50/50 - Balance Frames - Black

  • Nils Jansons

 

Tech Specs:

  • 58mm max wheel size

  • 95mm split between 2 and 3

  • 8mm axle diameter

  • 256g weight per frame, no hardware

Size table

SizeSize SSize L
Shell Size38-4243-47

50/50

https://5050frames.com/

Founded back in 1994 in California, Fifty/50 brand was established by Jess Dyrenforth and Ted Simpson. One of the oldest rollerblading company on the market, it broke the trends by making the products aimed exclusively to aggressive oriented customers. Fifty/50 was created to fulfil the growing needs of freshly emerged sport and quickly became manufacturer of specialized parts for inline skates.

The company started it all with the production of first after market grindplates. Made of characteristic mix of aluminium and plastic (hence the name Fifty/50), the grindpplates noticeably facilitated any grinding experience. It was the first, big success of the brand, followed by wide offer of signature products of well known skaters at that time. Next, the company came up with the idea of designing the after market frames to catch up with constantly growing demand.

Premiere, one piece Fifty/50 frames were made with CNC method and were quickly adopted by aggressive skating community. As the UFS had been not invented yet, the different mounting standards were quite problematic. Fifty/50 products came included with dedicated adapters for every type of skate boot. Yet, the cost of the machined frames was too high, and the materials weren't ideal, so Fifty/50 decided to switch to moulded frames. To make assembling a bit easier the idea of adapters was still here, but this time they were made of UHMW. The whole part was called 'Juice System' and it was another milestone in the company's history. This great solution became very popular among most of the professionals. The brand had earned the respect and trust of the customers and boldly entered the upcoming new decade of 2000.

Once the UFS mounting system became a standard, more and more frame manufacturers started to appear on the market. The brand tried to stay afloat for some time, yet growing competition unfortunately pushed it back. Occasionally, we could find small drops of products here and there, yet the brand almost disappeared for next few years. Around 2017 though, one of the original member of Fifty/50 crew Lawrence Ingraham decided to bring the idea back. Luckily the comeback was warmly accepted by the community and since then the company has been a solid provider of after market inline skating goods.

Nowadays Fifty/50 focuses mainly on frame production but also offers wide selection of inline skating wheels, backpacks and useful accessories. Professional skaters such as Stefan Brandow, Chris Farmer, Jon Fromm and Sacha Lopez have been constantly striving for the company's good image.

Fifty/50 offer includes products like classic and proven Balance frames, as well as modern solutions like Prime frames. A unique idea of a flat frame with aluminium core and replaceable plastic sidewall is getting more and more attention nowadays, making Fifty/50 a respected part of our industry.