Part 3: Roces Interview

Part 3: The Roces Interview

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

Robert: So doesn't that create a downward spiral in the industry?

Keith: It's not so much a spiral as a curve. ... If you look at where we were and where we've been, there is definitely a downward curve.

But what you need to keep in mind is that we are still talking about something in the vicinity of 18 million people taking part in the activity. And if you compare that to something like skiing, which I believe has somewhere in the vicinity of 4 million participants, it's still a pretty big activity.

Robert: What do you expect to happen next in the inline skate market?

Keith: What I hope will occur is that we will stabilize, that we will reach a mature stage of the market.

Robert: What do you mean by that?

Keith: Well, starting back when Scott Olson first introduced the product, we went through the early growth stage. Then we went through an adolescent period when everyone thought inline skating was the greatest thing and every brand was jumping into it. Now we are coming into the maturation stage, in which you see a handful of brands who are committed to the category with one or two brand leaders and a couple of niche leaders.

If there is an exciting innovation that comes along, we will see a spike. And if we go through a period of economic crunch, then you will see sales dip. But I think we are probably looking at a plateau, where this is what the business is, and we all have to find a way to run our own businesses within this climate and to find ways to reinvest in the category to make it grow.

Robert: How does Roces fit in to the larger inline industry?

Keith: Roces has never been driven to be the biggest. They don't need to be the No. 1 skate company in the world. What they want is to be respected ... to build the best skate they can.

We are not trying to beat out Rollerblade. We've got our niche. It's a middle-to-upper price point skate that appeals to an experienced skater. We sometimes refer to it as the trade-up skate of choice.

Robert: Roces is relatively small when compared to the giants like Rollerblade and K2. Given the tough economic climate for inline skates, can Roces compete?

Keith: Well, think back to how the company got started. It was two guys in a garage; it was two guys with an idea and a passion. ... That is what has driven this industry from the get-go.

When you look at the size of the companies, it can be distracting. K2 and Adidas-Salomon are big conglomerate sporting goods companies. They are not inline skating companies. If the inline skate category has an off year, they simply turn their attention to something else. It would be a little harsh to say that they don't care. But it would be honest to say that they have bigger fish to fry.

But you can't say that about Rollerblade. Regardless of who owns them, Rollerblade only makes inline skating products; it is an inline skate company; it is committed to the category. So they are going to pay attention; they are going to find a way. They have to. Their future, their existence depends on it.

And the same thing is true for Roces. This is what we do. This is who we are. We need to find a way. We care about the category. We are a skate company. We've been a skate company for a long time now, and we live and die with it.

At the same time, keep in perspective that though we are one of the smaller companies, we are still here. We were here in the beginning; we are still here now. We are distributed in 70 companies worldwide. And we have a full product range that goes from junior skates to world-class race skates.

I think we are likely to be one of the companies that survives ... in part because we have to.

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