Southeastern Skate Supply

Southeastern Skate Supplyis one of the United States’ largest distributors of skates and skating supplies. They supply skates and skating rink supplies to rinks in the United States and also to rinks in several other countries.

The company grew out of the Skate A Drome that was started by E. W. Ramsey, Jimmy Robertson, and El Crum in 1949. The partners began buying extra supplies and selling them to other rinks in the region. This side business was run out of the skating rink and slowly grew into a substantial part of the business.

Jimmy Robertson wanted to get out of the skate company to build a coliseum in Roanoke. The other partners bought him out so that he could raise money for that project. The coliseum never got off the ground, but he did build a go-kart track with some of the proceeds.

The two remaining partners built a second rink on Hershberger Road (in Roanoke, VA). Mr. Crum ran the new facility and Mr. Ramsey ran the original location with the skate distributorship. Both men’s children began working in the business. Shortly after that the partners decided to split the company into two parts. Mr. Crum got the rink at Hershberger and Mr. Ramsey got the rink and distributorship in Salem, VA.

The rink in Salem, VA was closed so that Mr. Ramsey could focus on the distributorship part of the business. Shortly after that, in the fall of 1974, there was a burglary attempt on the warehouse. The burglars made torches out of old newspapers and those torches started a fire that burnt the building to the ground.

Mr. Ramsey and his two sons (Glenn Ramsey, Sr. and Wayne Ramsey) found a new warehouse in Roanoke, VA and after three months reopened at the new location.

In 1976 Wayne Ramsey moved to Mableton, GA to open a warehouse there to better serve the customers in that part of the country. They bought out another distributor in that area to help make that happen.

In 1995 both locations started selling toy novelties to rinks and also other organizations. The Roanoke location started their website supercoolstuff.comto expand that portion of the business.

Southeastern Skate Supply is a member of the Roller Skating Association (RSA website), the Roller Skate Manufacturers Association (RSM), and the Brotherhood of Skate Suppliers (B.O.S.S.).

Sources:
1/31/08 Interview with Glenn Ramsey Sr.

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