Believe it or not, there is more to roller derby than a bunch of girls bashing each other around a track, although that certainly is a big part of it. Roller derby is actually a legit sport that was invented in the 1930’s as a modification on the already popular marathon speed races. Endurance and long distance skating were replaced with a point system, teams were introduced, and later on physical contact was allowed to a certain degree.
During the 70’s however, the sport had taken a turn towards the entertainment industry and was very often played in sold out stadiums and broadcast on television. Roller derby teams played out rehearsed and theatrical performances that riled up the crowd.
In the early 2000s, roller derby made a big come back and the modern roller derby we have today is a very tactical, full contact sport with the main focus on athleticism, teamwork, and agility. If you want to express yourself artistically, you can do that with roller derby clothing. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, first thing’s first – safety.
With the increasing popularity of the sport, there are many skate shops where you can find all the necessary roller derby gear and roller derby clothing as well.
First of all, you’ll need a good pair of skates, and they need to be soft, something like trainers, and shouldn’t be higher than the ankle for safety reasons. Some of the best derby skates brands are Bont, Riedell, and Antik. You will also need a helmet, but just about any skate helmet will do. During a roller derby, you will be falling a lot, so aggressive pads are an essential part of your gear. You will need knee pads, elbow pads, and wrist guards. And finally, you will need mouthguard which you can get from any sports shop and you are good to go.
Now back to the roller derby clothing. If you go to any derby match you will see that clothing is a huge part of the culture. You will often see combinations of something cute and girly with something that’s totally badass. There are all kinds of t-shirts, shorts, skirts, knee socks, with a huge range of designs, colours, prints, and so on. Of course, you need to find your own style that will match your personality, your bruises, and your skate name( you just have to adopt a skate name). Whether you are into punk, pinup, anime, you name it, you can find all that in skate shops and much more.
