It's not you, there haven't been many Soaps listed indeed. Every year they become harder to find (excluding the Express now). I'd like to assume that we are experiencing an uncommon incosistency in listings, and that this won't go on for long.

But there was one pair listed a couple days ago. It was a pair of size 10 Imperial Squeaky Cleans, brand new for $30. Nobody saw them though because the first person to view the auction used the buy-it-now option. You can take a look by searching the completed listings for "soap shoes".

Squeaky Cleans were posted on eBay? I look on eBay everyday and there's nothing on. JEeeeeze lol

~JJ

How many times does this discussion need to be had before you'll understand HSL's point of view?

There is no logical business sense in developing a new removable-plate shoe (the old styles would not be consistent with HSL's aesthetics so this would likely be a brand new shoe) when current sales are so low. The new shoe would run at such a high cost that no retailers would stock it, firstly because Soap's aren't a popular product and secondly because the unit price would be much higher than that of fixed-plate Soaps. This was the exact reason why the Broadside flopped and the A-Sides were never released; based on current sales figures at the time, retailers couldn't justify stocking another shoe that was 50% more expensive

If every kid on Kurt's block wants a pair of Soaps, why haven't they gone to Steve's shop and bought a pair yet? If they're broke as well, fair play, but HSL aren't going to develop new products just because there are loads of people who want them. Take this for example:

HSL Salesrep: Good news! Loads of kids want Soaps!
HSL CEO: Great! But... why aren't they buying them?
Salesrep: Uhh... looks like they can't afford them
CEO: Okay. Well, we can't sell them any cheaper, our margins are small enough as it is
Salesrep: They really want the old-style shoes with removable plates
CEO: They'd be even more expensive due to development and production costs, so who's to say they'd buy those if they can't afford the current models?

Case closed. If you want to support Soap, you've got to go with the flow. There's no business sense behind your argument, and if you want HSL to 'take us seriously', you've got to understand their viewpoint on this and let this issue go because endless complaining will do no good whatsoever

Tell them to save up, and get Soapin'

There were size 8 Goa's on ebay this week while SolidGrind was down...it was in german so you wouldn't normally find it :P It started at 99 euro cents. And it ended for like...20 euro (22something dollars)

You misinterpreted what Mart said. Read his post again until you do understand it correctly.

For those of you who didn't bother to read Mart's last post, here's the abridged version.

HSL spends money on producing Soaps. If Soap shoes are unpopular and the shoes are sitting around being unsold then they are wasting money. So instead of continue to waste money, HSL will stop making Soaps since it is hurting the company's revenue or income.

werd to Mart's comment

It's true, the only way that we will progress is by selling Soaps through stores. eBay is nothing to HSL. There certainly are a lot of Soap shoes that look much better than the Express, but it's level of comfort is unbeatable when compared to other grindshoes. They will be satisfied with Expresses once they wear them.

Not yet anyway. Soaping can get back into style again. Maybe when there is a little more money to invest into soap, they could try to make another model.

And yes, I'm quite aware that ebay means nothing to HSL. However, I think that it should mean something. And I think that something is a decrease in their sales. And not just any sales, I believe it's the soap sales. Instead of ordering a pair of express (which then brings up the soap sales), they decide to order something off ebay with a replaceable grind plate. If anything, wouldn't that bring sales down? That money isn't going towards HSL. So MAYBE making another shoe would bring sales up. I'm only saying maybe, I'm not too farmiliar with business stuff (unless my brother tells me because he's the one farmiliar with it). Because then people wouldn't be getting the shoes off ebay, they would be getting them from the sonicandpals. That's what I thought would bring up sales. I could be very wrong, but that's just what I thought. Sorry Mart.

And Renny, yes, I do that all the time. The other person just wanted something different, so I tried helping him out with that. But ALWAYS, my first suggestion is the soap shop. :D

Yeah, only cuz once people get their hands on some they dont wanna give them away, and then they get tossed off, so, yeah.

Mart, can you elaborate on the replacable grind plates? I'm not too sure what you were saying.

