One strange day, in 2002 or so, my friend Nick and I were sitting at a bus stop in Springfield, VA about to board a greyhound to Nashville, Tennessee en route to Plano, Texas for The Hoedown. We both sat smoking, silently contemplating the long trip ahead. A random stranger approached asking for a cigarette. I handed him a Camel from my pack. As he lit the cigarette he casually asked if I was wearing a Senate sweatshirt. I replied that I was, and he responded “That’s crazy. I grew up next door to Arlo Eisenberg in Orange County.” His name was Shelby, named after the Ford Mustang, and he had just arrived here to wait for a bus transfer back to California from Virginia beach. He talked to us for a few minutes, claiming to have once dropped a young Roadhouse with one punch in the face, and seeing Arlo selling the first Senate wheels out of his backpack at the local skatepark. Senate grew from the early days of making grindplates in their garage and selling wheels out of backpacks to at one point bringing in $10 million a year in sales.
I guess we have to give Rollerblade respect. Without their stubbornness to create better products and lame marketing, the inspiration and necessity to start rollerblading’s earliest companies wouldn’t have happened. Senate started out of necessity and anger. Anger at the very product that they used. I mean, think about it, they were spitting lots of hatred toward Rollerblade, which is kind of weird to me because they used Rollerblades. Like, you don’t see a bike tire company say, “FUCK BIKES!”
aaahh this brings back memories.. They used to be a great company.
I MISS OLD SENATE!!!! BRING IT BACK!!! I MISS IT!!
Great article, takes me back to when I was young and in the thick of it. Senate really were something that could never be again.
What happened to Arlo anyway?
Dan, London
Great stuff, old school.
If you have old Senate wheels with the cool packaging let me know
phat_tiger12 at hotmail.com
GOLDEN MAN, FUCKIN GOLDEN.
BR-I love your column dude, each week it gets better and better…I was at Eisingers place in San Diego this weekend and he was showing me some of the old Senate Ads from DB and just said “wait til you see the lookback columb this week.” Definitely came through hard Ben, thanks for providing a good read.
Great Stuff! More content like this please. The scans were clutch in showing all the diversity of Senate’s output. Items I didn’t even know existed that predated my personal exposure into rollerblading. It’s really sad Senate disappeared. There should be a grassroots revival. DIY shirts. Skaters deciding for themselves to continue the legacy of angry youth. Great writing Ben.
everybody should pitch in a bit of money for kilgore to run a bootleg line of the superman doller shirts and maybe even some halos…
just for the record nobody named shelby ever dropped me w/ one punch
and i think senate did 14 million one year no?
Lol at Randy
I am the Nick that was at the bus station when Shelby came up and started talking to us..Just for the record he might of said it was a 2-piece, I distinctly remember him making a upper-cutting motion with his left hand..followed by a cross right hand..
Great article. Just to be clear, and to back up Randy, I most certainly never grew up next to a “Shelby” in Huntington Beach. I grew up in Dallas, Texas. In fact, I have NEVER lived in Huntington. Whoever Shelby was, he was a liar.
Great read! I still have 2 pairs of old Senate Jeans, Ultrawides and Beam Cargo’s with the Green and White embroidered “S” at the top right pocket.
Those were the days man, Blading was so fresh and Unique.
Great article! Thanks for the memories!
Senate was the best……not sure why it died, after ruling the sport!
14 years later and I’m still looking for a halo logo hoody or tshirt!
Well that settles that then, Arlo congrats on continued success in the industry. I skated with you a few times in Boston when you were in town competing and I will never forget those days.
this is a root of the problem we have today. all I see written on every inch of these products in the word skate. WAKE UP PEOPLE! the word SKATE is currently being used by our wheeled allies, skateboarders. to truly define who we are as a culture, we need to find a word that is definitively rollerblading. blade is starting to be used quite frequently and it should be. I can think of no better word let people know what it is you do. we don’t skate, we don’t aggressive inline skate, we don’t rollerskate, we sure as hell don’t freestyle roll. we blade.
Arlo is the happy black jesus and always will be.
I have a halo shirt! ; ) XL on a teal-like color I believe. Senate was amazing.
great article
AAh brings back memories, i wish i had all the cool senate garb I used to, all that remains is one dirty ripped tight fitting halo tee
Excellent. nice to cruise down memory lane
Arlo, could you do a blog post about old Senate graphic design? The old logos, the Kool-Late shirts, Kill shirts, etc. There’s some great shit there man!
I Am Shelby. I a) Lived next door to Arlo when he was growing up. ( I think I lived in the hall way when we lived in Alversone right and he had his own room like a fancy bitch) and b) I can’t even count the times I dropped Roadhouse with one punch… May be 8 times, give or take a few.
Randy, $13.5 million in the 1996-1997 financial year.
BHS
argh what did i do with all my senate tee’s ? the hippy killer tee, and also the one with the knife on the front had to be the best, happy memories…remember feeling like a total badass back in day!
its so interesting to read all of this now, companies must have had to work so much harder at grassroots level, back in the day… now all it takes is a clever viral advert on youtube or whatever..
thanks for posting this up, great article, should deffo repro on the OG Senate Dollar tee’s…..
awesome
Great article! I still have my Senate laces tied up in my Razors. Reading this brought me back to some great times growing up. Still remember watching Randy skate to the Spice Girls on Day of the Rope. Classic. We rode down in Southwest Florida, sometimes with Ricky Martinez, Jesse Howard and on occasion Frankie Morales. They guys were unreal. Anyone know where I can find a Senate comb?? I havent lost the touch. Most dinner forks serve as a useable substitute, but nothing is like the original.
I still have a Senate money clip that I use every single day.
i was the NorCal rep in 98’and 99′ for Senate, 976, and Medium also Fiction clothing and Realm wheeles. The start of the death rattle for aggressive inline.
Such a great article! Thank you!!
Brings back so many great memories. Senate was and is still the best thing to ever happen to rollerblading.
Sweet article guys! Def took me back. I happen to find some old Senate wear the other day.
Arlo you should bring the brand back. Like Ryan said, you were the best thing to happen to Rollerblading. Dave Mirra even was down with Senate. I had the shirt ^_^. Miss the company so much when it left the whole rollerblading industry took a crap. But were just now getting back into the some what cult-mainstream but it will never be those glory days of old with AJ Jackson and Brian Smith hosting shows on ESPN. “Those days are gone” Bump bump bump bump. TEAR.
I have the 976 checkbook, and I still ride the steel Senate Wrenches.
While I enjoyed the trip down memory lane, does no one find it odd that Marvel Comics was apparently the company that ordered the cease and desist on the Super S logo being as Superman is a DC Comics character and Marvel has no rights to it’s representation aside from a few times in history when the companies did crossovers for their characters in non-canonical work?
AWESOME read. I have literally been on this site for two straight days. Senate was the best. Anyone know where we can get some of their old gear (besides ebay or amazon)?
Yesterday the car my parents bought me in high school turned 20 years old. It has the $ symbol sticker on the bumper that has been there almost as long. My parents have the car now and everyone looks for that sticker to know it’s our car. I would love to have enough of them to put on every car I ever own. Great article; brought back some memories.
What a blast from the past. Some of the best days of my life were spent grinding everything in sight with a senate hoodie on bashing my ass all over the concrete. :]
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