Obviously, these are trying times for our industry. As I write this, many rinks are shut down. Some have had to lay off employees. Some are still open, but uncertain for how much longer. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that our industry has not seen anything like this since at least the World War II era.
We want to be as transparent as possible so that we can help keep you as informed as possible. Hopefully you understand that all of this can change very quickly, all dates are to the best of our knowledge. But here is where we stand right now on a few different items that have been impacted.
SHOE DEODORIZER – We are out of stock on the basic shoe deodorizer. The factory is estimating that they can get us more in May. This next shipment will be a little wetter than the previous versions due to changing environmental rules.
We do have the Scenturion deodorizer. This comes in three sizes: four ounce, pints, or gallons. Each size is in stock now, and more should be arriving any day now.
ROLL-ON – With many rinks closed, a lot of them are taking this time to recoat their floors. So we’ve had a rush on orders. Right now, the factory is out of the traditional clear and blue Roll On. They do have the clear Traction Coating product in stock. They’re expecting another shipment of the traditional Roll On by March 25. But after that, there might be delays. The factory that makes Roll On also makes hand sanitizer lotion and that part of their business is extremely swamped right now.
VANILLA JUNIOR – The new Silver Junior is in stock now and doing great. We are out of stock of many sizes of the other versions of the Junior. Shipments from China have definitely been impacted. They’re currently expecting more of the Junior skates by May 1, but that is certainly not guaranteed at this point.
PRODUCT LAUNCHES – We are starting to see previews of some upcoming new products. Many vendors will show new skates at the annual RSA show, it is hard to say at this point if the current events will mess with those schedules or not, or even if the dates for the convention might need to be adjusted. We’ve seen early pictures of a new budget rental skate that looked great, as well as several other new models that are being considered. As soon as we know more about these, we’ll let everyone know.
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