Rollerblade are know for not making any compromises when it comes to quality of their skates. This attitude is obvious when we try to find “bad” skates made through the history of the company. There are co few of them, you can count them on fingers of one hand – keep in mind that Rollerblade exists since 1981! Furthermore, we are talking about failed designs and ideas here, not poorly made skates with low grade materials. Even biggest failures, like GTR speedskates with weird center-mount for frames, were great when it comes to material quality and finish.
Italians (yup, Rollerblade is Italian company now and has been for a long time, even though it started in the USA) raised the bar for themselves and other companies so high, that is creates a problem: how to make more affordable skates for people with lower budgets while keeping the high quality? In the past, two approaches worked. First is creating a version of the skate based around the same boot as more expensive models, but with cheaper or simplified parts. The second solution is taking off the shelf, factory owned designs instead of creating their own from scratch and modifying them heavily.
Older, sadly no longer made, Fusion X3 urban skates are great example of the first way of lowering the price. These were coming with the same boot and the liner as more expensive Fusion 84 model, but used composite frame instead of extruded aluminium one and came with lower grade wheels and bearings. In addition, the boot had 45 degree Velcro instead of a buckle, but in case of these skates lacing was so efficient in keeping foot in place, it was hardly a deal-breaker. Overall quality was still very high and this has made Fusion X3 a very popular choice for custom setups. If you have never seen those, here's what they looked like:
The second approach of taking a factory-owned, “open mould” design available to anyone who wish to make skates and tweaking it to company’s high standards has also produced some interesting results in the past. A good example are RB Swindlers (not the 90’s skate, the more recent one with the same name) – Rollerblade took a generic copy of cult classics Salomon ST shells and breathed a new life in to them by designing new cuff, liner and soulplates. The skate has not won the audience over, but was a solid effort at making an entry-level aggressive model.
When it comes to RB line of freeskates we deal with a synergy of those solutions. First, the skate is based around factory-owned shell mould – that means Rollerblade has skipped the cost of designing and making injection moulds and doesn’t have to amortize these expenses by raising the price of the skate. Furthermore, the shell was used for quite some time before Rollerblade picked it up – most likely these moulds have paid-off themselves for the factory long time ago. Just like before-mentioned Swindlers, the brand has created new parts for the skate to polish it more and give it a distinctive look.
This is how RB 80 came to be. Maybe some of our readers will recall a Rollerblade Storm (nice nod to Twister name here) skate, which was essentially a first edition of the RB model, but with limited availability. The skate came out only in markets where cheaper freeskates were selling in high volumes, like Poland and Spain, among few others. These skates were selling like hotcakes and soon, Rollerblade rebranded them as RB 80 and released worldwide.
Fast-forward to present day and RB skates are appreciated by freeskaters worldwide. Furthermore, thanks to amazing promotional material and excellent pro-model of Danny Aldridge, they have many sworn fans. The new premium edition, named RB Pro X, is not as advanced as Danny’s pro skate, but isn’t far behind, either. Take a look yourself:
Inside the shell resides a new, improved liner with lacing in upper part, a feature absent in previous editions. The 45 degree buckle has been replaced with improved, better protected one known from Twister Edge skates.
The frame remains the same as in previous RB 80 Pro editions and is a solid piece of extruded aluminium. The length shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone – it’s 243 mm long frame, fitting four 80 mm diameter wheels. This is basically a gold standard in freeskating. Personally, I prefer longer frames, but I am sane enough to know that it is a classic setup for urban skating and it this is a fact one just doesn’t argue with.
The wheels are Supreme Urban model, a mid-tier of freeskating wheels – considering the overall price of the skate, a very good deal. These wheels go toe to toe with more popular Spinner wheels from Powerslide or Street Invaders from FR Skates. The Twincam ILQ-7 Plus bearings are also a model with very decent specs and will do their job nicely in urban conditions.
I dare to say that as a whole, RB Pro X are better, more polished skates than any edition of old Twisters (not current Twister Edge!). One has to remember that Rollerblade Twister was THE flagship freeskate of the brand for over a decade. This shows how far industry’s standards have improved – current skates made as lower budget alternative to more expensive models are better than what was considered a premium option 5 years ago.
