we now have almost all of their models, colors, sizes back in stock for the first time in quite some time. This includes the 405 and 805 black high tops in adult sizes (which have been pretty scarce from any company over the last few months).

Looking ahead, we don’t actually have these yet, but it sounds like Bones is getting ready to ship some of their handheld bearing pullers, which have been out for quite a long time. Also the next batch of Vanilla Junior skates are now in the country and moving (slowly) towards us. We’ve got a batch of Drifter skates (Roller Derby black high top) specially made up for us with seafoam laces and wheels on the way, hopefully any day now. This is a Southeastern exclusive. As soon as we get more details on any of these, we’ll be sure to let you know.

We just received a big shipment from Chicago and are now in better shape on their items than we’ve been in a very long time.  They’re still unpacking, sorting, etc., but it LOOKS LIKE this is where we will be once the dust settles:

 

1900 / 1905 – In good shape on everything except the 1900 (white) size 12J and 13J.

Bullet – In good shape on everything except black sz 12 and the white size 6.

400 / 405 – In good shape on everything except 400 (white) sz 1 and 9.

800 / 805 – In good shape on everything.

We received a new color of Sure-Grip Boardwalks and now have them in merlot (dark red) as well as key lime (green), sea breeze (light blue), tea berry (pink), lavender, and black. We also have their Stardust skates in black, pink, and blue.

Here are some other items that we have in inventory right now, as we approach Christmas:

GT50 – One of the most popular quad speed skates, black, sizes 1-12 in stock now.

Sure-Grip Cyclone – Another very popular speed skate, black, sizes 1-12 in stock now.

Roller Derby Groovee – A brand new tie-dye pattern skate, two designs (burst or pinwheel), sizes 4-10 in stock now.

Pacer Lilly – A high top with a fade design, these were very hot until we ran out of stock, but they’re now back. Blue or mint, sizes 3-10, in stock now.

Sure-Grip Fame – Some sizes are sold out, but we do have black (sz 9J, 10J, 11J, 12J, 13J, 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 14) or white (sz 8J through 11 adult).

Pacer Astra – A high top in gold or silver sparkle, both colors in sizes 3-11, in stock now.

Pacer Slider – A black high top, pretty similar to the Driftr skates, sizes 4-12 in stock now.

Most of the youth skates are in good supply, including the Charger, Scout, Comet, and Explorer Adjustable Inline.

The black Aerobic wheels are now back in stock, and our supplies on most other quad wheels are pretty good right now.

We do have a few of the Vanilla Juniors left, but not many. Here is a list, but keep in mind most of these are just one or two pair per size:
Code Red sz 3, 13
Stealth sz 3, 6
Code Blue sz 3
Zona Rosa sz 5, 7
Silver sz 3, 4, 6, 7, 13
Tuxedo sz 3

We have received a new skate from Pacer called the Slider.  This one is very similar to their Driftr skate, a solid black high top with a suede boot, aluminum plates, and 82A hardness wheels.  Black high tops are very hot right now, and these are in stock in sizes 4-12.

 

We received a small shipment from Vanilla and now have the following Junior skates in stock. We don’t have many of any of these sizes, so act quickly if you’re interested.

Zona Rosa (pink/black) sz 5, 6, 7, 10
Tuxedo (black/white) sz 3, 4, 7, 12, 13
Code Blue sz 3
Code Red sz 3, 4
Silver sz 3, 4

We received a good shipment from Sure-Grip that helped us fill some (but not all) of the backorders on their larger black skates. Right now we have the following in stock:

GT-50 Black sz 1 through 12
Cyclone Black sz 4 through 12
Fame Black sz 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14
Fame White sz 8 Juv through 11 Adult
Boardwalk Key Lime Green sz 5 through 9
Boardwalk Sky Blue sz 5 through 9
Boardwalk Light Pink sz 5 through 9
Boardwalk Lavender sz 5 through 9
Boardwalk Black sz 6 through 11
Malibu Black sz 1 through 12
Malibu White sz 1 through 10

Our Sure-Grip wheel inventory is better than it has been in a very long time, with almost all of the quad wheels back in stock, even the outdoor wheels like the Motion, Boardwalk, and Aerobic (except for black Aerobic). We also now have almost all sizes and versions of the Avanti and Avenger plates back in stock.

