Skates and the City

Jeans, cameras, sporting goods, tailor-made suits, skateboards and skates… these are products that the newly renovated Peninsular Shopping Centre is known for. The mall’s cocktail of businesses attracts a stream of sport enthusiasts; hobby photographers, street wear bargain hunters and inline-skaters. Sandwiched between the gracefully aging Peninsular Excelsior Hotel and the snazzy Funan DigitaLife Mall, the Peninsular Shopping Centre is barely five minutes walk away from City Hall MRT station.
 


The store is situated on the top floor of the mall right in front of the escalator.
Skateline opened the store in 2005, when it found that short of going to the East Coast Park, Bishan Park or one of the skate specialty stores scattered across the island, skaters did not have a convenient skate specialty store to visit. Three years on, the store remains the most accessible inline skate out-fitter on the island.

Product manager Michael Leh, who oversees operations of the store, says: “We want to make it easy for skaters to get their wheels, lubricants and replaceables they need during the week. Skaters shouldn’t have to wait till the weekend to visit a skate store, the weekend is precious and they just want to skate.” Michael, who is an urban skater himself, prefers skating in the cityscape to the usual haunts like East Coast Park. He usually skates on the K2 Soulslide and Frontman, both suited for urban skating. He adds: “With a store here, they (customers) can pick up their gear during lunch or after office hours, and head

straight for the parks in the weekend, or even right after work”. Michael who believes strongly in personal, detailed service, goes out of his way to ensure that he is available for his busy customers: he lists his own mobile number on the company website so they can call him directly for an appointment, even outside the usual business hours of the store.

Skate specialist Daniel Yong agrees that it is important for the customer to know exactly what he or she is buying. He says: “Skates are different from shoes, there are more things to consider and they need a more accurate fit.” Daniel’s own preferred style is fitness and speedskating, he presently skates on a pair of Rollerblade 4D Air.

Besides its city location, the store boasts some differences that make it stand out from the usual skate shop. One of them is that apart from the usual collection of fitness/training, freestyle and aggressive skates, it carries a decent range of hockey


The store boasts a collection of essential inline hocky items.
equipment. Also, the store is run by staff that are themselves intermediate to advanced skaters in a range of skate disciplines. Customers can be sure that the person who fit skates for them really knows what he or she is talking about. If rolling around in the carpeted 800 square feet store is not enough to make a purchase decision, customers can ‘test-drive’ their skates on 300 square feet of tiled smoothness right outside the store. The test-drive area allows customers to spend a fair amount of ‘boot time’ on the skates they fancy, long enough to detect any discomfort before they buy.


Skaters can test-drive skates right outside the store.
The unique opportunity to try before buying, and the personal attention given by the staff has impressed some customers, and they are bringing their friends and family back. This delights skate specialist Kelvin Tiah, he says: “Skating is more than the activity itself, it’s about bonding with friends and family.” Kelvin is a slide/slalom skater who has been skating intensively for over a year, he currently skates on a pair of Seba GT, his third pair of freestyle/slalom skates since he started.