:bran^don:
09.03.2011, 13:38
I'm writing another paper on rollerblading. this time i need to compare/contrast rollerblading today to rollerblading when it was big. I need some topics and subtopics to talk about. So in your opinion what has changed. I know i'm gonna do some stuff on the exposure, print media, competitions and i would like to do a little bit about the monies but i don't know to much. back in the espn days rollerbladers were paid better obviously but other than that i don't know how to develop that topic.
Help me out bemag. hit me with some knowledge
:bran^don:
09.03.2011, 15:32
What are you assholes doing. This paper isn't gonna write itself. Back on topic. give me ideas to write about. Things that are different in rollerblading today vs the "hey" day
What are you assholes doing. This paper isn't gonna write itself. Back on topic. give me ideas to write about. Things that are different in rollerblading today vs the "hey" day
pantz
h-blocks
flat to anti to freestyle to flat again
non-ufs to ufs
plastic to softboot to carbon
vhs to dvd to digital online
daily bread
Muppet4Eternity
09.03.2011, 15:37
What are you assholes doing. This paper isn't gonna write itself. Back on topic. give me ideas to write about. Things that are different in rollerblading today vs the "hey" day
Shouldn't you be doing it, not us?
But anyway... Clothes, Style, Culture, Skates. The list is endless. I did an essay on it for school last year.
:bran^don:
09.03.2011, 15:53
Shouldn't you be doing it, not us?
But anyway... Clothes, Style, Culture, Skates. The list is endless. I did an essay on it for school last year.
:( my responsibility. i'm sorry i offended you. send me essay please. thanks
a_pla5tic_bag
09.03.2011, 15:54
Good old days as in ASA on espn. Salomon ST8s. Videogroove. Senate. I am having trouble developing the topic :???:
thats cause there is no topic. if you're trying to show change happened, it did, case closed. If you were trying to show stagnation you're wrong. I wrote like two papers in high school on skating then realized that it doesn't make a good paper. no one besides us cares, the teachers will never know what you're talking about an it's boring for them to read.
:bran^don:
09.03.2011, 16:18
thats cause there is no topic. if you're trying to show change happened, it did, case closed. If you were trying to show stagnation you're wrong. I wrote like two papers in high school on skating then realized that it doesn't make a good paper. no one besides us cares, the teachers will never know what you're talking about an it's boring for them to read.
Hush
Muppet4Eternity
09.03.2011, 16:23
:( my responsibility. i'm sorry i offended you. send me essay please. thanks
I would, but it's a load of waffly crap that I think I deleted. If I can find it I'll post it, but it probably wont help.
Edit: Nope, found it. This is absolute shit, I just made bits up to sound clever because no one would know. I basically typed up Barely Dead.
Before you can understand what has happened to Rollerblading, and why it is so underground, you need to know what it is, and what people mean by it. The word Rollerblading comes from the brand name Rollerblade, and is used widely, kind of like how iPod has come to mean MP3 player. Agressive Inline skating, what I do, is the raw, hardcore, street and skatepark form of this. This name was created by Rolling legend Arlo Eisenberg, and his friends at Senate, the first skate company. Agressive Inline Skaters back then would call them skaters, leading to people thinking that they skateboard. They would then have to point out that no, the Rollerblade and the terms for figure, speed and agressive skating have become mixed, exactly what the first skaters tried to stop with their new sport name.
Finding facts about the past of skating is hard, as it is now a small industry with little spare money, and history, and indeed current information, tends to be word of mouth from older skaters. The 2006 video Barely Dead is so far the only rolling video to document the past of the worlds, possibly, most underrated sport.
Skating truly started in 1700's by an unnamed Dutch man whose preferred method of transport was ice skating. To do this in summer, he created the first working rollerskates. The first recorded skate inventor was Jean-Joseph Merlin. He invented a primitive inline skate (similar to todays Xsjado; pronounced shadow), in 1760, almost 200 years before the invention of skateboarding. This was 10 years before the discovery of Polynesian surfers. In the 1800's , James Plimpton, an Englishman living in New York invented the first modern Quad rollerskate. This was so sucessful that William Bown, another Englishman patented his design of rollerskates and invented the ball bearing to make them more efficient. Yes, you have Rollerblading to thank for cars, bikes, trains and much more. Over the next 100 years, this design was improved, like adding PolyUrethane wheels for better grip. Then, in the 1950s, these technologies were used when the first skateborders took the trucks off their sisters rollerskates and nailed them to planks of wood.
The first modern (4 wheels in a row) inline skate, started as an off season training tool for the Olson brothers' ice hockey team, and is credited to the brothers, Scott and Brennan. This was in 1980, and Rollerblade soon started trading. By 1986, general inline skating was a $7 million dollar industry. Using the beachs of Florida and California, Rollerblade did demonstrations before putting the crowd on skates to get them into the sport. To date, this is the best way of attracting new individuals to any sport. This technique was so succesful that by 1991, inline skating was a $200 million dollar (per year) industry. Slowly, a rift formed between the inline skaters, and the Agressive Inline Skaters. They rebelled against rollerbladings current image, refusing spandex shorts in return for baggy sweatpants. On November 21st , 1991 Chris Edwards did the first hadrail grind on rollerblades, a frontside on a 3 step stair set. Grinding handrails would soon become a staple of skaters. By 1993, Skating had spawned its own media source- the Daily Bread magazine. Suddenly, the misunderstood Agressive skaters had a voice. In 1995, there where 23.9 million skaters. By 1997, this had risen to 29.1 million. This was almost a tenfold increase in 8 years. The 1997 film "Dare To Air" became a focal point for skates for years, driving this group. On the other side of the industry was T-bone films, who are best known more making Hoax, and Hoax 2. These gave exposure to the Senate crew, who drove rollerblading to its peak. Many young teenages tried these tricks, documenting them, and increasing skating exposure. . They took off the numerous pads - in the words of Chris Edwards "If you don't have the pads, you can't fall, so you dont fall as much." Without the uncomfortable pads, style developed and once again Rollerblading boomed.