Unfortunately we received some bad news on the GTX-500 skates and it doesn’t sound like we’ll be getting more of these by Christmas. Here is a list of what we do have available in these:

GTX500 Black size 1, 2, 3, 4
GTX500 White size 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (all sizes available)
GTX500 Black with Pink size 1, 2, 3, 4, 11, 12
GTX500 Black with Teal size 1, 2, 3, 4
GTX500 Black with Green size 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 11, 12

First off, thanks to everyone that came out to our tradeshow. We didn’t do one last year because of Covid, so it was great to have a chance to do one again. Thanks to the customers and also the vendors that took time out of their schedule to visit with us, we appreciate the support so much.

Each of the vendors at the show confirmed that bringing inventory into the USA is still a struggle. Things are improving a bit here, we have more choices than we did a year ago, but it still isn’t as good as we’d like. More shipments are on the way all the time, please consider following us on facebook, twitter, or our email news list for updates as skates start to arrive.

Right now we have a shipment on the way to us from Sure-Grip that should have the larger size black Fame and GT50 skates in there. We also have a shipment from Powell-Bones on the way that will help fill in some of the holes with their inventory. Vanilla Junior skates haven’t shipped to us yet, but one batch is off the boat, on dry land, and hopefully will be headed towards us by the end of October. As soon as each of these arrive we will get details out to everyone.

We have received several good shipments this week.  The following are now back in stock:

Black Fame skates – we now have sizes 5 through 10 available.

GT50 Black skates – we now have sizes 1 through 11 available.

Black Boardwalk skates – we now have sizes 6 through 12 available.

We also have pink, green, sky blue, and lavender Boardwalk skates, sizes 5 through 9 for each of those colors.

Among the smaller items, we now have these back in stock:  Rollerbones bearings, Boardwalk wheels (pink, red, blue, purple, and black), Monza wheels (grey), and Velvet wheels (pink, blue, and green).

New Wheels from Roller Derby

Roller Derby’s Kemistry brand has a new line of inline wheels called the Suavis that have just arrived.  They come in several different versions:

Kemistry Suavis 76mm x 80A Yellow

Kemistry Suavis 80mm x 80A Yellow

Kemistry Suavis 80mm x 85A Purple

Kemistry Suavis 84mm x 80A Yellow

Kemistry Suavis 110mm x 80A Yellow

Kemistry Suavis 125mm x 80A Yellow

 

 

New Inline Skates

Roller Derby has two new inline skates that have just arrived, the Beta and the Delta.  Both skates have aluminum frames, Bevo Gold 7 bearings, and a buckle and lace system.  The Beta has four 80mm wheels and is solid black.  The Delta has three 110mm wheels and is black with teal accents.

 

Tradeshow Notes

Our annual tradeshow is coming up on October 4 and 5, here at our Roanoke warehouse.  THIS SHOW IS FOR CUSTOMERS ONLY AND IS NOT OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

Here are some notes as we get ready.

 

The host hotel is the Courtyard Marriot.  Call them at 540-563-5002 for reservations and to get in on the group rate of $99.

 

So far on the vendor list we’ve got confirmations from Roces, RSA, Sure-Grip, and Powell-Bones.  They’ll have product samples, details on product releases and dates, and more.

 

The RSA is working on a meeting for Monday night at the host hotel.  They’ll have roundtable discussions, updates from their national office, and plans for their spring meeting.

 

They will also have a presentation from a gentleman named Richard Houston who is working on a tv gameshow program called “Skate Your Case”.  We met him briefly in Florida and it seems like a real interesting idea, with the possibility of some serious publicity for roller skating.

 

On Tuesday afternoon, as the show winds down, there will be a trip to the FunQuest rink in Lynchburg (now owned by Mason and Matt).

 

Please be sure to register if you plan to come so we’ll know how much food the caterer should prepare.