News

Greetings and Happy New Year,

We hope everyone ended 2018 on a strong note and hopefully, you’ve all accomplished something great that has you pumped up for 2019. 

We understand that winter sport athletes like figure skaters and hockey players work extremely hard to be their best and to stay competitive. We also know that in order for that to happen there’s a lot of hard work and sacrifice that goes on behind the scenes.

We’d love to know how your hard work paid off in 2018 and what were some of your greatest accomplishments? Did you land a new double jump or bounce back from a tough skating injury? Maybe you passed all of your MIF test and now you’re a U.S. Figure Skating Gold Medalist!

Maybe you scored a “Hat Trick” for the first time in one of your hockey games and your still buzzing from the excitement!  Whatever the case may be we hope you continue to build on that momentum and keep working hard to make progress throughout this new year.

We’d love to hear from you and hope that you’d be willing to share one of your victories with us. Until then we wish you so much more success on and off the ice. Keep striving to be your very best and we support you in your journey.

Terri

What do you do when it appears that hard work and sacrifice doesn't pay off in the sport of figure skating? How do you reconcile this scenario; you make it to Nationals, the biggest day in your figure skating career, nail your program, win a silver medal but get over looked for the Olympic Team and ultimately overlooked as the first alternate for skaters who placed beneath you? These are the same types of questions probably being asked by Ross Minor who recently took second place at the 2018 U. S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, California.

Before I go on I want to give my disclaimer that I am not a certified coach or a skating professional. However, I am the Mom of a figure skater and like so many other skating Moms, I encourage my Daughter to work hard, dream big and when you fall, get back up again.

By now, most of us know that Ross Minor placed second at Nationals and was not selected to be on the Olympic team. Although Jason Brown finished in sixth place, he was chosen to be the first alternate while Minor was demoted to second. At first glance this type of selection process doesn’t make a lick of sense, as it leaves many people scratching their heads, thinking how did they (U.S. Figure Skating) decide that?

Unfortunately, Ross Minor is not the only U.S. Figure Skater to endure such disappointment at Nationals. Mirai Nagasu also experienced something similar back in 2014 when she skated a flawless program and placed third at Nationals. Despite a fourth-place finish, Ashley Wagner was selected while Nagasu was left off the Olympic Team.  

I do think it’s important to note that according to U.S. Figure Skating they typically look at a figure skater’s performance over the course of the entire year. They also consider how consistent the skater was the year prior to the Olympic season. It’s fair to say that they are not just evaluating the skater’s ability to leave it all on the ice at the National competition.

Having considered all these factors, I still can’t say that U.S. Figure Skating is wrong in the way that they select skaters for the Olympic games. I’m sure that their decisions are not made lightly and that they use careful analysis in determining who get’s a shot at the gold medal. However, I do think it’s important that we discuss these concerns so that we can possibly help bring about a selection process that truly does seem fair and impartial to our hard-working athletes.

Most importantly, I hope that great skaters like Ross Minor are not discouraged by these recent events. Like many figure skaters before him, I believe his journey is just beginning and we wish him the absolute best going forward.

Lastly, we want to wish Bradi Tennell, Mirai Nagasu, and Karen Chen the very best going into these 2018 winter Olympics. We also send a huge shout out to the Men, Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou, Adam Rippon, and  and all our pairs skaters. You all truly have a special gift and we know that you will all skate great in PyeongChang.

Sincerely,

Terri

Hello Friends of Pinkskate,

Welcome to that beloved time of the year when we celebrate the Holidays with joy and cheer. Something I always look forward to are those familiar images, smells and decorations that remind me we are in the Holiday Season.

For example, if you show me a delicious cup of hot coco, topped with a beautiful swirl of whipped cream and garnished with red and green sprinkles, I’m going to envision the Holidays! That’s exactly what those images are designed to do.

