By: Brian Richards Rodriguez Before Strip Skates was a brand, before the events, before the grant, before any of this… there was just a feeling. And it started a long time ago. As a kid, I was always drawn to movement. Not necessarily the structured kind, not the typical team sports where everything had a set role and a set path. I liked trying things. Figuring things out. Moving my body in ways that felt different. I wasn’t chasing being the best on a team, I was chasing tha

By: Brian Richards Rodriguez It’s wild to even say this, but coming up in May marks one year since this whole Strip Skates idea started. One year ago, this wasn’t a business. It wasn’t a product. It was just a thought… something different, something I felt, but didn’t fully know what to do with yet. Then I went to a small business fair. And that moment mattered more than I realized at the time. I met people who were open, encouraging, and genuinely interested. People who didn

By: Brian Richards Rodriguez If you told us a few months ago that we’d be stepping onto the Fremont Street Experience with a real shot at a permanent presence… we would’ve said, “let’s see what happens.” Because that’s how this whole thing has moved. One opportunity, one ask, one moment at a time. It started with First Friday. That’s where we built it. Tested it. Figured it out in real time. Month after month, showing up, creating energy, learning how to turn curiosity into c

By: Brian Richards Rodriguez Six months ago, we pulled up to First Friday with a simple setup, a fresh idea, and a whole lot of curiosity. No guarantees, no roadmap, just a belief that if we showed up, created energy, and let people experience something new, things would start to click. Fast forward to now… and yeah, we’re saying it: we did that. Six straight months of showing up, setting up, figuring it out, and leveling up every single time. But let’s be real for a second,