Here are some responses to the question I posted in Canadian Roll # 100
Dale Phillips Wrote
outaline does have one with shopping cart credit card etc. right now even. but its true a strictly rollerblade shop will not succeed d-s has the right idea with skiing.
to have a shop and scene work out good starts with respect. truspin had such a good thing going but had no respect to the owner mark and it was over. i agree task is doing the absolute right thing by going up to kids and getting them juiced on the sport, thats a huge thing. professionalism is a huge thing in my eyes. it doesn’t seem like it to younger kids right now, but you’ll realize later how important it actually is. Richie is one of the best rollerbladers ive ever met, but if he didn’t have such a professional attitude he wouldnt be near what he is today. it shows through with d-structure as well. the are so professional and they are one of the largest shops in the world not just Canada.Julio with Valo, they haven’t even been around long and they blew up. i will probably never buy their skates but i absolutely love how he presents his company. those are some of the things i think of to make a shop successful.
Rob F wrote
i’ve thought about this a lot since dekalz died.
a store front in unreasonable. skaters can’t make a living off of selling only rb gear. so therefore they have to work other jobs and can’t give the commitment needed to keep a store front running. there’s just not enough sales.
why is it that no one starts a damn webstore, I mean look at all of us we are obsessed with skating, we are on the forums on be-mag, on rollernews, we’ve got vm here, we’ve got canadian roll, it’s not like people don’t look at this shit they buy online first anyway.
we need a webstore with a shopping cart, credit card payment option, COD option and a paypal option. if kids parents won’t buy online, who cares. they will if it’s the only option. god knows every fucking rollerblader seems to be an editor, or designer in some capacity, so it wouldn’t be that hard to get a slick site going.
if task set up a webshop tomorrow they could own Canada. but it would have to be updated regularly (ahem, every shop\skate site in Canada, besides d-structure, update your shit), have stock listed, and you’d have to be able to call them and talk to them, just like you can now.
now I don’t know anything about getting distributors on board. so maybe what I am saying is easier said than done. but one way the distributors could save the industry would be to only sell to one shop in ontario, one in quebec, one in the west, one in the east, and I know that sounds like communism but it’s the only way we can survive.
ok, now rip that to shreds.
-RobF
Two insightful opinions, keep them comming.
N.D
Wow,
It’s good to see that there is at least some discussion on this. Outaline is flattered, hahaha. Just a couple of points.
First off, no ill will to ShopTask. ShopTask is a symptom of a really fragile industry right now. Unfortunately as a non-skater, I certainly will not have the connection to the skate scene that Leon has and I certainly don’t blame skaters that buy from a fellow skater. However, like somebody pointed out in one of the posts, if this was skateboarding somebody selling decks out the back of their car would have zero impact on the industry.
To be honest, even without shoptask, with the decline of the rollerblading industry in general, it was just a matter of time before it no longer become worthwhile to keep a storefront open.
Look at the number of businesses that have shut down. Mindgame shut down. Mindgame has been around forever. All the majors – Salomon, K2 and probably RB next year will stop making skates. I am pretty sure Xsjado won’t be around next year as well. I can’t even get sizes half the time when I order stuff anymore. The point I am trying to make is that all this talk about “support” and stuff doesn’t really make a difference. The volume isn’t there. Outaline would not have survived even with support because even if all the skaters in Vancouver bought ALL their skate stuff from outaline, if it wasn’t for fitness skates and rentals, the sales would not have been enough to pay the bills.
Having said that, thank you to all the skaters out there that still choose to order stuff from me – I promise to provide the best service I can – for as long as I can.
Tony