One year of Rideau Rollers!
This weekend marks the one year anniversary of Rideau Rollers opening in Ottawa’s Chinatown!
Opening a retail store in 2023 was a big risk. We’re still dealing with high rents, supply chain issues, and competition from giant online retailers. Our success this past year came from the tremendous grassroots support we’ve gotten from local skaters of all stripes - from the roller rink, outdoors, dancing, or roller derby. Thank you for all your support!
I want to call out a few accomplishments from the past year, and our goals for our second year.
Living Wage Employer
We’re proud to be part of the Ontario Living Wage Network. Occasional and full-time staff are paid a living wage, and we also offer fully-paid health insurance benefits for full-time employees. In the past year we’ve tried to grow responsibly and not over-extend, which means we have limited opening hours and inventory. As we grow our business we’re excited to hire more staff, and to expand our in-store hours and services.
Community Events
In the past year we’ve hosted:
- monthly skate maintenance workshops
- outdoor community trail skates
- park skating workshops with Steph Salazar
- a concert with Scary Bear Soundtrack and Matty Grace
We are continuing our trail skates and skate maintenance events this year, and we hope to grow our skate rental program. This opens the door to running more events for new skaters. We’re currently looking for venues, get in touch if you have any leads!
We’re also working with the Ottawa Skateboard Association on their Indoor Skatepark Push. A new, year-round indoor skating venue would benefit the entire wheel-sports facility.
Supporting Local Artists
We’ve been privileged to work with a ton of talented artists:
- CSlackDesign - Cas created our rollersnake logo, wordmark, and two of our terrific event posters
- Katie Sheedy - Katie designed our Ripley t-shirt, newspaper ads, online banners and new gift cards (coming soon!)
- Luck and Lavender - KJ created our “Keep on Rolling” shirt and poster designs
- Lovestruck Prints - Gen designed our new “See You Never” shirts and stickers
Supporting Canadian artists is important to us and we want to commission even more designs for shirts, posters, stickers, and more.
Roller Derby Sponsorships
We’re proud to sponsor:
Roller derby is such a terrific, inclusive sport, and we’re committed to supporting derby across Ontario in the coming year. Congratulations to Tri-City in particular for making it to the WFTDA North American North-East Playoffs this year!
Thank You
Special thanks to the Somerset West Community Health Centre for the terrific work they do in our community.
Thanks to our pals at Ten Toes Coffee & Laundry, Little Jo Berry’s, Ottawa Quad Sessions, Ottawa Roller Derby and Skate & Play for all their support.