“How many pairs of rental skates do I need?”
That’s it. That’s the question.
Every new rink operator asks it. And for decades, we’ve refined our answer — learning something new each time that made us rethink everything.
Here’s the thing: the “right” answer has changed three times since we started building rental fleets. Each time, we got closer to the truth.
Let us save you a $40,000 mistake.
Answer #1: “Match Your Capacity” (1980s–1990s)
When we started making skates specifically for rental use in the mid-1980s, our first answer was simple math. 200-person rink? Buy 200 pairs.
It made sense on paper. It was also dead wrong.
Operators would blow their entire skate budget on opening day, then discover:
- Not every session fills to capacity. Weekday mornings? Maybe 30 skaters.
- Size distribution matters more than total count. 200 pairs doesn’t help when you’re loaded up on men’s size 11 and short on men’s 6–8 on a Saturday afternoon.
- Skates wear out unevenly. The popular sizes need replacing 3x faster.
Rinks were sitting on hundreds of unused pairs in odd sizes while turning away families who couldn’t find skates that fit.
Answer #2: “145% of Capacity, One-Size-Fits-All” (90’s–2000s)
We got smarter. By the early 1990s, rinks were calling them “rental skates” and we figured out you need about 145% of your max ice capacity to cover every session — youth event Friday, adult open skate Saturday, family session Sunday. You always need more skates than bodies on ice.
Better. But still flawed.
The problem? We had the right total number but we weren’t tailoring it for each rink’s demographic. A family entertainment center in Texas doesn’t have the same size distribution as a hockey-heavy rink in Minnesota. A seasonal outdoor rink burns through skates differently than a year-round facility.
We were giving a universal allocation to a question that’s always local.
Answer #3: What We Tell Operators Today
Here’s our current answer, refined over the last decade with data from hundreds of rink openings:
The Formula
Today, every recommendation is fully customized. Nothing is the same — and we always ask you the important questions before we make a recommendation.
We still start with that 145% baseline (100 skaters on ice = ~145 pairs). But now we dig into your specific situation before we recommend a single size breakdown. Based on our experience and logged data across hundreds of rinks, we know every situation is different — and we know how to deal with all of them because we’ve been through it all.
For outdoor rinks, dimensions vary wildly — and that changes everything. We can recommend a starting point for total pairs needed before we even break down sizes. How? Because the dimensions of your skating area tell us how many people you should have on the ice at the same time, and we work from there. A 40x80 backyard rink and a 200x85 municipal rink aren’t even the same conversation.
The questions we ask before we recommend anything:
- What are your rink dimensions? (especially outdoor — no two are the same)
- What’s your max ice capacity?
- What’s your primary market? (families, hockey, tourism, corporate events?)
- Seasonal or year-round?
- Do you host school field trips or group events?
- What’s the age demographic of your area?
- Indoor or outdoor?
The Size Curve That Actually Works
This is the part nobody talks about. After tracking rental returns across dozens of facilities, here’s where the volume actually lands:
The sweet spot is men’s 6, 7, and 8. Why? Because they overlap with women’s 7, 8, and 9. That overlap creates the highest traffic volume in your rental counter — more people fitting into those sizes than any other range.
For youth, sizes 1, 2, 3, and 4 are your workhorses. Kids go through sizes fast, parents don’t bring skates, and every school field trip hammers this range.
| Size Range | Fleet % | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Youth (1–4) | 25–30% | School groups, family sessions, fastest turnover |
| Men’s 6–8 / Women’s 7–9 overlap | 30–35% | Highest demand — serves both men and women |
| Men’s 9–13 | 20–25% | Steady but not the peak you’d expect |
| Extremes (very small, 14+) | 5–10% | Keep a few, don’t overstock |
The #1 mistake: Operators assume they need to load up on large men’s sizes. They don’t. The men’s 6–8 range is where the real demand lives, because every pair does double duty serving the women’s overlap. Get that range right and you’ll stop hearing “we don’t have your size” at the rental counter.
The Restock Rhythm
- Month 1: Track which sizes run out first. Don’t guess — tally.
- Quarter 1: Reorder your top 5 depleted sizes. Usually youth 1–4 and the men’s 6–8 overlap range.
- Annually: Replace 15–20% of your fleet. Skates that see daily rental use have roughly a 3–5 season lifespan depending on maintenance.
Why Our Answer Keeps Changing (And Why That’s Good)
We’ve been family owned since 1959. That continuity is why we’ve been able to track this data across decades. We’re not a brand that showed up five years ago with a Kickstarter. We’ve outfitted hundreds of rinks, watched them succeed and struggle, and fed every lesson back into what we recommend.
67 years of getting it wrong is how you finally get it right.
The Quick-Start Cheat Sheet
Opening a rink? Here’s your move:
- Tell us your max ice capacity and your market (families? hockey? tourist area?)
- We’ll send you a recommended size breakdown — not a generic order form
- Start at 145% of max ice capacity with the right size curve
- Track your first 30 days of rental data religiously
- Restock smart, not big — small quarterly orders beat one massive annual buy
We’ve made the expensive mistakes so you don’t have to.
Let’s Get Your Fleet Right
Whether you’re opening a new rink or your current rental skates are held together with hope and duct tape — we’ve probably seen your exact situation before.
Browse our rental fleet options at americanathleticshoe.com or just email us. We’ll talk you through it, no strings attached. That’s what 67 years of doing this gets you — real answers, not a sales pitch.
American Athletic Shoe Co. — American owned since 1959. Family owned, never sold.