I Cruised LA with the Badass Moxi Roller Skating Girl Gang

November 12, 2018 Off By Nicole Clark

They’re impossible to miss, rolling in like a rainbow cavalcade. Their skates glide like an extension of the body, carving shapes and patterns into the tarmac. Passersby gawk. Their presence is encompassing, demanding even. They swerve with incomprehensible grace, in ways that don’t look possible on what is essentially a set of four wheels strapped to feet. It all feels like being in one of those quintessentially “California” looking music videos.

The Moxi Skate Girls are the tight knit community that has grown out of Moxi Skates, a roller skate company based in Long Beach. The company was founded in 2008 by Michelle Steilen—known from her roller derby days as as Estro Jen—and sells retro-style outdoor roller skates through the legacy manufacturer Riedell Shoes Inc. They’re incredibly popular, selling 10,000 pairs in 2018 alone. Their brightly colored skates are currently sold at Urban Outfitters, Bando, Dolls Kill, and roughly 200 roller rinks and skate shops worldwide.

Though Steilen grew up roller skating, her dedication to the sport began in earnest when she moved to Los Angeles and began skating with the LA Derby Dolls. But she yearned to make skating more accessible and figured that selling high quality, lifestyle oriented skates designed to perform recreationally—rather than the drab tan and black, rentable indoor models—was the right place to start. “I wanted anyone to be able to skate,” Steilen says, pivoting backwards onto her toe stops in order to face me. “And I wanted to build a roller skating community.”