K2 to Introduce Line of Fashion Skates

Product News:

K2 Teams Up With Designer to Create Fashion Skate for Women

New Fashion Line of Hi-Lo Skates Will Appear Early Next Year

By Robert "Just the Factoids" Burnson

K2 has teamed up with German designer Jette Joop to create what may be the first line of inline fashion skates for women.

The line includes three models -- the Jette Texas, Magic and Zebra. Each model comes in several colors.

The skates range from the demure (the Jette Magic in baby blue) to the eye-grabbing (the Jette Texas in red and orange.)

"Women in our focus groups have been telling us for years that they are tired of the standard gray, drab skates," said K2 marketing manager Michael Powell.

"They wanted to see them in different colors and designs; they wanted them to 'pop' more; so we created the Jette line."

The Jette skates are all the same under their veneers of style. They are built on top of a new K2 women's model: the Athena 6.1, which will also appear next year.

The Athena is a high-end fitness-recreational skate. It features an aluminum frame, softboot construction and a hi-lo wheel setup: two 84mm wheels in back, two 80mm wheels in front.

Powell said the hi-lo setup will help skaters keep their weight forward and provide for better stability.

Joop was an obvious choice to design the look of the skates. She is a popular designer of casual wear, jewelry and shoes in Europe, where K2 expects to sell most of its fashion skates.

"In creating these skates I wanted to make a fashion statement. Trendy style combined with high technology," she said. "I want everybody to skate with style.”

K2's suggested retail price for the skates is $219.99.

They will be available early next year, along with the rest of the 2006 K2 skate collection.

Only two models are expected to be available in the United States: the Jette Texas red-orange and the Jette Zebra black-pink.

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Photos
See all the 2006 K2 Jette models