You will never go back to buckles.
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Absurdly Tough. Lightweight. Exceptionally Abrasion Resistent. Genuine Seatbelt Webbing. Low-Profile. Repairable. No-Effort Closure. Consistent. Heavy-Duty. Beautiful. Unique.
Reliable.
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Prepare yourself for a story.
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It’s 2006. You’re skating in entry-level K2s with plastic wheels and a brake that does more harm than good. Every time your feet get too close to each other, CLICK. The receivers catch and the buckle comes loose. You’ve only started, and it’s already a nightmare. One day, you throw a tiny 180 down a 3-set. BOOM. You hit the pavement. Your buckle explodes. You’re fine, but your skates? Fuhgeddaboudit. How are you supposed to lace down that 900 on a 20-set stair gap you saw on the way to school with these weak and flimsy buckles? You need something durable. Something built for anything.
You head to ClubBlueRoom in Marble Arch, and your world is set ablaze, ogling the beauties before you: Remz 06, Razors Shima 5, Valo JJ. Maybe there is a god afterall.
You finally settle on the Salomon Rob Thompsons. Sturdy, well-loved, and fitted with a shiny aluminium buckle. Theres even a half naked girl on the side. Well would you look at that. Perfect.
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One day at Baysixty6, you climb the biggest roll-in. Today’s the day. A fist bump from your new skate homie you only met that morning. You drop in. Your buckle recievers catch each other on the drop-in. Oh god. BOOM. You blinked and you're on your arse. You shake it off, but something feels loose. You reach down to tighten your buc- why is there blood on my pants?
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Your metal buckle sliced your thumb open .
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That’s it. There has to be something better. You finally try on a pair of Remz 07's and you notice something. What is this on the inside of the cuff? Is that a velcro strap under the buckle? Genius. All that flex with as much adjustability as you desire. You can even take the buckle off enitrely and just have the velcro strap. That's what Haffey did afterall.
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After over a year of these Remz, you start to feel off in them. The shell size, it just doesn't fit your foot right anymore as you're growing up, so you take the straps off and use them on other skates. Seemingly the perfect solution, until the straps start to disintergrate every time you scrape on them.
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Every skate brand has the same design flaw. Buckles that are either too stiff or loose, fragile after a handful of slams and scrapes, topped off with the recievers constantly catching on each other.
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It's 2023 now. That's it. There needs to be a solution, and after years, you finally see your first velcro buckle-replacement strap.
"Hmmm, it can't be that tough, it's only velcro."
"Why do these skates have straps with text all over them?"
"Is this actually going to be better than buckles?"
You give it a shot. You open the plastic packaging. Custom hardware with socket heads that are a different size to regular skate tools? These recievers feel paper thin. They're all black thankfully but still, what's with that huge logo? This better be worth it. You try them out and there it is. Your world is changed. Finally, that flex, that ease of use and quick application. Its all there, until the reciever starts to completely disintergrate after 2 months. Then, the faux leather frays, the stitching comes apart. The potential is there but the execution is severely lacking. You look for more.
"Sorry? How much for some leather straps?"
"More straps with words and graphics all over them? I just want something clean."
"Back to buckles? Hell no! I ain't settling for this! What do I do?"
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Surely there must be something better?
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I handmade FailSafe straps from a place of necessity and frustration. In my 15+ years of skating, buckles have done nothing but irritate me, injure me and let me down. They are fragile, clunky, unreliable, stiff and add unneccesary volatility to your skating. Other Velcro straps have been weak, poorly constructed, disintergrated at the reciever after a few months or just downright expensive and unnattractive.
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FailSafe solves all of these issues, and then some, but how? What actually makes these straps so tough and easy to use? Here are the secrets.
-Eyelets are applies by separating and spreading the seatbelt fibres, not cutting or tearing them.
-Specific needle and thread are used to, again, spread the fibres when sewing.
- Genuine seatbelt webbing, not generic polyester webbing. Tighter spun fibres, more fibres, thicker and woven uniquely to survive car crashes. Need I say more.
-Leather is thick, annoying to pull, heavier, stretches significantly at the eyelets and can rip.
- Bonded nylon military-grade thread. Won’t tear, even under pressure or constant abrasion.
- Genuine Velcro®. Strong, secure, and long-lasting for over 20,000+ cycles, unlike 2in1 alternatives that are good for a few hundred (I spoke to the experts, really.)
- Matte-black brass eyelets and welded iron hoops. No cheap plastic parts and no expense spared.
- Accu® screws and machined washers. Built for real industrial use.
- Distilled down to its core elements. No extra faff, no brand names or tags, just pure performance.
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But why would you want to even use FailSafe straps?
+ Transform any skate from a stiff ankle cast to a supportive but flexible dream +
+ Absurdly tough +
+ Low profile and lightweight +
+ Dial in the perfect amount of flex with no loss of support +
+ No unexpected failures. Ever. +
+ Quick and easy to adjust, with only one hand +
+ Designed to last. Real durability using industrial-grade materials +
+ Built from love and determination. Aggressive rollerblading needs better +
Crafted meticulously by myself, with attention and care put into every stitch, every measurement and every single pair. Each pair takes up to 2 hours (with or without swearing at my machines) to create, sourcing materials from all over Europe.
FailSafe is your fail-safe.
You will never go back to buckles.
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