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“What to wear roller skating” and “How to dress for the skating rink?” are common questions not only asked to Alexa, Google, or Siri, but also to skating rink staff. Do you know how to answer? The best way to help your customers know what to wear (and what not to wear) is to create your own rink rules for proper attire and post them clearly at the entrance, as well as other locations if you have available space. Check out some pro tips for creating your skating rink dress code. 

• Socks, socks, socks! Requiring socks should be rule number 1 for hygiene purposes. Plus, the person working the skate rental counter will thank you. This also allows you to provide more value to your customers by selling socks at your pro shop. Customers who forgot to wear or bring socks will be grateful, and you can even use this as a way to upsell customers by offering colorful novelty socks. 
• Decide what you definitely will not allow. Shirts and shoes required is a good place to start, but you’ll also want to create a rule banning clothing that features profanity, obscenity, and/or offensive subject matter. 
• Encourage safe and comfortable dress. Skaters should wear comfortable clothing that allows them to move freely and doesn’t endanger themselves or others. For example, tight jeans or dresses can be restrictive and make it hard to move on skates, while excessively long or loose clothing can get caught in your wheels or trip another skater. It’s also better to avoid wearing anything that has a lot of metal on it, like a belt with a large buckle or pants with lots of zippers. Falling down while wearing hard metal elements can take a fall from “no big deal” to “OUCH!”
• Reserve your right to make a judgement call. It’s not good for business to get too nitpicky with your dress code – after all, you want people to come have fun, not feel like they’re back in school – but unfortunately some customers will push the limits from time to time. Make sure that your clearly posted skating rink rules include a mention of “proper attire” or “appropriate attire,” as well as your right to refuse service or remove without refund anyone who is in violation of the rules. 

The occasional clueless or rude customer aside, owning a skating rink is an incredibly fun and fulfilling investment, creating a space where the community can come together to celebrate birthdays, fundraise for local organizations, or just have a good time. If you’re looking for skating rink equipment or information to help you start or improve your skating rink business, Southeastern Skate Supply is here to be a resource for you. 

Our annual tradeshow will be October 7 and 8 (Mon and Tues) here at our Roanoke warehouse.  This is a great chance to see new products, meet with vendors in person, and talk to other rink operators.  Best of all, there is no cost to attend.  More details are coming soon but please mark your calendars now.

This is always a slow time of the year for new product info.  So here are some products that aren’t new, but that you might have forgotten about:

Bionic Swiss Bearings – Similar to the other Swiss bearings out there, but a lot cheaper.

Socks – If the customer comes in without socks, you need something cheap and easy to sell them.

Shoe Deodorizer – Our deodorizer spray is specially designed to go on drier than a lot of the other brands, which is great for rental skates.

Gear Bombs – Small discs designed to sell to individuals.  They drop them in their skates or their hockey bags and this helps soak up the odors.

Freespin Bearings – A great bearing for a reasonable price.  An excellent value for someone looking to upgrade their bearings.

Reflex Tools – These multi purpose tools had been out of stock for a long time, but we’ve got them again.

Roller Derby Rolling Bag – A deluxe rolling carry-on style bag with a removable backpack built right into it.

Shoe Goo – Goes onto the toes of the skates, dries fast and hard, and helps protect skates from wear and tear.

Light Up Laces – Available in several colors with lights built in.

Roller Derby’s Flux and Carver inline skates are great values for younger skaters.  The Flux has a removable base, so you can switch between inline skates and quad skates.  The Carver is an inline skate with protective pads included in the kit.

As most skating rink owners can tell you, there’s a lot more than fun and games to operating a successful family entertainment business. From maintaining a facility and marketing events to running a staff and stocking the snack bar, you’ve got a lot on your plate! But no matter how busy it gets, always make skating rink safety your top priority. Check out a few tips from your friends at Southeastern Skate Supply to get you started. 

Skate Maintenance is Key

Carefully maintaining rental skates isn’t just a matter of customer service, it’s also a matter of safety. You should make sure these inspections and repairs are happening on schedule, and also keep detailed written records of all maintenance and repairs carried out on your skates.

• Prior to handing the rental skates over to a customer, employees should inspect (and if necessary, adjust) the adjustment of toe stops and trucks, as well as the wheel locknuts and the mounting of the plate to the boot. 
• Monthly, or every 150 hours, the toe stops should be inspected, rotated, and/or replaced. The same goes for the rubber inserts and cushions. King pins should also be inspected. 
• Every 6 months or 1,000 hours, the cushion cups and action nuts should be inspected for wear and tear. 
• Annually or every 2,000 hours, the toe stops, rubber inserts and cushions should be replaced. Inspect the toe stop threads for wear and tear. 
• Every other year or 4,000 hours, replace the cushion cups, action nuts, and king pins. 

