UPSIDEDOWN was born in July 29th, 1997. The first skate was the Damocles, which already had lots of interchangeable parts such as the cuffs, buckles, soulplates and frames. The ideology behind UPSIDEDOWN was to turn the industry upside down with new concepts, designs that would make it possible for skaters to use parts from lots of other companies to customize their own personal skate.

In 1998 UPSIDEDOWN was renamed to USD, Universal Skate Design, a stronger name to represent the worldwide influence of the company. The new name and image where the brainchild of Shane Coburn and Arlo Eisenberg, who both joined USD to help promote the skates and run the design and marketing side of the company. This led to an amazing team: Jon Julio, Josh Petty, Dustin Latimer, and Champion Baumstimler. Without a doubt, one of the best teams that has ever been formed within the Inline Skating industry. These and other skaters were welcomed to the "Terrordome", which was one of the first slogans and Tees from USD, designed by Shane and Arlo as a team.

Tomorrow’s vision todays reality . In 1998, the legendary USD Throne skate was released, taking skate customization to the next level. For the first time, skaters could use different frames, such as Senate, 50/50 and Kizer, while also having the option to choose soulplates in different shapes and materials (even Teflon).These revolutionary ideas with the addition of Kevin Gillan to the pro team led to a fast gain in popularity. At that time, USD was one of the only companies focusing purely on the freestyle aspect of Inline Skating. In 1999, Brian Shima joined the team which coincided with the release of the new skate, the USD Psirus. The Psirus skate became yet another milestone in aggressive inline skating boots, thanks to multiple improvements: A new liner, improved performance and a new frame exchange technology, making adaptor plates almost redundant.

USD Skates joined in the development of the UFS system, the universal frame mounting system that became the standard of aggressive skates until the present day. This resulted in the birth of KIZER, the frame brand from Powerslide, offering the first aftermarket UFS frames, the Kizer Stream frames. In the meantime, USD was heading forward with its customization technologies offering aftermarket cuffs, soulplates, buckles and liners in different materials and assorted colors.

In 2000 USD released Joe Navran’s video COUP de TAT featuring profiles for all the USD stars including Dustin Latimer, Jon Julio, Brian Shima and Josh Petty. Arguably the most famed skating video ever released setting a before and after in aggressive skating culture.

During the following years USD developed and released new models including the UFS Psirus, the UFS Throne and the Grycon and added new members to it’s pro team, some of them becoming true legends of skating history such as Rachard Johnson, Aaron Feinberg or Dominic Sagona.

It was in 2005 when USD released the Legacy, a softbot - hardboot hybrid fully designed by the pro team and the first ever fully customizable boot with adjustable soulplates, royale plates and cuff.

At this point the center of skating shifted from California spreading to every corner of the planet and USD made great efforts in the promotion and support of the sport bringing skating to new countries and supporting more skaters, competitions, videos, websites and magazines than any other brand. Skaters from all parts of the planet started to join the USD pro team like Daniel Prell (Germany), Eugene Leonoff (Russia), Mathias Silhan (France), Albert Hooi (Ireland) or Carlos Pianowski (Brazil).

In 2007 USD celebrated it’s 10 years anniversary with the eye catching USD Rachard Johnson red Throne. This started a new trend on skate designs with USD at the forefront of style releasing some true iconic models like Sagonas’s golden Thrones, the blue Sean Kelso Thrones with softtop, green Hooi skate or the yellow Killa bee Demetrios George. 

By the end of the 2000's first decade a new generation of skaters took the lead of USD, including Billy O’Neill, Demetrios George, Franky Morales, Richie Eisler, Jeff Dalnas, Nick Lomax and Montre Livingston.

The clear leader of aggressive skate technology. USD Skates continued from the past years of success as a leader of the pack and became even greater. In 2010, the revolutionary USD carbon II skates set a new standard in the inline market, being the first aggressive skate with a carbon fiber shell, built-in liner and an external cuff, proving that aggressive skates can be the same size as a sneaker and yet be supportive, durable and comfortable.

After boosting the most effective implementation of carbon technology in aggressive skating, USD decided to implement a composite shell into the same manufacturing process and make the same technology more affordable to the masses. This resulted in the USD Carbon Free skate, one of the most popular USD models ever.

Innovation never stops at USD Skates. The credo to provide the best possible skate options is as present as it always has been. In 2015, USD released the USD AEON skate, a revolutionary one piece hardboot skate, lower, lighter, more solid than any other skate ever built and specially optimized for bigger wheels. The Aeon skate has proved to be a game changer in the aggressive inline industry, shortening the gap between aggressive and freeskating, turning the skeptical into believers. The revolutionary concept and its huge popularity made the Aeon the new flagship for USD Skates.

2017 is the 20th anniversary of USD Skates and we are celebrating it big time. This year, we are relaunching the USD VII skate with a reworked soulplate, improving rigidity and stability. The USD VII is an affordable, comfortable and reliable hardboot skate, gaining popularity year after year. A great proof for this is world champion Roman Abrate choosing the VII skate as his first upcoming USD pro skate.

Targeted originally at beginners and entry level skaters, the USD Sway skate proves to be a much better skate than people thought at first sight. With a slim fitting shell and the high cuff, it provides a great balance between flex and support. Paired with the perfectly designed soulplate, Sway skates have become the skate of choice amongst both beginners and pro riders, including Roman Abrate and Montre Livingston. After mind blowing street parts and winning the 2016 Winterclash on Sway boots, Montre Livingston is receiving the first ever USD Sway pro boot this year with heat moldable MyFit liners and a leather soft-top.

We are bringing back the original USD Carbon 2 black skate, the highly-acclaimed model that started the carbon fiber trend. Besides a new colorway for the USD Carbon Free Team model there is also a completely new designed USD Carbon Free pro skate for Eugen Enin, who got voted “Skater of the year” for 2016 and hasn’t stopped progressing since.

Last but not least, we are releasing a limited-edition collection of USD AEON skates, resembling some of our most iconic designs as tribute to the most loyal skaters from the past two decades.

But there is more, this will be a year full of surprises. Be sure to follow all of USD’s social platforms to be up to date in the latest news. Very soon we will unveil the launch of two new skate models: The S. and the Q., so stay tuned.

USD Skates’ commitment to aggressive skating, constantly innovating with lighter, faster and enhanced performance skates and the help of its world class team of riders, has positioned USD as the Nº1 inline skating brand with wide recognition from the public as the industry leader.