4 minute read
Urban wildlife
ROLLING WITH THE PUNCHES
The owner of Good Foot Skates, a bona fide skating celebrity, made a fresh start in Dallas
Story by CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB Photography by SHELBY TAUBER
In an a world where the most photogenic activities such as base jumping from hot air balloons or nibbling pink macarons proliferate the culture, roller skating, with its just-so blend of beauty, nostalgia and peril, is in.
For Mo Sanders — a Seattle transplant and roller-skate celebrity who quietly opened a shop in Oak Cliff during a pandemic — it was never out.
“You hear a lot of people saying skating is coming back. For us who’ve been skating, we’re thinking, ‘no, you are coming back. We’ve been here,’” he says. “For us, it’s just what we’ve always done.”
At 51, Sanders has dedicated his life to skating, risen to celebrity status and faced a fall from favor among many of his peers.
About three years ago he picked himself up and moved to Dallas to open Good Foot Skates.
In its cozy suite across from the Bishop Arts Theatre Center, Good Foot’s minimalistic merchandising, disco-era fonts and sunny hues indicate its owner’s awareness that his preferred sport’s current popularity is largely related to aesthetics and
ROLLING WITH THE PUNCHES
Instagram. TikTok, combined with COVID-19 — which made sidewalks and trails some of the safest spaces for exercise and play — contributed to roller skating’s recent resurgence, he says.
ROLLER SKATING ROOTS
Big grayscale prints of Black roller skaters in the 1970s decorate the walls and hint at Sanders’ deeply rooted relationship with the pastime.
In opening the only full-service roller-skate shop in Dallas, Sanders has helped to reconnect the community with a beloved hobby whose ties to Black culture are undeniable, writes Amara Amaryah, a blogger at the web magazine Travel Noire.
“The art of roller skating serves as a reminder of radical Black joy,” Amaryah writes.
Sanders learned from his father, Greg “Cowboy” Sanders, a horse-riding and roping buckaroo from Muskogee, Oklahoma, who was known for cruising Tacoma, Washington streets (where he raised Sanders) on eight wheels in his Stetson and Wranglers. Cowboy introduced his son to the roller rink, and young Mo was hooked.
“It was social in the beginning. It was where you would go and see your friends,” he says.
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“I honestly don’t know when — maybe it was in my teenage years — I knew it was something I wanted to do all the time, that I liked doing this a lot.”
FAME AND CONTROVERSY
Sanders rode the blading wave of the 1990s — “X Games, speed skating, stunts and a TV show called RollerJam in which Sanders appeared regularly. He took up derby, “just a way to spend more time skating,” he says, and earned his own nickname, Quadzilla. Quadzilla’s acrobatic moves, mind-blowing footwork and stunts such as jumping 14 people won over fans. Documentarians and filmmakers took notice.
In the 2007 Disney musical Enchanted, during an epic number filmed in Central Park, Sanders and a group of guys breakdancing on wheels momentarily steal the spotlight from stars Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey.
He appears in at least three documentaries (Derby Baby, This Is How We Roll and Wheels Will Land).
A fixture in the derby world, Sanders became a sought-after coach. Many come to the sport with athleticism but not skating specific experience, he says.
“They know how to go fast and hit people,” he says.
So he shared his knowledge, ran skills camps all over the world, developed his own line of skates and played for the U.S. roller derby team in the first two men’s World Cups.
But as Sanders was preparing to play his third World Cup tournament,
a member of a women’s team, emboldened by the #metoo movement, wrote a blog post, since deleted, accusing Sanders of inappropriate conduct. It cost him everything, he says.
He resigned from the team and lost a pending contract with the skate brand Chaya.
The incident in question happened 16 years ago in New Zealand, Sanders says. The woman said that while the team was soaking in a hot tub post 2/2 1,566 SF/BP 2-Car Carport Starting at $569,000 Haciendas single-story, new construction homes in West Dallas are created to connect to nature, bridging the gap between the indoors and outdoors. From the open living spaces and low-maintenance native landscaping to the contemporary appliances and 12-foot-high vaulted ceilings, Haciendas are the gateway to living beautifully and balanced. DallasHaciendas.com
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