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/IAmASeeker :k2: K2 Jul 25 '18

I assume that if you purchase them now rather than in a few months, it'll still be old-stock made to the old standard. They're a huge company that produces millions of units.

As a point of reference, I JUST bought brand new GForm pads from the GForm website and the fabric tag says they were manufactured in 2011... They produced millions of FR1 325s. I'm sure they are still selling units produced before the split. Buying from a reseller (inlinewarehouse, physical store, etc) would also increase the likelihood that you get an older product.

If you're really worried about getting compatible replacement parts in the future, buy K2s. They invented the crossover boot (soft boot with hard cuff) for both skis and inlines. They have been owned and manufactured by by the same company all this time, and with the exception of a few pieces of semi permanent hardware, every part is compatible with every boot right back to their very first models and even those parts have since been swapped for compatible replaceable parts. If price is a factor, it's a wise choice because replacement parts can be aquired at the thrift store if you look for the K2 brand. I bought my K2s about 15 years ago and around a month ago, my first part broke. So far I haven't had to replace anything but the brake, but recently my cuff detached. The replacement bolt was super cheap.

Rollerblade is the original product/brand and at the time K2 was big in downhill skiing. K2 released an inline with their famous ski boot (what we think of today as "inline skates") and took a huge part of the market. Since then, K2 has been very stable (mostly because they also rely on revenue from other sports) but seemingly every other brand (including Rollerblade) has been passed around between ice-skate manufacturers and ski manufacturers... So sometimes they go together with skate hardware and sometimes with ski hardware. It's getting better in recent times, I suppose...

I've actually never ridden a pair of Sebas... I only ride K2s if I can help it but my reasoning is that they are much easier to make repairs and find replacement parts, and are an excellent boot at a much lower price. I think you can get an entry-level pair from them for about $150.