Wheel Love

Yeng and myself are bigtime Xsjado skate fans; Yeng rides the Latimer1 and I’m on the Stockwell1. We like them so much that we brainwash every roller we meet into switching to them. Why? Well, in our 14 years of skating, we’ve never seen skates like the Xsjados (pronounced ’shadow’). We love the skates’ lightweight responsiveness and durability (though some say they snap like twigs, they’ve worked out well for the both of us). We’ve even come to love its awkward stylings and offbeat colour schemes. So when we saw the new Xsjados up at Rollernews, we were obviously thrilled.

A little bit of background for the uninitiated. Xsjado was a sub-brand of Salomon, until Salomon was sold to Amer sports and dropped out of the aggressive inline market. The Xsjado brand was then bought over by The Conference (makers of USD, Kizer, Deshi etc), with its co-founder Shane Coburn staying on as creative director (source). These skates are the first batch to come out under the Conference umbrella.

Here are our initial impressions based on these visuals alone, we’ll probably revise them once we see the actual skates:

-No new mold: Old mold, new colours. Like everyone else, we were hoping for a brand new and improved Xsjado mold. But I guess, with the takeover and all, I’m glad they are still making skates. And, it they ARE planning on a new mold, lets hope they fix a few niggling things about the current mold – rattling buckles, fraying toe straps, more durable soul plates & a larger Mooks frame for skates size 11 and above.

-Boot only pro models: That means more customising options, and brings the cost down a little. But that could also mean avoiding that whole iffy subject of putting GC frames and 4×4 wheels (products by rival distribution/manufacturing companies Sunshine Distribution and Rat Tail Distribution, respectively) on the Farmers to make it a true pro skate
-Tacky graphics: What is with the giant lemur on the Farmers? Seems like such a Conference thing to do – stick huge giant motifs all over the place. “Ooh put pictures of skulls and crossbones! Kids go nuts over gimmicks like that!” Can’t imagine Shane “Mr. Subtlety” Coburn okayed that.

-No rubber notches: The Team footwraps don’t have the rubber notches found in other (older) Xsjado footwraps. The notches did seem to help keep the shoes in place when strapped into the skeleton. Not sure if this means that the skeleton has been changed. We’ll see. but on a positive note, its nice to see the shoes moving towards a more ‘traditional’ shoe style. No more bondage style wraps ie. Latimer1 footwraps.
-Is that it? No Latimer3. Guess that means he finally retired for good. No Damien Wilson pro model?

-Stockwell2: Can’t wait to see what they’ll look like. The Stockwell1 were one of the best looking skates ever, which is why I was willing to part with a 1/2 month salary to get them online. Oh looky – the Stockwell2 is a skeleton only skate.

In conclusion, we’re happy that Xsjado is back in business, but hope that this new lease of life leads to a burst of innovation.

-sukeats