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The Pacer Stratos is a new quad artistic skate with a very traditional look and feel to it.  This should be a good substitute for the discontinued D278 Esprit that was so popular.

 

Boots – Reinforced ankle support with deluxe comfort padding

 

Plates – Aluminum plates, with a jump bar, and adjustable 5/8” stops

 

Bearings – Silver 5 rated

 

Wheels – Indoor urethane design.  The black skates have white wheels, the white skates have purple wheels.

 

The black skates come in sizes 3-12, the white ones in sizes 3-10.  These are in stock now and ready to ship.

Skating center carpet takes more abuse than most other carpets. Constant impact from heavy skates can really take a toll on your skating rink carpet, so check out these 4 tips to keep your commercial carpet looking great!

1. Use carpet mats on high-traffic areas. Placing a good carpet mat at the building entrance or in front of the registers can help protect these areas from uneven wear and tear. Mats also help prevent excess dirt and water from being brought into your rink.
2. Use good carpet padding. Subpar carpet padding will cause the back of the carpet to rub against the hard floor underneath it. Carpet padding is also an important shock absorber, especially in a skating rink where constant skate impacts can wear down a subpar carpet and padding very quickly.
3. Clean it properly! Make sure your cleaning service regularly vacuums and that they set their vacuums at the correct height. Vacuuming at too low of a setting can put unnecessary stress on your carpet, whereas too high of a setting will fail to get all the dirt. It’s also important that stains not be given a chance to sit. Make sure your staff is properly trained in carpet stain removal.
4. Consider Carpetile! The original Carpetile is designed to be laid in a random pattern, creating a kind of checkerboard appearance. This makes replacing damaged or stained sections of carpet incredibly easy and inexpensive.

If your skating center is in need of new carpet, or if you’re building a new rink, contact us for your new skating center carpet! We’re here to help you with all of your skate center equipment needs.

Tradeshow Recaps

 

First off, thank you to everyone that took the time to come to our tradeshow. We appreciate the support and hope it was a good trip for each of you.

 

Here are some notes from the show. Please understand on the new products, if we’re giving an estimated delivery date, those are just estimates based on what the manufacturers are providing, they are almost certainly going to change. There are a lot of products listed here, too many to include pictures and make it all fit, so check out www.seskate.com/blog for this same info but with pictures of some of the new items.

 

Sure-Grip

GT-50 Sparkle – This is the GT50 skate, but with a sparkle design on the boots. It will come in black and white versions for a few dollars more than the standard GT-50. ETA of early November.

 

Prism Skate – This is a high-top skate with a prism design to the boots. It looked great, and certainly turned some eyes. At this point we’re just finding out about the skate and we really don’t have a good ETA yet.

 

Ice Wheels – A clear indoor quad speed wheel. These are available now in red, blue, purple, and pink.

 

Roller Derby

Candi Girl Lucy – The newest skate in the Candi Girl line, this one has a distinctive pineapple design on the boots. The skate is adjustable with the small version fitting sizes 12J-2 and the medium version fitting sizes 3-6. This makes it very easy for rinks to buy just two pair of skates for inventory and fit a wide range of skaters. These are in stock now.

 

Candi Girl 774 Periwinkle – A new color in the 774 series Candi Girl skate. This will replace the blue version. They’re expected in early November.

 

Tour Elite Legacy – This is a new higher end derby boot, and it looked great. We don’t have a date on it yet, but we’ll get out more info as it becomes available.

 

Roller Derby Stratos – This is an indoor quad art skate with a very traditional look. It should be a great skate for beginning lesson skaters in the rinks. They’re expected in early November.

 

Roces

We should be getting a new shipment of the Roces inline skates very soon and all sizes will be back in stock again. Here is a recap of their different models.

 

Roces Orlando – A juvenile adjustable skate that goes a lot smaller than other inlines. Small (fits 9J-12J), medium (fits 13J-3), or large (fits 4-7).

 

Roces ZYX – The other side of the scale, this one fits the big feet. Sizes 16, 17, or 18.

 

Roces FCO – A solid black inline in sizes 13, 14, or 15.

