FR FR Inline Skates

The FR skates, back then made by Seba, hit the market in year 2006. Back then, they had a status of „Holy Grail” among freeskates. Their low availability, caused by lack of proper distribution chain in Europe and USA, meant that their existence was not known to wider audience, but only to “inner circle” of the most dedicated urban skating and freestyle fans. For the same reason, buying a pair of FR1 or FR2 skates (the only two models available initially) was not an easy task and skaters were waiting moths for their pair to arrive.

The skates were worth the wait, though. Sebastien Laffargue, their creator, was not hiding his admiration for legendary Tecnica Twister boot. No surprise then, that FR resemble those in shape – however, they are light years ahead of not only their inspiration, but also any other hardboot available on the market at the time.

The FR1 were the first freeskates in history to come with aluminium blocks embedded in plastic in mounting points. They were also the first skates to have cuff canting, an idea borrowed from skiing boots. Other features, like shock absorber attached by Velcro or liner laced in the upper part, sweetened the deal further. The overall quality was very high and FR1 eclipsed even Rollerblade Twisters, which were given a major overhaul back in 2006 themselves.

FR skates were so ahead of their time and competition, that during all these years on the market not much has been changed in their core design. The most important modification was making the shell more open at the top, but other than that, skate received usual upgrades to frames and parts like buckles. Of course, new variants, targetting different price-points, were introduced, including the hugely popular FRX skate. To provide some further perspective on this, let us note that most of the competing brands had managed to introduce several new freeskate models only to bin them after few years and replace with entirely new ones. FR aren't going anywhere – you do not change a winning formula!