A New Skate Product That Is Believed To Reshape The Roller Skating Industry With Its Unique Design
Brian Green is the creator of Cardiff Skates, a new skate product that he believes will reshape the roller skating industry. Green’s skates are a hybrid cross between inline skates and traditional quad strap-on roller skates. His Cardiff Skates (named after the San Diego coastal town of Cardiff-by-the-Sea where he manufactures the product) strap onto your favorite shoes and automatically adjust to the size of your shoe. The skates have a stable wheel configuration and braking system, which makes them perfect for skaters of all levels. Green hopes these skates will reinvigorate the industry by offering a convenient new way for everyone to skate, by providing an even more portable skate that is easier to use for environmentally green urban transportation, recreational activities or just to cruise around.
Green has always enjoyed skating- he grew up skating on ponds in Connecticut and skiing in Vermont.
“When rollerblades first came to market in the mid-’80s, I skated a lot, but I wanted a more comfortable and convenient skate. My hobby was inventing products. I have several other patents on pet products, a gardening product and suspension skates.”
Green, 52, said he has been at work on one invention or another since he was 24.
“I was on HSN (Home Shopping Network) with one of my products, and one of my products went to TV through an infomercial. The skate project has been my life’s work and I am so psyched to see it come to market.”
Green said his goal eight years ago was to create a more comfortable, stable and convenient skating experience for people of all ability levels to enjoy. With the investment of friends and family, he prototyped and tested many different wheel configurations to come up with the most stable wheel configuration.
He took his patented tri-skate wheel configuration to a group of experienced skate engineers in Munich, Germany, who helped him fine-tune the function of the automatic size adjustment, wheel configuration and braking system to be stable enough for all ability levels.
Green hired a local San Diego design firm, C4 Design Group, to help create a binding system and restyle the functional German design into a more stylish working prototype.
Green partnered with an experienced skate and rollerblade manufacturer in Asia (which once made over 9 million pairs of rollerblades a year.) Green and others then field-tested the production prototypes for several years.
Roller skates were first clipped onto boots in the 1700s and have cycled in and out of fashion periodically ever since. Cardiff, with just 10 employees and about $6 million in private capital committed, is betting on a big comeback.
Green used about $300,000 in home equity loans to fund development of the skates for about the first three years, he said.
Like the strap-on roller skates of days gone by, the Cardiff Skate attaches to the user's existing footwear. The idea is that people can use the skates to get to their destination, without having to pack along a separate pair of shoes to change into once they get there.
Instead of leather straps and metal buckles, however, the skates utilize a downhill-ski-like ratcheting binding system. Sizing is accomplished through a spring-mount system, in which the front part of the skate automatically slides back to meet the front of the user's shoe, as soon as they step down.
The skates roll on three rollerblade wheels, arranged in a delta formation – a fourth rear wheel serves only as the brake. According to Green, this configuration "gives the user unique maneuverability and excellent stabilization while both skating and braking."
The Cardiff Skate features a tri-skate wheel configuration. Unlike traditional inline or quad roller skates, these skates feature a very stable three wheel setup, which gives the skater a unique type of maneuverability and stability while skating or braking.
There is a fourth rear-centered wheel that is used only for braking with either the right or left foot.
This one-size-fits-many technology is a great adjustable skate option for growing kids or a single pair can be shared by several occasional users with different sized feet. And since the skate frame attaches to your shoes, it is easy to skate to work or school, run errands or go to a park without carrying along a pair of shoes to change into when you reach your destination.
Beyond the business prospects, he says he hopes to help revive skating, which most recently soared and sputtered in the 1970s, when roller derby and disco skating were popular, and in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Rollerblade inline skates were briefly a craze.
“I’ve been skating my whole life,” he said. “It went from the fastest-growing sport in the world to the fastest-declining sport in the world.”
Candice Reed
A graduate of Kelsey-Jenny College in Communications as well as a certified grant writer, Candice has written for The Los Angeles Times & The New York Times. She loves entertaining and all things French.
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Cardiff Skates, founded in beautiful Cardiff, California, where spending time outdoors is more than just a way to have fun and stay in shape—it's a way of life. Setting out to redefine the skating industry, and more importantly, bring skating back to life.