Aggressive Inline Skating – How mods steered the industry
From Mod Mania
Our ability to challenge the environments around us by changing things to suit us rather than adjusting ourselves to suit the environment is what separates mankind from the other species inhabiting the world. To modify something to perform a function not originally conceived by its creator, has received the present slang term ‘modding’. From tying your shoe laces differently to the method specified on their packaging to adjusting the construction of DNA, to amending the constitution could be placed under this umbrella term. For the creative classes the act of modding migrates into their instinctive subconscious and their childhood modding experiments were often a catalyst towards their creative drive. At its heart modding is about rebellion, defiance and daring to be different, thus is a powerful phenomenon.
French rollerblader Nicolous Beliny
One of my first memorable modding experiments came from modifying a pair of rollerblades. I couldn't afford the later models, eBay didn’t exist, and the web was void of much of what we take for granted today. I had heard from some other rollerbladers that chopping boards might work for grind plates and I had access to dads small workshop, so I was left to materialize my modding concept with the materials I could find around me. The result was sketchy, but I had been infected with the bug and from that point onwards I have been modifying things ever since. I was empowered by the prospect of being able to modify an object and more broadly a drive to change the world around me.
An example of 90s advertising
The first officially marketed aggressive inline skate was released in 1988 but as with the majority of products; modded creations resembling the commercial manufacture products were being used long before their official release. Enthusiasts were crafting aggressive skates by juxtaposing existing off the shelf parts with homemade or re-contextualized parts. Since the first recreational inline skates were a juxtapose of the French inventor Louis Legrange original 1849 invention and contemporary ice hockey skate technology the idea of modifying was inherent within the sport. Nothing is new only re-contextualized.
An original cuttingboard skate mod
As the skate industry matured many of the designs initially materialized in DIY mods transcended into consumable products, soon you could buy cast plastic grind plate extensions and the chopping board mods like my embankment ceased to be necessary. Companies popped up offering third party parts that could be retro fitted to off the shelf skates, many of these products required the consumer to do much of modification themselves to make them fit, such as grinding off riveted frames with an angle. Many of these companies were directly ran by rollerbladers and were based off designs that they had initially built themselves as mods. In the late 1990s, frame manufacturers introduced the Universal Frame System (UFS), an industry standard for the locking system for connecting the frame to the boot. This led a trend for increased desire for easy customization of skates by consumers. The industry responded increasingly allowing the user interchangeability of different parts from different manufactures. Companies were increasingly cross collaborating with each other to meet this demand which lead to another round of common user-mods reaching commercial manufacture.
Individuality soon became a major desire with consumers, by this point the modding community had an online voice with skate configuration and modding specific sites such as skatesetup.com. Skaters were now uploading photos of their skates and even publish tutorials on how to replicate their mods. Other skaters were now commenting and giving reviews on other skaters creations. Magazines were increasingly including skate setup descriptions in their interviews with pro skaters and videos were featuring close up of the skater's skates as if their skate setups were as important as the tricks they performed in them. Again the market followed coarse from user dyed or painted parts brought a replacement cuffs, laces, grind plates, in a multiple colors.
Tutorial image of skate mod published on web forum
Past and present pro skaters were beginning their own skate brands collaborating with the manufacturing corporation to materialize and market a new breed of skater-designed products. The professional athlete just as in all established sports became a brand in them selves – companies producing pro-models, advertised as the doorway to skating like the specific pro does. It was increasingly becoming less individual expression but idealized conformity. Pro skates rarely had much form difference to the base models but were different by their cross-company parts and color codes building in some cases to cosmetic over skins for the boot. User mods became less about performance and more about aesthetics. Users were changing the aesthetics of off the shelf parts such as dying and decorating these skins rather than modifying the function of the hardware. Consumers seemed to have gained choice but had lost their drive to materialize new choices themselves. The industry had now capitalized on consumers desire to mod by providing a tight library of purchasable choice.
Skate manufactures online customized skate order online applications
Though you now had past members of the modding community having an direct influence on what was manufactured bringing the drive to improve the products to a more personal vision rather than merely economic drive, the industry was still fundamentally functioning under capitalism. Modding being a personal endeavor means that tangents of actions that under a business model would be madness can seem rational, and thus modding can bring about solutions that may not be feasible now but can lead to designs that may be utilized when the suiting saturation arises. One particular example of this personally rational / economically un-rational was the Fiziks suspension frame, a concept developed by enthusiast modder/designer and past pro skater Tom Hesler. The initial idea came from a user mod which was then developed into a mass producible product, this frame was an unprecedented technological development allowed the skater to do more extreme tricks with less impact related fatigue. But it was flawed in one terminating area – cost price; it cost as much to manufacture as the retail price of the other frames already on the market. The frame simply cost too much to produce and though it was a technological development it simply didn’t have the marketing credentials. What you get to buy isn’t what’s the best that could be made, its what has the best profit margin. Luckily the values that drive modding aren’t as rigid.
2000? DIY modded suspension frame phototype, 2003 Fiziks suspension frame, 2007 Kizer suspension frame
Defiance is an integral aspect of the culture of modding communities and is highlighted in the history of aggressive inline skating. The young and short lifespan of a committed skater is normally restricted to youth and young adults, simply because of the physically intensive nature of participating in the sport. Both these periods in peoples lives are commonly perceived as periods of rebellion and questioning, maybe this has some influence on the innovation and changing nature of sports like rollerblading, skateboarding etc, sports that are grounded on individual expression rather that concrete rules. This no doubt has aided the activity of modding in these areas. Participating in these sports encourage certain creativity and individualism, thus the user translating these qualities to physical alteration of their equipment, may not be a far leap.
Skater and their skate
Now that rollerblading has matured into an established sport many past athletes are too old to be active members of the sport. Many of these people have vivid history of the past products and modding experiments are at risk of being lost into the ether. Much of this activity was before the age of the web and have not been documented nor posted online. Luckily some enthusiasts have begun archiving footage and prototypes but this hasn’t yet been in an organized nor funded manor. Many of the original products in the sport have little documentation or remaining examples but some old stock are being re-circulated by sites such as the European http://thisissoul.nl/. They sell old warehouse stock and many of these older model skates are sold with the option of in-house modification such as equipping old boots with a new wheelbase. This means that a variety of skates are available outside of the current range of products but as with many counter culture activities there is no founding organization devoted to record keeping. This lack of recording and archiving of manufactured objects and user modifications is somewhat alleviated by the freedom of the web but its somewhat alarming in this world of ever increasing through away aspect of society that much of the detail of the world be interact with will not be archived or formally recorded.
Commercially available modded and past era skates (thisissoul.com)
Aggressive inline skating is a prime example of users directly influencing manufacturing and more broadly the spectrum potential of an activity. From kids gluing chopping boards to the bottom of their skates to juxtaposed skates combining parts form multiple companies and eras. The culture of modding in the history of rollerblading has been vibrant. The notion of not accepting things as they are, to challenge what is presented as concrete and then take action to improve or at least present an alternative is a fundamental ingredient in the majority of meaningful endeavors.
Local kids skating and filming at their local skate park
http://www.rollernews.com/ http://www.be-mag.com/ http://rollerwarehouse.com/ http://www.skatesetup.com/ http://www.emesce.com/ http://thisissoul.com
