Part 2: Roces Interview

Part 2: The Roces Interview

Roces USA's president talks about where the inline skate company has been and where it's headed

Robert: How did you get involved with Roces?

Keith: Well, when Roces decided to make their own skates, the United States was not only the principal market for inline skates, it was arguably the only market. But Roces didn't have a presence here. So it hooked up with Exel Marketing Inc. And Exel became the U.S. distributor for Roces, and that's when I came to work for Exel. [Later, Roces bought Exel and turned it into Roces USA.]

We literally went out to the marketplace and called on accounts and went to trade shows and recruited a sales force and started to present our sales collection.

It was kind of fun because one of the first things that would happen is that retailers would look at our samples and say, "You guys are crazy!" And we would ask why? And they would say, "Because your skates look just like Rollerblades. And they are going to sue you." And we would say, "Well, there's a reason for that: We've been making their skates for the last six years."

Robert: What was it like in those early boon years of inline skating?

Keith: It was fun for everybody. There was business to be had. There was an optimistic attitude in the marketplace. There were inline skate magazines being published. There were trade papers and newsletters. There were ads that the brands were placing in magazines. There were demo vans and promotions and events. It was a grand time for the industry and the sport.

Robert: So what changed?

Keith: Well, participation in the sport remains quite high when compared to other sports. Even if it has declined, it has not plummeted. There are still a lot of people who own skates and use them from time to time.

What has declined more significantly is retail sales. I think we all made our skates too durable. If you've got a pair of inline skates that is five or six years old, for the most part, they probably still work. You may have to replace bearings and wheels and brake pads. But the skates themselves take a while to break down. So consumer turnover has been slower than the manufacturers would like.

Robert: And how has that affected the industry and companies like Roces?

Keith: It makes it tough to concentrate on just inline skates. Once upon a time, Roces was very active in cross-country skiing and hiking. Then in the heyday of inline skating, we concentrated only on inline products. But now the pendulum has swung the other way. So we are looking at other products -- from skiing to snowboarding to counter season products -- to bring additional revenues to the company.

Robert: Has the downtown in business caused the skate makers to cut back on research and development?

Keith: The technology that is going into a skate continues to improve. In general, every manufacturers' skate line is getting better. The fit is better, the skates get lighter, the wheels get bigger, and the price goes down.

There is still innovation and product improvement. ... It is evolutionary; it is not dramatic. I think the last dramatic shift was the introduction of the soft boot and the introduction of the active brake. Now we are in a more evolutionary stage.

The reason it appears as though innovation has stagnated is that none of the skate manufacturers have the budget to go out and blow their own horns. If you make a comparison with other sporting goods products, whether it is golf clubs or golf balls or ski equipment or bicycles, those industries have magazines dedicated solely to their category. And those companies are able to place big advertisements that make a lot of noise about the innovation of their products. So even if the innovations are fairly subtle, they have the opportunity to make them look like a big deal. That's an area that the inline skate industry is missing.

Robert: So why don't the inline skate makers do more advertising?

Keith: It's because company revenues got squeezed in the late-'90s. The inline skate companies oversupplied the marketplace, and this drove sales and profits down. And when you are in a position that you've got to save money, one of the obvious places to cut is advertising and promotion. It's not going to kill you right away; you can survive it. So that's where you cut. ... And that's what you've seen. All of the companies have pulled in their horns in their ad-marketing budgets.

Robert: And what effect does that have on the sport of inline skating?

Keith: It has a chilling effect. Inline skating really suffers by not having the visibility on newsstands and in magazines that we had in the mid-'90s. Back then, you could hardly pick up a magazine without seeing someone inline skating. You don't see that now. And a large part of that is because the manufacturers don't have the advertising budgets to derive that kind of visibility.

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