 

Scenturion

A non-toxic deodorizer to help protect your skates or skating equipment from odor problems. It is activated by perspiration, so it works while the gear is being worn. One treatment will last for weeks or possibly months. For more details and a better explanation, check out their video at https://youtu.be/eHBCOQoF_pc

 

We carry this in a four once individual spray (great for selling to derby or hockey players), in pints, or in gallons (great for working on your rental fleet)

When your car needs maintenance, you go to a mechanic. When your fridge goes out, you call the refrigerator repairman, and when your skates get gunked up, the pros at Southeastern Skate in Roanoke, Virginia, have you covered.

At Southeastern Skate, we have every brand and style of roller and inline skate your customers could want, but make sure you know how to give your customers the great advice they deserve when it comes to keeping their new skates in tip-top condition.

Roller Skate Maintenance Tips

First things first, let’s talk about the importance of keeping skates well maintained for the safety of your customers and the longevity of their purchase. Staying on top of regular and routine tune-ups will keep your skaters skating longer and more comfortably.

We’ve all gotten a pair of skates with a bad bearing or dry rotted boots, right? There’s not much worse. And nothing will keep your customers off the hardwoods quicker than a pair of malfunctions skates.

Make sure you give your customers these little tips to keep their skates rolling and the good times coming week after week!

• Keep Your Skates Dry – Getting a pair of skates wet is hands down the worst move you can make. Care should always be taken to make sure inline and roller skates stay as dry as possible.
• Keep Your Trucks Tight – Things tend to loosen up with lots of use. Your trucks aren’t any different. Make sure to periodically check that trucks are tight and secured properly to the boot.
• Wipe Down Your Skates – You’ll want to wipe down your skates with leather oil once a month or so. Keeping your boots conditioned will keep them comfortable and in great shape infinitely longer.
• Check Your Bearings – Bearings go bad. It’s just a sad fact of life. Make sure you check that your bearings are all rolling smoothly and if not, swap them out.

For more information or to restock your pro shop, give us a call or check out our online store today!

As we write this, we’re getting ready for our annual tradeshow on Oct 1 and 2.  We usually have a lot of new product news at the show and we’ll try to do a follow up flyer and email blast soon after it is over to review everything.

We did a series of interviews with different vendors before they come to the show.  We’ve sent those out as emails and we’ve also posted them at www.seskate.com/blog.  We talked to Sure-Grip, Roller Derby, Vanilla, RollerBones, the RSA, and Funtastic Novelty about new products and the upcoming skate season.  If you missed the emails, be sure to check them out on our blog.

Roller Derby has introduced a new skate in their Candi Girl lineup called The Lucy.  This is a smaller high top adjustable skate with a pineapple design.  The small fits sz 12J-2 and the medium fits sz 3-6.  These are in stock now.

The White Comet skates have been on backorder for quite a long time, but we just received a shipment.  We now have all sizes, except for size 3, in stock again.

We also received a large shipment from Chicago Skate and almost all of their skates are back in stock again.

We’ve been doing interviews with the different vendors that are coming to our tradeshow to let people know what to expect. Funtastic replied back with a VIDEO interview, which is pretty impressive.  Here is the link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zCxF4Hxvb1x0nGhbRqAM7QRxHqfClkoQ/view?ts=5ba99e80

Candi Girl Lucy

 

Roller Derby is expanding the Candi Girl line to include a new skate called “The Lucy”.  The Lucy is a girl’s adjustable skate.  It has a white high top boot with an attractive pineapple print design and yellow wheels.  The boot has a comfortable padded lining.  The wheels are 54mm and the bearings are Silver-5 rated.  The small size fits 12J-2 and the medium size fits 3-6.  They’re in stock now.

 

 

Comet Skates

The girl’s white Comet skates have been out of stock for some time, but we just received a shipment and now have all sizes EXCEPT for 3.

We are doing a series of interviews with different vendors as they get ready to come to our annual tradeshow (Oct 1-2, Roanoke VA, wholesale only, not for the general public).

 

You may have already seen ones from Sure-Grip, RollerBones, Roller Derby, and the RSA office.  If you’ve missed them, they’re available at www.seskate.com/blog.

 

 

The newest one, below, is with Nathan from Vanilla Skate Company.

