About Powerslide

The Move from „Roll Knoll“ to Powerslide A Time Travel back to the Roots of Inline Skating in Germany

The first competition-like roller skates of Matthias Knoll, the founder of Powerslide, were made of simple soccer shoes which were screwed on a chassis. The grip of the quad wheels at this time only was influenced by the used wood. Wheels out of birch wood were known to have the most grip.

Within the last 15 years a lot has happened. Roller-skating turned into inline skating. Wood wheels were replaced by PU wheels. Skaters changed from 2 x2 wheels to 4 or even 5 wheels in-line. Conventional sports shoes were replaced by high tech boots.

In 1991 Matthias Knoll was the first athlete in Germany who changed from quad skates to inline skates and used his technical advantage against his competitors. This was the start of a great career in the sport and Matthias collected many titles and trophies through his skating.

Matthias Knoll financed his own sport career by selling equipment during the competitions to the other athletes through his mobile shop. Under the name “Roll Knoll” he sold primarily skates, frames, wheels, bearings, textiles or other accessories that the athletes needed at the competitions.

In 1994 Matthias Knoll finished his exams at the University of Bayreuth in sport management and had to make a very difficult decision: Should he travel to the World Championships in France to compete against all his international friends or should he join the ISPO sporting good show in Munich in order to start his business career. He gave Munich the priority and from here the Powerslide story begins.

Together with Stefan Göhl and his sister Birgit, Matthias Knoll was looking for a little office and warehouse to run the business. In the first step Powerslide imported many different brands from all over the world and distributed them in the german speaking territories like Germany, Switzerland and Austria. With the years Powerslide managed to develop and promote his own brands and became a manufacturer besides the distribution. This strategic decision was important to Powerslide to expand the business worldwide. It was also an important step for Powerslide to get away from the dependence of other brands, other suppliers, onto the independence. Taking the destiny into their own hands and being responsible for their destiny. It was a step that was important for the development of Powerslide. It has become a established company.

10 years of Powerslide - 10 years full of innovations You will hardly find any other sporting goods branch that is more creative in terms of products. From the very first minute of its foundation, Powerslide was one of the companies who set trends or picked up trends very fast. Examples are:

· Introduction of the module system for aggressive skates (USD)
· Composite speed skates
· Skeleton Concept (for composite and carbon speed skates)
· introduction of the first adjustable speedskate for kids
· pure magnesium frames
· 5x 90mm frames for speedskating
· speed Brake
· UBS Brake
· new materials at aggressive frames
· protection gear with gel or air padding
· Black Rain bearings
· 100% Rustproof bearings
· Nordic off road skates
· launching Deshi as first boot only company in aggressive skating
· launching USD as first brand offering “create your own” custom boots in aggressive skating
· launching Sifika, the first shoe brand for rollerbladers
· Torsion Bar system for speedskates
· Clima control system for speedskates
· custom set up (XXX)
· The list could be continued.


The product development at Powerslide covers the very first scratch of an idea up to the finished consumer product. Besides the product development all other activities like the creation of ads or catalogues, the preparation of trade shows or all other marketing activities are all managed by Powerslide itself.

10 years of Powerslide - 10 years of support for the sport Matthias Knoll was in the happy situation to be able to make out of his beloved sport his profession. Not many people have this possibility. As a competitive athlete he knew how athletes are dependent on the support by sponsors. For Powerslide it was always natural to support the sports therefore. Both individual athletes and teams have been supported and will be supported wether they are coming from aggressive skating, freeskating, hockey or speedskating. Powerslide is a member of the “speedskating supporting group” in Germany, has helped some skate magazines to get started and commits itself at most different events and associations. With an adequate price performance relationship of the products, Powerslide tries to build a wide and healthy base to grow the sport, which is the foundation for the top performance level.

Currently Powerslide is supporting the following projects/athletes and teams:
· German National Speedskating Team
· Member of the „Support Group Speedskating“
· Powerslide Racing Team Germany
· Powerslide World Team Speed
· Timmermann - Powerslide World Team from Holland
· Alessi pro - Powerslide World Team (woman) from Italy
· Skate In Magazin
· Roller Magazin
· Crazy Roller Magazin
· Be Mag
· USD Team
· Kizer Team
· Undercover Team
· etc.


Greatest Success of Matthias Knoll in his skating career:

· 1986 World rekord 20km (on quads) 31:14:26
· Holder of 5 German Rekords
· 13x German Champion junior
· 7x German Champion adult
· 1x Silver medal European Championships
· 8th place World Championships (marathon distance)