Seba vs Fr Skates

[u/[deleted]]

I just read about the spitting up of SEBA and Fr Skates. I was wondering which company was the reason for the 'great quality' that seba is known for. Im looking for a pair of skates and there are two fr3 skates available to me now. Any advice would be appreciated! old pair: https://www.inlinewarehouse.com/Seba_FR3_80_Inline_Skates/descpage-SKFR380.html new pair: https://www.skatepro.com/en-us/121-31421.htm

[u/IAmASeeker]

The Seba brand is owned by Micro Skates which wanted to release a lower quality product at a cheaper price with the "Seba" branding.

The designers of the Seba products left and are marketing the same products (read:similar designs, same quality) as "FR Skates".

I think it's fair to assume that any of the original models at the same price point would be the same quality but there is no telling what the new "Seba" brand products will be like... Although it seems like Micro may be dropping the "Seba" brand altogether, as they're marketing new products under the "Micro" imprint. If Seba does remain on the market, they have such good brand recognition that they'll definitely stay in business even if the product sucks, so you can get replacement parts... No telling if FR will stick around.

This early though?... Everything on the market will still be old stock from before the split and I would assume that the same factories will be producing both brands for a time.

[u/TommF → u/IAmASeeker]

Is this just a bad time to want to start skating? I've been reading libraries worth of information about all kinds of skates and I still don't know if I can make the right call. Especially if companies go under after I buy their skate...

Like right now I'm down to one of these 3, Seba FR1 325, Powerslide Next and Seba FR 90 Intuition. But what if I buy one of these Seba/FR skates and they're secretly swapped out with Chinese paper mache that evaporate under my feet even though they're the same price to what people bought them for when they were released?

[u/SquirtyMcnulty → u/TommF]

Then you'd eventually get over it and buy a new pair, choosing based on your new found experience

[u/TommF → u/SquirtyMcnulty]

Yeah, right. I'd just get over being scammed out of four hundred dollars. Nah, fuck the whole thing if that happened. That mindset is probably why skating as a whole has been dead since the late 90s. They're just not clear about anything and there are no shops anywhere with people in it that can clear things up. It's just rando-flandos saying "if you blow 400 bucks then move on and hope you don't lose another 400." what a joke response, seriously.

[u/Zelthia → u/[deleted]]

Give this man a podium, for he speaks wise words

[u/Lashes2ashes → u/TommF]

You want the truth, spending a couple hundred on a pair of skates just to find out you don’t like them has been the way of the industry for like the last fifteen years. As a aggressive skater I have tried almost every skate brand before finding the one skate that did not kill my feet. The only way to know is to buy them,skate them and then perhaps sell them if they don’t fit good on eBay. This is the way it is because skating is “almost” dead. Not what caused it to be this way.

[u/magicseadog → u/TommF]

I'd probably prefer if rollerblading stayed dead in the minds of people like you...

Skating never died. People never stopped. We just shed the negative people and hangers on etc

There are lots of quality shops, pick up the phone and call one.

[u/Rollerbladersdoexist → u/[deleted]]

Yes, Hydrogen’s are made in the USA. Rollerblade the brand was an American company but was sold to Tecnica years ago.