 

Q1

How are things at Vanilla as the fall season gets ready to start?  How do you see the skating market right now?  Are your customers optimistic as the skate season gets started?

Life is great at Vanilla Skates!  We just returned from our “Summer Jam” skating event at Classic Fun Center in Sandy, Utah.  Summer Jam featured our sponsored skaters as well as lots of new faces and talent.  I’m pretty confident in saying, the recreational and jam skate market is going strong and this coming season will be great for everyone in the business!

 

Q2

Who from your company is planning to come to our show?

Nathan, who attended last year, will be attending again.  

 

Q3

Do you have any new products coming out this fall?  Will they be in stock by the tradeshow?  Or will they be coming out a little later in the season?

We just released a bunch of new swag (shirts, hoodies, pop-sockets, and wristbands).   We’re also finalizing a new color-way for the VNLA Junior with expectations of a mid-early 2019 release date.  We also have a couple of new things up our sleeves.  We have a new boot design that is being finalized at this moment. We hope to have final samples in our hands soon.

 

Q4

What are some of your best sellers right now?  What sets them apart from other products on the market right now?

The VNLA Tuxedo & Code Red have always been crowd favorites.  In addition, the new Stealth and Zona Rosa have only been on the market for 7 months and are quickly gaining popularity.  Don’t forget, this will be the first holiday season for those two boots (Stealth and Zona Rose).  As of right now, our sales projections for them are strong.

  

Q5

Anything else you’d like our customers to know as they get ready for our show?

Vanilla appreciates all of the support from the rinks. Please stop by the booth and spend some time with us.  We would love to hear how your business is doing and what we can do to help support it.  Remember, your success is our success.

We’ve been doing a series of interviews with the vendors that are coming to our tradeshow (Oct 1 and 2, in Roanoke, VA).  We’ve already sent out:
Roller Derby – Tony Muse and Will Marion

RollerBones – Vicki Handyside

Sure-Grip – Jim Ball and Steven Ball

 

Today we’re talking to Jim McMahon and Angela Tanner from the RSA’s national office.

 

How are things at the RSA as the fall season gets ready to start?  The RSA is hopping right now with having just completed Sk8Expo which had a record high attendance this past August. We moved this show up from our typical mid-September dates this year. We also are about to begin National Roller Skating Month and our members have had their materials since the beginning of August. This year’s poster has been very well received. We also are working on receiving the ASCAP payments from our member’s and working hard on several new initiatives.

 

How do you see the skating market right now? We see it as a very positive market with many members stating that they are having a better year this year than last year at this time. We see this as a very positive thing as the season for skating is really only just now about to take off.

 

Are your members optimistic as the skate season gets started? See previous answer, lol. But yes, most of our member’s seem to be feeling very positively about their upcoming STEM School parties, Halloween programming, and other activities.

 

Who from the RSA is planning to come to our show? President Jeff Couey and Executive Director Jim McMahon will be in attendance representing the RSA. The RSA will also have a booth at this year’s show.

 

Do you have any new programs coming out this fall? We just launched our new partnerships with both ASCAP and Airgas and we think these two programs will really benefit our membership not just this year but in the years to come.

 

What is new or different this year? We have moved up the date our annual convention to the end of April which is a departure from our May date. We hope this will increase attendance. We are also back on the Strip for the first time in approximately a decade.

 

What are you hoping to launch soon? We are about to launch our Kids Skate Free digital magazine which is an online parenting magazine called Today’s Family Fun. We think this will help increase skate sales, birthday parties, and increased awareness of roller skating.

 

Tell us a little about the meetings the RSA will be hosting on Monday night?  [editor’s note – these meetings are NOT just for RSA members, they’re open to anyone that attends our tradeshow] I anticipate this to be another great meeting as it has been in the past. Section 12 has consistently done a fabulous job. This is really their meeting not ours but I look forward to the opportunity to participate and present during their meeting.

 

Anything else you’d like our customers to know as they get ready for our show? This show is a great opportunity to network with your fellow rink operators but even without the excellent networking time and great vendors this show is worth attending for a third reason. The food. This show always has the best food. Glenn is also always a gracious host. We thank him for allowing us to have a booth at his show.