If you are looking to get into skating this year, you are picking the perfect time. The skating community is more vibrant and welcoming than ever before. But before you can hit the rink, cruise the boardwalk, or shred the local skatepark, you are faced with a classic dilemma: roller skates vs rollerblades. Which one is right for you? This debate has been going on for decades. Some skaters swear...

Lacing up a pair of skates or gripping the bars of a fresh complete for the first time is an incredibly exciting feeling. However, before you start hitting the local skatepark, bombing hills, or navigating busy street spots, you need the right setup under your feet. The world of stunt scooters has exploded, moving far beyond the rickety folding rides of the past. Today’s completes are highly engineered machines built...

Lacing up a pair of roller skates for the very first time is an incredibly exciting feeling. However, before you start hitting the local rink, bombing hills, or navigating busy park trails, you need to learn the most crucial skills of all: the fundamentals of balance, movement, and stopping. A roller skate doesn't have a built-in emergency brake, which means your body and your skates have to do all the...

Learning how to push and balance is exciting, but before you start bombing hills or navigating busy streets, you need to learn the most crucial skill of all: how to stop on a skateboard. A skateboard doesn't have a built-in emergency brake, which means your body and your board have to do the work. If you don't know how to slow down on a skateboard safely, a fun session can...

Walk into the choice paralysis of buying a new setup and it hits you fast: there are hundreds of logos on the wall, price tags all over the map, and everyone online swears their favorite is the only real one. Whether you're building your first complete or upgrading a worn-out board, the brand you ride shapes how your skateboard pops, how long it lasts, and honestly how stoked you feel every...

When you pull a fresh pair of aggressive inline skates out of the box—whether they are Roces M12s, Them Skates, or USD Sways—they usually arrive with a standard, predictable wheel configuration. But as you progress, you will realize that your frames are hidden engineering playgrounds. Advanced aggressive and urban inline frames (like those from Oysi, Ground Control, or Kizer sold here at SkatesUSA) feature adjustable hardware that allows you to...

Grip tape is the literal foundation of your connection to your deck. Whether you’re setting up a fresh street scooter deck from Aztek or refreshing your favorite setup, a sheet of grip tape is a blank canvas. While its primary job is to keep your feet locked down, custom grip tape art allows you to add serious personality to your ride. But did you know that custom cutouts can actually...

When it’s time to upgrade your drivetrain, it’s easy to get distracted by oil-slick finishes, laser-etched logos, and CNC-machined cutouts. But the most important feature of any new BMX sprocket isn't its looks—it's its geometry. Specifically, the teeth count. Whether you are dropping in on a custom S&M build or tuning up a stock Kink complete bike, changing the size of your front sprocket changes your bike's gear ratio. This...