Adapt’s 2020 lineup - Rivale, Brutale, Superleggere, GTO, GT
Adapt Brand really is the Super Car manufacturing equivalent of a skate company. If you’ve never seen an Adapt skate before, they are handcrafted one by one in a small facility in The Netherlands. Founded nearly a decade ago by Peter Wijnant and Olga Bouwhuis, Adapt’s skate philosophy since day one has been to deliver the highest quality skate available. Starting from the very first aggressive skate sample right on through to today, they’ve released what can only be defined as the most ambitious lineup of all time. Aggressive, Freeskating, Frames, Wheels, Clothing, and more. Adapt is the absolute pinnacle of perfection.
For 2020, they’ve stripped back the entire lineup and wiped the slate clean. For the last several years, they’ve produced 2 different aggressive skates, the Vegan and the Stealth. The Vegan was hand produced using fully synthetic leathers, glues, and other products to have a fully animal friendly skate. The Stealth was the full nubuck leather, full carbon aggressive skate that came in a few different pro models and versions over the years. Both of these skates featured Adapt’s top secret formulated Symetrics Brand Soul Plate and Frame System. Later versions featuring Adapt’s own in house wheels and hand made hardware pieces. Heat moldable, adjustable, reversible, and taking a step in a direction no company ever treaded before, fully customizable. You could take the Stealth and build the skate yourself in any available color, stitching, lacing, it was a truly one of a kind skate made just for you.
Adapt Rivale
Adapt Brutale and Symetrics Aluminum 60/65 Frames
Those amazing skates have been retired, and in their place rises the newest and most technical aggressive skates Adapt has ever offered, the Rivale and the Brutale. The Rivale features an all new composite shell that focuses on comfort and flexibility. Moving from a traditional plastic shelled skate to a full carbon setup is jarring. The Rivale was built as a gateway to bridge that gap and offer something in a place Adapt had never treaded in the past. It also features a full Italian Vegan Leather skin and the same lines as its older brother, the Brutale.
The Brutale is the culmination of the last 10 years of testing skate after skate, revising each version, and offering the best there was on the market. The successor to the Stealth, this skate features an all new Nubuck Leather skin and lines, new carbon composite shell, Canadian waxed laces, heat moldable tongue, and the brand new Symetrics Aluminum 60/65 Flat frame.
Symetrics Aluminum 60/65 Frames
Often hailed as the greatest flat frame, this year they wanted to improve that even farther. Adapt’s Sem Croft has been competing in a number of park contests throughout the year, and he needed a frame that could respond even better than a traditional plastic frame could offer, but grind as easy and provide the ability to rock 65mm wheels, 8 down. Pieter set to work, crafting this all new Aluminum chassis. It features the same 60/65mm wheel configuration Adapt team and skaters have come to love, with a new Aluminum core, Symetrics replaceable top secret plastic side walls, and Symetrics replaceable plastic h-block. Gives you all the rigidity you need, while giving you the beloved slide you can only get from that Symetrics plastic.
Replaceable H-Block
Symetrics Aluminum Core
Replaceable Sliders
Besides just the aggressive offering, Adapt also offered the Adapt Hyperskate Zero. A truly one of a kind hyperskate (freeskate) featuring the same quality and design you expect from the company that brought you the Vegan and Stealth skates. With 2020, the Zero is out, and has been replaced with the GT and GTO skates. The GT features a similar shell to the Rivale and same skin, but also bakes in some added carbon twill to increase the rigidity without losing all the flex you get from the Rivale. The GTO features the same Nubuck leather skin as the Brutale and an improved fit over the Hyperskate offerings in the past. The GTO features Adapt’s Quattromount system that allows 165mm, 195mm, and Adapts Quattro frame mounting system on one single shell. Just like the GTO cars from the past, this skate was built to raise the bar on what was possible. No limits. No compromises.
Adapt GT Hyperskate
Adapt GTO Hyperskate
And lastly, Pieter dropped the most ambitious skate ever created. There have been skates that have come and gone over the years. There have been technologies, new formulas, new plastics, new carbon, but there has never been a true masterpiece. Pieter took everything he’d learned over his working life, unsatisfied without taking this as far as he possibly could. He mustered up all his willpower, his drive, and his passion and crafted the most beautiful creation skating has ever seen. He brought us the Superleggera.
The Adapt Superleggera
I don’t know that the words I can put here today to truly do justice to the work that Pieter has done with this skate. The Superleggera is the crown jewel in Adapt’s collection. Featuring a 100% had crafted Carbon shell, built by hand for each individual skaters foot. The process to even get one of these skates involves Pieter and you interviewing if you are one of the elite chosen few who might be able to enjoy one of these masterpieces. I will simply leave you with a link to Adapt’s page describing the process, the passion, and the technicality it takes to produce this one single skate.
Adapt is Inline Skating’s Hyper Car. There is nothing else that exists in our industry that comes close to the craftsmanship and passion that Pieter and Olga have put into Adapt. From Aggressive to Freeskating, from wheels to clothing, Adapt truly is the bar that everyone reaches for. As we push onwards into 2020, it’s time to cast aside the old tropes that we’ve come so accustom to. Let’s follow companies like Adapt who are breaking new ground, trying to touch the impossible, and investing their heart and soul into inline skating. If you’ve ever been on the fence about trying some Adapt Skates or Symetrics Frames, this is the time to do it. There has never been a better offering from any other inline company, and there has never been any other inline company quite like Adapt.