Skates On Haight To Close Its Doors in 2005

Venerable Skate Shop Will Stop Renting Skates in December

By Robert "Just the Facts, Ma'am" Burnson

Over the years, Skates on Haight in San Francisco has been the place where uncounted thousands of urban adventurers have first buckled on inline skates.

After perhaps getting a few choice words of advice from shop owner Lee Cole, they have rolled out into the skating paradise of Golden Gate Park.

For San Franciscans, it has been something of a right of passage. But hurry up if you want to give it a try! Because after Dec. 23, Skates on Haight will no longer be in the skate rental business. And at the end of 2005 (or sooner), the venerable skate shop at 1818 Haight St. will close its door for good.

But don't get teary eyed! Skates on Haight isn't really dying, according to owner Lee Cole. It's just transforming itself into something new.

"We've always survived by adapting, by reinventing ourselves. And that's what we are doing now," he said.

Skates on Haight will live on as the online (international) skate merchant Skates.com (along with its sibling site, Rollerskates.com). And it will continue to have a physical presence: a store at 1219 Polk Street, where you will even be able to try on skates. (Just be sure you know what you are looking for because the shop won't be able to help people who are just browsing, Cole said.)

"People will miss Skates on Haight," Cole said. "But it is the consumers' choice that is putting it out of business."

Not enough people are renting skates anymore to justify keeping Skates on Haight open, he said. "The Internet has become the new rental outlet. Instead of renting, people are just buying inexpensive skates and trying them and then moving on to better skates."

Cole bought Skates on Haight in 1974 after spotting an ad announcing a skate shop for sale on a bulletin board (the old fashioned kind on paper and cardboard.)

Cole paid $3000 for the shop, which sold and rented quad roller skates.

In the mid-1980s, he added inline skates. He opened two other locations at the height of the inline craze in the late-1990s.

Cole said he is still enthusiastic about his business but added that it wouldn't be viable without online sales.

"In order to survive, prosper and move into the future, it will take different skills -- and people -- than those that created the business," he said.

...

Copyright © 2006 by Robert Burnson