The Senate crew from Hoax relocated to California and made Senate a company. They were responsible for the outsider image of 1990, and eventually 21st century rollerblading culture. In 1994, Senate made a turnover on $1700. Riding on the shockwave of Skating, by '97, they had sold 750,000 tee-shirts, in just that year. This was only one of their products. They made 13.5 million dollars in 1996-97. Senate did whatever they wanted to do with their company, giving them a very controversial image. There was an uproar when Arlo Eisenberg decided to sow the motto 'Destroy all Girls' into the size tags on their tee-shirts. This marketing gimmick, expected to "ruffle some feathers" (-Arlo Eisenberg), boomed the company further to astronomical sales; within 24 hours, everyone in the USA had heard of skating and Senate. However, by no means were the Senate crew rich. First of all, they didn't even own the company. They did in the beginning, but sold a major equity percentage (pretty much all of it), in order to keep going. They did, however, always had complete creative control, they were owned by a major corporation, but could do whatever they wanted.
Throughout the early nineties, rollerblading could do no wrong. It was a massive industry, almost as big as football, or tennis. But in 2000, outside the 5th X-games, a competition rollerblading helped start, and 4 years later was kicked out of, the I Match Your Trick Association (IMYTA) held its first event. This was the beginning of the process of the de-mainstreaming of Skating. The main catalyst however, was Big Brother magazine. On its 69th issue, it decided it would be the world issue ever. On the cover was a skateboarder jumping 3 obese women covered in paint. It featured an interview with Arlo Eisenberg, asking questions designed to humilitate him and rollerblading. Arlo went along with these jokes, in the eyes of most skaters winning the battle. The article also featured Arlo being rugby tackled by the Big Brother goons whilst doing tricks. The guys at Big Brother really did want Skating to look bad. Why? Because all the young kids were starting rollerblading instead of skateboarding. Rollerblading was 'stealing skateboardings rightfully earned' money.
From 2001 to the present, rollerblading has been hard, and the industry small. Several companies have gone bust- Mindgame(2005), Night(2008), Able(2007), Franco Shade(2009), Deshi was dropped by The Conference(2009), Salomon pulled out(2004). Why? Because Rollerblading became too popular for its own good. The simple reason was that it had boomed so fast that it had no roots, it was build on nothing. It lost direction and was easily taken out. But a core group, those in for love, not money, remained. By 2004, the perhaps 1.5 million rollerbladers left worldwide had become a much stronger, unified group. Videos began to look more professional, skates became designed better despite the fact there was far less money left in the business. Professional skaters survive on a salary of around $15000-$20000, and nearly every company struggles to make a profit.Rollerblading is now a minute industry, most guesses put it at around $1 million total. Despite this, and every blader asking when will rollerblading be 'saved', the culture seems to be moving out of it's dark age. Rollerblading is once again getting coverage on TV- recently there was an interview on the Extreme Sports channel news with Uk Blader Sam Tuffnel|1|, and the WinterClash 2009 was on MTV sports news |2|. The Chaz Sands Invitational 2010 recieved sponsorships from car manufacturers Nissan and Renault|3|. Even McDonalds has adverts on Be-Mag rollerblading magazines website.|3|
Rollerblading looks like it is going to return from its almost dead status, but as many bladers hope, and say, never back to its early nineties mainstream status. Rollerblading is fine in its current situation, but needs a lot more money in it. In other sports like Skateboarding, even things like Tennis and Football, the industry is like a pyramid- lower numbers of experienced atheletes at the top, and lots of newcomers at the bottom. In Rollerblading, it is like a square, or even an inverted Pyramid. This is very bad, as far as sales go, but also means that the industry is farm more close knit, a closer, stronger community. For skating, this community is good, but must grow. The community is very strong, but there is not enough money in circulation. There is now more money coming in, though. A recent video- The Truth 2, allegedy gave everyone who had a profile $1000. Rollerblading is making a comeback, expect to see it more in the future.Skater owned and run is also becoming more important- bladers want our industry to be run by bladers, for bladers. This skater owned movement is putting more strength into the industry. What will actually happen in the future? The industry is definitely growing. Most bladers seem to think that rollerblading is back on the rise, and it is an exiting time for bladers everywhere. This tiny industry is growing once more.
*ROYALwithCHEESE*
10.03.2011, 02:22
good old days......
be hated because you rollerbladed....
trying to work out how not to get wheel bite
trying to work out why your souls never actually slid....
discovering you need wax to grind...
trying to do the most spins off of your friends kicker that was placed in the middle of a street.
jocking pros
skating too much
today....
hating scooters
talking shit on pros on be-mag
complaning about skates
trying to look good when you spin
trying to skate enough
wishing you'd see another rollerblader at a spot
StarScream
10.03.2011, 03:31
uh, screw the industry bullshit.
personal: Back in the day it was getting up early, go out and skate till night. No matter what spots, just rolling with a lot of crazy dudes.
Not it's more like, waiting till 3pm goto 1 spot with 5 ppl then Beat does a crazy trick, then everyone goes home or in da club.
So i skate park, mostly alone.
back in the day, no one gave a fuck. we bladed. it was awesome
then bladers compared themselves to skateboarders. everyone quit
now a days bladers give all kinds of reasons for not lacing hammers, bitch about not gettin attention for blading. etc etc.
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