Roll Line Skil brand emerged summer this year, presenting their wheels (powerblading and freestyle slalom ones), bearings, and powerblading frames. I was skeptical about new player on the market. Small companies come and go, vanishing without a trace. Few months have passed, and Roll Line products still haven’t hit the market. Why? After observing Roll Line SKIL actions, I must say it is rare to see such devotion in tweaking products before they’ll hit the market. Of course I am writing about smaller companies, that do not have plenty of pro-riders and testers.
Photo: first version of the frame.
From the very beginning of Roll Line SKIL existence on facebook photos from testers show up. It wouldn’t be anything unusual, if these were well known skaters or pro-riders. But that isn’t the case: for example, they contacted me, offering pair of frames to test! Yes, they want to send their stuff free of charge to some random guy in Poland, simply because I posted comments that pointed to flaws in their designs (Siwy helped a lot too, as he send me wheels for tests, thing I’m very grateful for). Guy who is running their FB profile reads all comments and try to answer even awkward questions. He is not afraid to discuss hardware shortcomings, and what is more, he take people opinions in to an account and try to use best ideas. For example, at first frames weren’t supposed to have replaceable sidewalls, and grindblock was made out of aluminum. Now they are making these sidewalls people were asking for, and grindblock will be available in aluminum and plastic version.
Photo: project of upcoming sidewall
And all of this before releasing their products on the market! It would be a lie if I would say guy who is running their fb profile do not try to market and promote his company that way. He tries, and it is very visible, but he does it with style! They send frames, wheels, and bearing to people that really can help them making better products. That’s great way to go. It is clear that Roll Line SKIL wants to establish brand by good relations with customers and polished products.
Photo: Thunder Demon wheels
I must say, at first I had no faith in this project. I said that frames are 1:1 copy of Kizer Advance, but made out of aluminum (even frame spacers aren’t build in). Wheels? Probably nothing special, a jump on powerblading hype-train to make quick cash. As for wheels, I was wrong, they aren’t perfect, but after two months of skating they are still in a good shape, and aren’t behind best freeskating wheels from other brands (for ex. Hyper Concrete, Matter FSK, UC Powerblading) in terms of quality, and other brands should take example of their cores. Frames? Still haven’t got them, I’m waiting for a version with a sidewall, so I won’t judge them yet. From my sources I know that they perform well, and similarities to Advances are only superficial – they are whole different kind of frame.
Roll Line SKIL product range is still modest, but interesting. It seems that it will be possible to put together great quality (we’ll know for sure after products enter the market) frameset made of aluminum frames with sidewalls and grindblocks, wheels and bearings (speedmax ABEC9 are most interesting ones, you can read about those on my blog). Will they manage to survive on this market? All of it depends on popularity of powerblading in the future, quality, price, and availability of their products.
Photos were taken from: https://www.facebook.com/roll.lineskil.5?ref=ts&fref=ts
Others are mine.
Thanks to Herbata for translation. (http://zecoprzepraszam.wordpress.com/)
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