OK, but where is the smart cost-cutting by using cheaper parts in all of this? This approach gave birth to RB 80 Cruiser and Cruiser W models. These skates aren’t new and came out a while ago – but for season 2022, they have recieved just one, but massive, upgrade.
Rollerblade did the same trick as with Fusion X3: “keep the boot untouched, cut corners on everything below”. You can see new RB Cruiser below and the W version a bit farther. It's worth to note that differences between these models are purely aesthetic - both are in fact unisex models with "general fit".
At a first look, they are almost the same as RB Pro X, apart from colours. It is true that previous models of these skates came with lower quality, embossed frames. But for year 2022, we are getting a much more interesting skate, as the frame is exactly the same one as in higher tier model!
This makes these skates basically a re-release of original RB 80 model. Boot, liner, buckles, frames, wheels, bearings - they are all the same. There are subtle tweaks like corrected mounting points spacing (now properly accepts frames made by other companies), but essentially, they are the same skates but in a different colourways.
There's a catch, though. Rollerblade has introduced a new size of Black/Yellow version - EU33. This is most likely an attempt to reuse a mould of now discounted Rollerblade Cyclone junior skates, as they had smallest version of RB shell, which was not used in skates for adults. For reasons unknown this size of the skate comes with older style, embossed frames. This is not an end of the world, as these frames are pretty okay, especially for a person who wears EU33 boot (be honest here, we are talking about kids or small frame women), but this decision feels simply weird, considering that all other sizes have higher specs ones
So, what are differences compared to RB Pro X? The wheels are lower spec model, Urban 80 mm with 85A hardness. These won’t win any awards for best wheels, but aren’t bad either and comparable to ones used in competition in similarly priced skates. One thing worth praising about them is the core – it is an older but proven design, used in dozens of different wheels through more than a decade – you don’t have to worry about these cracking. The SG7 bearings are nothing more than regular steel ABEC 7 grade bearings with silicone gel as a lubricant – nothing fancy, but will do the job. It’s not worth to judge the skate by its’ bearings anyway; these, just like wheels, will get need to be replaced sooner or later and if they keep you rolling smoothly up to that point, they are a fair game.
What about the boot? It’s the same boot as in previous editions of RB 80 Cruisers and RB 80 Pro. So, the liner remains unchanged (no lacing like in RB Pro X) and 45 degree buckle is of older type, but apart from that, the skate delivers the same fit as more expensive counterpart. That’s the beauty of Cruiser models – they give you a skating experience very similar to higher spec model, but at a lower pricepoint. This also makes them an excellent platform for anyone who wants to outfit their skates with custom parts, like frames, to create unique setup. After all, this is one of the most solid freeskating hardboots on the market right now and undobtedly a best one for people with wide feet.
Last thing I want to highlight is the presence of a brake in both Pro X and Cruiser variants. Yup, I know – a lot of people will take it off right after unboxing the skates, as they do not need it. However, brake-equipped skates are simply more appealing to people who will learn how to skate on them, especially if they have no prior experience with this sport whatsoever. Love or hate it – using a brake is comparatively the easiest method of efficient stopping and slowing down to learn (not to mention limiting wheel wear).
Before fresh skaters learn how to T-stop, brake may save their skin, especially if they are learning all by themselves, without help of certified instructor. The brakes are inexpensive parts and in my opinion, it would be good if more freeskates would come with them (even packed separately in the box), especially cheaper ones, which are more often bought by beginners.
That’s all for now*. You can find the RB line skates under these links.
Rollerblade RB 80 Cruiser - Black/Neon Yellow
Rollerblade RB 80 Cruiser W - Black/Aqua
Rollerblade RB PRO X - Grey/Warm Red
I also encourage you to visit our sub-page with collection of these skates – you’ll find a few pairs from prior seasons (often at discounted price) as well as triskating variant of the skate (RB 110 3WD) which sports what I consider to be the most sensibly engineered 3x110 freeskating frame for 165 mm mounting.
Cheers,
Herb