Ironically, what I find most fascinating is that during the Holiday season you will inevitably find decorations, ads, and pics of ice skating Santa Clauses, Elfs and anything else depicting people or characters engaging in some form of ice skating.

Well, my friends there’s nothing wrong with those images or the purpose behind them however, this is one of the main reasons why a brand like Pinkskate is so important. We are striving to break free from the notion that figure skating is synonymous with winter or the holiday season.

Figure skating is an incredibly hard sport that takes years to master. Skaters work year-round to accomplish all the jumps, spins and footwork you see performed by awesome athletes. Many of them start figure skating as early as three years old.

The Pinkskate brand was built for amazing athletes just like you and we want to give your sport the representation it deserves. Represent your sport in style with original graphics on quality made t-shirts, leggings, hats and so much more. We encourage you to keep working hard and never give up on your dreams.

Happy Holidays from Pinkskate

Most of us have all seen t- shirts and other paraphernalia that boldly proclaim sayings like “Home Is Where The Rink Is” or something cute like one of our tees “Chilling At My Home Rink”. The reason why figure skaters and hockey players make this type of statement is because their primary ice arena truly is their home.   For example, the rink becomes your home when you start figure skating at the young age of 3 years old and you’ve been there ever since. For some, that is well into their teens and adulthood.

The rink also becomes a skater’s home when they take their first glide on to the ice in a brand-new pair of hockey skates. After tons of hockey lessons and lots of coaching, they may eventually join their house league or their local high school hockey team because they’ve worked super hard to make the cut.

While growing up in their perspective home rinks, many kids participate in spectacular events. These include productions such as the annual Ice Show, hockey tournaments, figure skating test sessions for Moves In The Field and figure skating competitions.  Moves In The Field and figure skating competitions will test the skaters ability and proper execution of good form and technique so the skater can advance to the next level.  By this time the skater has made a huge investment in their sport through classes, coaching and private lessons.  Most importantly, so many memories have been created in the place they refer to as their “Home Rink”.

The point of explaining all of this is to simply acknowledge the mental and emotional investment that skaters, coaches and their families make in the place they call their Home Rink. The question I want to ask you is what do you do when your home ice rink closes? How do you handle finding a new ice arena and what is that adjustment like for you? These are concerns that my family and I had to address when our home rink closed recently. It affected so many people including an entire community of Figure Skaters, Hockey Leagues, Figure Skating Clubs and so much more.

Although this is not a joyous topic it is a very real circumstance for many. The purpose of this post is to give you a safe and healthy outlet to express what you may have endured if you’ve also experienced the heartache of having your rink close. Most importantly, I want to encourage you to keep going and keep building your skater up. I also want to remind you that sometimes big hardships can be little blessings in disguise. The things that don’t break us will definitely make us stronger.

I encourage you to leave a comment or share this post with a friend. Until next time, keep skating and stay strong.

Terri

Hello Friends of Pinkskate,

We hope everyone has been having a great Summer thus far and don’t worry because you still have a few more weeks of Summer left, before you go BACK TO SCHOOL….

Although, it feels like this Summer has flown by, that’s okay because we have some fun and exciting new things happening for the Pinkskate brand.  If you haven’t already, check out our NEW WEBSITE at https://pinkskate.com/ where you’ll find an improved look and feel to our online store for a better shopping experience.

The migration of switching from one shopping platform to another can be “Brutal” but we survived it! We sincerely apologize for any hiccups that you may have had during your shopping experience while we made our online transition.

We are continuously adding new styles of figure skating t-shirts for guys and gals so take a look, shop around and be sure to sign up for our News Letter. When you do, you’ll automatically receive a nice coupon for 10% off your next purchase and go back to school in style! = )

Most importantly, we want to give a HUGE shout out to our new friends from the upcoming production, Ice The Movie. Check out their trailer at https://youtu.be/rC5WFDQuwsQ and keep an eye out for some fun and exciting collaboration activities coming soon!