Bingo; as I said in an earlier post, HSL wouldn't simply re-release an old model that features replaceable plates as their would be no design coherency. With sales figures as they stand, development on that kind of scale would be money down the drain

HSL wouldn't want to put out replaceble plate shoes anyways because they would rather make $60 instead of $10 every time your plates wear down.

Remanufacturing replaceable plates would mean that people would keep their old Artemis Soaps instead of buying new HSL Soaps when the plates wear through. If you're that concerned about plates then stop grinding curbs and other rough surfaces

You're one of a very small minority, then. Once grooves are worn in there is practically no difference between any plate; cemented plates are cheaper and Slo Bros have a headstart over BBKs when it comes to wearing in a groove, that's it

Its basically like. Why sell more shoes when only a few people buy it?

Im much more of a cemeted-plate person

How the hell are cemented plates cheaper? You have to buy a whole other pair of shoes when they wear down. With replaceable plates, you just buy another pair of plates. It makes more sense to me anyway, instead of buying another pair of shoes when your shoes wear down. To me, it sounds ridiculous.

Plus, as renny did with his shoes, you can take a knife (be careful), file, or another object and grind in a groove yourself. Expecially for those people who want a groove, but shoes only last 4-5 months :P

Exactly Trev; fixed plates are inherently cheaper to manufacture as they don't require all the additional hardware to be built into the shoe that facilitates removal and replacement of plates

Travis, companies don't care about the consumer. It's all about figures, revenue, and money. If there isn't enough revenue coming from the beloved consumers then there isn't anything for them is there?

I never said give anything away.

It's more like keeping the consumer barely alive/satisfied enough that they keep buying, and make sure the company spends the least amount of money.

Yeah, and they only would want you to buy Heelys which would probably be more expensive, cuz of the wheel and all.

Heelys - Not good.

I think the Reflex for Heelys is cool cuz it's more like a running shoe.

But I think that there should be just Soap shoes, and just Heelys with no grind plate.

If you think about it, HSL could make more money that way. There would be some kids that would ACTUALLY know what the grind plate does, and they want Soaps. There will also be some kids that want Heelys for the wheel.
If kids wanted a grind plate AND wheels, they'd buy BOTH products.

Oh yeah, it don't make no kinda sense to put a wheel with a plate, the wheel might get in a way, and that negates our chances of a shoe with a full sole plate.

And I saw that Heelys - not good. I just meant the company is kinda stupid, Heelys are cool and all, but just not Soaps, even if you CAN take the wheel out.

all i got to say is, soapshoes owns all shoes, heelys is just a shoe for little 8 year olds. And yet grown men tempt to use them ~.~

And it's comments like that which make our efforts futile.

dude...im nit dissing or ur comment but in my elementary school, and so many others since i knew a lot of kids from different schools, we ALL wanted soaps and i remember us being really good for our age, yeah kids cant jump as high, but that doesnt mean theyre just for teens and up
TRUE STORY:
i was in Target, and i saw this whole family of four heelying, heelying is for anyone that wants to roll and not grind, soaping is for people that want to grind and not roll, being good at either doesnt matter as long as ur having fun, and HSL is still giving soap a little life so u cant totally hate one em, but i myself dont like heelys as much as soaps, theyre fun, but soaps r just better. and when people see u soap they get excited more, just cuz soaping is so different from everything else

I can tell you, once Soaps start getting old they become ridiculously uncomfortable. A few weekends ago I was shooting a music video and we ended up going through the night until 10am the next day. I was wearing my Vectors for almost 24 hours solid, and by the time I got back home I wanted to chop my feet off

lol antho i love soaps

"lol antho i love soaps"

We all do.

Think before you click.

This is why it matters, Fastslider.

When you buy Soap shoes from eBay, it doesn't show anything truly meaningful to HSL.

When you buy Soap shoes from the SaP shop, Roller Warehouse, or gotswag, it shows up as a statistic to HSL because they are directly connected as dealers. Statistics help companies make decisions, often about whether or not they should discontinue a product.