Roll Call #2 : Mid-December 2023
Last rush of products before Christmas, lots of videos, and 3 million reasons to buy Roces skates.
INDUSTRY
In shocking news that will surprise exactly no one, Standard finally announced who's actually riding for them. Brian Weis, Yandriel Silverio, and Stefan Brandow will form the pro team for Law's new company, all great picks with distinct skills and visions when it comes to their skating, and yet they feel very coherent and cohesive as a team. Congratulations to everyone involved!
Skates are up for pre-order, shells and soulplates are on the assembly line, new shirts are available too, and shipping is expected sometime in January.
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In surprising news that will indeed shock a lot of people, Roces was recently acquired at auction by VeNeSport, a network of companies focused on sports footwear. As these things usually go, the new CEO promises everyone gets to keep their jobs and things will keep on running as usual. What it truly means in the long run, though, only time will tell.
“The acquisition of Roces represents for us a great opportunity to relaunch a brand that has made history in the sector not only of skates but of the sports system in general,” said Flavio Alberti, the new guy in charge and president of VeNeSport. “Finally some money!” said Martina Margiotta. We say, you can read the full press release here, if you’re into that sort of thing, and try and figure it all out by yourself.
PRODUCTS
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As should be expected, new wheels are now available. Aren’t there always?
Faction has released a signature wheel for Shredpool, their mysterious team rider. One set of those to whoever can provide us with a picture of this guy’s face. Becci Sotelo got herself a pro wheel from Bek, her mysterious wheels sponsor, which she puts to the test in this promo edit. We’ll send a set to whoever can provide us with any sort of information regarding this company.
Dice ain’t wheels, but they roll all the same, and could also enhance your next game of BLADE: check out HipSkate’s Bag of Tricks dice, and get yourself some at Carriers skateshop. It’s much cheaper than used Higgs Boson wheels anyway.
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A new company named Angled Souls has entered the market. Coincidentally, they make angled soulplates for the Razors SL and Them 909 boots, and are currently working on the Mesmer mold. The idea behind those is that you can have a similar posture when skating coping, ledges, and rails, and thus improve your balance and grinding skills. Sounds good to us.
They’ll only cost you the price of a full set-up, which, for most people, won’t sound so good.
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And because no newsletter would be complete without another USD skate, the German brand more or less officially released a new team Sway for 2024, with 58mm wheels and a clean, grey colorway. And because it wouldn’t be complete without another leak either, they’ve also less than officially let some pictures of the upcoming Mery Munoz II skate slip on the Internet, a rather loud yellow Aeon that might or might not have been inspired by a Demetrious George email to Powerslide a couple of years ago. Maybe he’ll get a signature 125mm Next or kid skate instead?
VIDEOS
CJ Wellsmore’s Full Circle skate part is now online, which means you’re in for a treat. Vine Street anyone? That’s right, Dom West took a break from filming penguins and focused not only on CJ’s skating but also his family history and life on the road. The full documentary is still available for 10$, and while that probably won’t buy you half a pint in Australia, it’s quite a small sum to pay to enjoy such a high-quality production. Cheers, Cornelius James!
As always, Nils promised, and Nils delivered. Deep Purple, his most recent signature skate promo for Roces, is just the banger of a short part you’d expect from the Jansons brothers. Martins killed it behind the lens and editing station, and Nils killed it on the skates until the streets of Riga were covered in snow. There’s even some behind-the-scenes footage to keep you entertained until we drop our in-depth interview with Nils… #soon!
First Dreamboat, then Illegal Smiles, and now Burnt... If anyone is still running some sort of end-of-the-year awards, we’d like to nominate Josiah Blee for SOTY. That’s three full parts in 2023 alone, all packed with big stuff, tech stuff, stylish stuff, and songs that tend to get stuck in your head, too. Not bad for a free agent. Take that, Miles Silva!
Another yearly tradition, Cavin Brinkman has just released the latest installment in the Plastic Pushers series. That would be the 4th, if you’re counting, and it features plenty of usual suspects and fresh new faces, youngsters and OG’s, up-and-comers and established pros. One hour of footage, captured all over Europe on spots you haven’t seen before: by the time you’ve digested it all the next movie should be ready to drop!
Speaking of pushing plastic, Chris Farmer is skating Xsjados again. On another note, his PP3 part is now live on USD’s YouTube, and well worth a rewatch. Also on their channel, Tomek Przybylik’s latest street section, called Tomo Thirthy in celebration of his recent birthday, combined with a limited shirt available at Hedonskate. And also filmed in Poland, SPOKO, narazie! is another fast-paced piece by Fabian Gaile after his recent London adventures with the Muzzle crew. Very spoko, indeed.
Japanese master of flow Soichiro Kanashima celebrated his 37th birthday with Mellow, a beautiful piece on IG we can’t wait to watch on YT. Happy birthday Itchy-San! Eugen Enin, of course, already dropped a promo for Kizer’s new Shift Unlimited frames, which shows the versatility of their product. It also got people wondering if that’s not too much Eugen already, thus rendering the whole rebranding quite pointless… Until we get to see more of John Bolino and Yuto Goto, at least.
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A flurry of upcoming releases is just about to keep you busy until next year:
T8-3 may very well have dropped by the time you read this, so go watch that instead. What has also dropped is Footmoon, a documentary on French prodigy Julien Cudot. Sprawl, the latest joint project by Andy Plumridge and Jarrod Thackeray for Parallel has already premiered and will no doubt be another stunning visual experience.
And there are so many incredible ski videos coming out this time of the year, you should probably take a look at those, too.
MEDIA
In addition to the actual documentary and way too many goodies and merch, there’s also a Footmoon photobook by Thomas Camus. 150 shots and almost as many pages, although there isn’t much information to be found about the format or paper quality. We’re curious to see the final product, only you probably won’t find this one at your local bookstore.
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Them Skates issues their second Journal, 40 pages of large format printed photography, designed to be flipped through or pulled apart as posters. Captured over the last few years of traveling, it presents the team through the lenses of Christian Delfino, Mike Simpson, Trace Taylor, and Ivan Narez. It’s also available in a bundle with a limited shirt or hoodie, and will be shipping in just a few days. Can we hope for a video to drop along with it, too?
EVENTS
In some quick event updates, Bobi Spassov won the Good Times Inline Jam in the UK, while Elliott Stevens and Rob Dalton took second and third, respectively. Roman Abrate is back at it, winning the Dij’ Contest in Dijon, France, closely followed by Nicolas Servy (2nd) and Lenny Jourda (3rd). On the other side of the globe, Scotty Crawford won the OG category at the ‘23 Australian Rolling Open, while Gav Drumm won, well, the actual Open contest. Congratulations are in order!
In other events news, the holiday season is just around the corner, so whether you celebrate Christmas or not, you should get off your screen either way and go spend some quality time with your loved ones instead. Cheers!