Emily: Here’s a cool new twist on roller skates. You can find them in many local stores, they’re called Cardiff Skates. Here to show us how they work is the inventor, Brian Green. Brian, thank you so much for joining us! Brian: Thanks for having me.
Emily: This is really nice — you’re living in San Diego now but you’re a local guy — what is the idea behind Cardiff Skates? Brian: Well, I grew up in Enfield, Connecticut and as a kid here I grew up pond skating,
Skiing and ice skating, roller skating, inline skating, and I just wanted to come up with a better, more stable way for people to skate. And I wanted to make it more accessible to more people, so I wanted to find something stable, convenient, easy, and fun.
Emily: And these, how does this — I mean, if we hold up the product here — so there’s three, four wheels instead. Brian: There’s four wheels. These front three wheels are on the ground when you’re skating — so this back wheel is actually a brake wheel. So you have three wheels when you’re
Skating, three wheels when you’re braking. So you have a brake on either foot. And they automatically adjust to your shoe. So you just go like that — but when you step on them, they adjust to your shoe size. We have a couple different models. This is our Cruiser
Line — these are in Target stores nationwide. This is our Youth Lime and Strawberry — these are good for shoe sizes Youth 12 to Boys 5/Girls 6. Everything works the same way. You just step in and they adjust. This is our Cruiser Small — this goes from size Boys 2/Girls
2 to size Mens 8/Womens 9. And this is the Cruiser Large — this is from size Boys 4/Girls 5.5 to Mens 13/Womens 14. Emily: It seems so simple! I would slip them on right now but I forgot to change my shoes and I’m wearing flip-flops — but I’d be wearing heels otherwise.
Brian: To be honest, once you get the hang of it, you can actually wear flip-flops. Emily: You can do it in flip-flops? Brian: Yeah! I do it by the beaches sometimes. Emily: Can we see you slip them on?
Brian: Sure, no problem! So you just go like this — open the velcro strap — put your foot in, and watch, they just automatically adjust. Put on the velcro and off you go! Emily: Wow, what a neat idea.
Brian: To turn, you just lift that front wheel. And to brake, either foot — just go like that. And they come off just as easy. Go like that, pop your toe out. And we have a cool feature for all the skates out — we started with the kids skate. These wheels have very
Good bearings, so we came up with these discs — it’s a little round disc, and you take this disc and you put it on the side wheels. So this skate actually has the discs for speed control and this one doesn’t. And you can see, big difference. So this is to help people
Learn to skate, it slows it down for them. Emily: That’s what I would need. I would need that very slow skate. Brian: We actually get quite a few adults calling in wanting these, because these are great bearings and they roll good — which if you’re a good skater, you’re going to want
— and if you’re just learning you might want to slow it down a bit. Emily: Brian, this is awesome. Now, how did you get started? You said these have been on the market for about two years but I’m sure it took much longer than that. Brian: It took me 8 years of development.
Emily: 8 years… Brian: Yeah, testing and — trips to a design firm in Munich, Germany to get the size adjustment dialed in, I worked with Chinese manufacturers — and I met my partner in San Diego about two years ago, he comes from retail. So, we started with Brookstone stores — we had a
Test in 19 Brookstone stores with our S-series, which is our performance series, and they’re still in Brookstone. Now, we’re nationwide in Brookstones, we’re nationwide in Target, we’re doing about 200 Costco Roadshows this year, we’re online all over the place — CardiffSkate.com.
Emily: That’s got to be huge for your guys to have them, especially in stores like Target now where everyone shops. Brian: Well, we actually had a TV commercial that’s been airing too — a lot of kids come
By now at booths and stuff, “I saw that on Cartoon Network!” So, it’s definitely — it’s getting pretty cool. It’s surreal at this point, watching my baby grow up is really neat. Emily: Wow, that’s really neat. So if people want to purchase these, maybe they don’t live
Near a Target, you can also purchase them online? Brian: Yes, CardiffSkate.com, Brookstone — any Brookstone store will have our S-series, Target, you can go to Costco.com and check out Cardiff Skate roadshows and they’ll tell you where we’re going to be next — we’re all over the country. And actually online at Dick’s Sporting
Goods, and online at Sports Authority as well. Emily: Wow! Good things for you guys. I have a question for you, I’m going to put you on the spot. Can you do any tricks in these? Brian: Well, let’s see what we got here!
Emily: I’m a little nervous, we’re testing our set in ways we never have before! Brian: Not a problem! So to turn, you just pick up that front wheel. If people are inline skaters — roller bladers — they want to get on edge, and these are not meant for that.
They’re a different way to skate. If you’re an ice skater, skier — skiing, you traverse, right? You push out, it’s kind of that same motion. And you pick up that front wheel to turn — and once you get the hang of it, you can turn on a dime.
Emily: Yeah, you look like you move around very easily. Brian: Honestly at this point, it’s effortless. I’m more comfortable on these than walking… almost! Emily: Very impressive! Brian, thank you so much for joining us. The inventor of Cardiff Skates. You can find them in many stores or CardiffSkate.com.
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