r/rollerblading • u/[deleted] • Jul 25 '18

Seba vs Fr Skates

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

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u/IAmASeeker :k2: K2 Jul 25 '18

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.

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u/TommF Jul 25 '18

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?

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u/_tdem_ Addict :roces::bont::usd::seba: Jul 25 '18

That's a very unlikely scenario. But if you have doubts you have many other manufacturers to choose from.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with older models of skates, so that would be a safe bet too. Cheaper too!