Make the Rules of the Rink Known

Aside from skate maintenance and rink policies for staff, it’s also important to let your customers know the rules. The easiest way to do so is by posting skating rink safety signs. Check out our wholesale skating rink equipment section to find the right signs. 

Install a Security Camera System 

Unfortunately, despite the best safety protocols and precautions, sometimes incidents happen. Having a skating rink surveillance system may deter some criminals from trying any funny business in the first place, but if not – well at least you have video evidence on your side should a problem arise. From bogus accident claims to fights to theft, installing cameras is a smart move to protect yourself and your guests.

If you’ve paid attention to the news lately you know that tariffs on items from China are increasing.  This has NOT impacted us yet on any of the skates that we carry, but it has impacted the paper goods that are used for party supplies.  Our supplier has just notified us of a new price increase that is effective on their newest shipment.

 

These prices are for all styles of the party supplies, including the classic “mirror ball” design as well as the newer “party time” design.  All of these are packs of 1000 pieces and they remain a great value.

We just received a new shipment of the Vanilla Junior skates.  We don’t have as many as we’d like, but it’s a lot better than it was last week.  Here is a breakdown of what we’ve got as of today (June 4 2019). . .

 

Royalty – Sizes 3 through 8 are good.  A few pair of size 9.  No 10 or 11.  ONE pair of 12.

Tuxedo – All sizes in stock.

Zona Rosa – Everything in stock, EXCEPT for sz 6.

Mint – Sizes 3 through 6 in stock.  A few pair of 8, 10, and 12 in stock.  Nothing in 7, 9, or 11.

Code Red – Size 3 through 8 in stock, nothing bigger than the 8.

Stealth – Every size in stock, but not many of the sz 6 or 9.

Code Blue – Every size in good shape.

 

They’re in the process of calling customers that have these on backorder to see if they still want them shipped.  Feel free to call us to speed it up a bit if you need something quickly.  THANKS

The Lucy skates are finally back in stock.  This is a popular adjustable quad skate with a fun pineapple design on the boots.  We had been out of them but a big shipment came in and we now have both sizes in stock again for the first time in several months.

We are expecting a good shipment from Vanilla that should fill in most of the holes in our Junior inventory.  The shipment should arrive June 5 or 6 and then we should have almost all sizes of the current Junior skates back in stock.  We will get the backorders shipped out as fast as we can contact you to make sure you still need them.

Our annual tradeshow will be on October 7 and 8 (Mon and Tues).  This is a great opportunity to meet with other rink owners and to see new products that are coming out.  We will have more details soon but please mark your calendar now to reserve those dates.

We just got back from the annual Roller Skating Association tradeshow and wanted to give everyone an update on what we saw.  Please understand that a lot of these items are just in “preview” mode and will not be available until the fall.  There are also likely to be a lot of changes between now and then.  But it is still interesting to look at what everyone is working on.

We will put a version of this flyer on our website that includes plenty of pics at www.seskate.com/blog.  These will be pictures that we took on the fly, with a cell phone, so they aren’t professional grade, but they should still be interesting.

Sure-Grip showed a new plate called the Lo-Ride.  This will be a specialty plate that might not appeal to a mass market.  But if you like sliding on skates and the idea of a plate that rides especially low to the ground sounds interesting, then this is just for you.  It comes with an adjustable truck that lets you control how high off the ground your plate sits.  The highest it will go can accommodate a 57mm wheel.  It can be adjusted to ride so low that the real small FoMac wheels barely have room to clear.

Pacer showed off a couple new versions of the GTX-500.  They’re not sure which of these will end up being made, if they are made they’ll probably be available around October.  One version was black with a black and gray camo design.  Another version was dark grey with teal accents.

Another new Pacer skate was a new version of the ZTX.  It will come in a black version for the boys.  They also showed a teal version and also a dark purple version.  These are made of a canvas like material.

Pacer also showed a new inline skate that will be similar to the Voyager in that it shouldn’t be available at mass market stores like Wal-Mart or Target.  They had an adjustable children’s version and also an adult version.  Both versions came in a black color as well as a white.  Unfortunately we did not get pics of these skates.