Roller Girl Gang Leeds: Meet the founder of the roller skating business which has scooped a Good Retail Award

Now the founder of award-winning Leeds business Roller Girl Gang, she quickly realised this notion was “ridiculous” - and is on a mission to promote the “life-changing” benefits of the sport for children and adults alike.

Melissa, known as Mel, told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “There is no such thing as an age where you’re not able to do something. There is just a limiting belief that we may have.

“My mission is to help people to smash those limiting beliefs. From the moment I put roller skates on as an adult, having been curious about it and tried a roller disco here and there, I thought - ‘wow, this is amazing’. I was wobbly, I fell over, I couldn’t do it.

“But at the end of the session, when my legs were like jelly, I left with such a light feeling and I felt like I was glowing, because I’d done something I didn’t think that I could do.

“That spilled over into my non-skating life, which was incredible. It’s an activity with an inanimate object which is actually life-changing. It taught me resilience, self-patience and self-compassion in a way that I never expected.”

The former primary school teacher founded Roller Girl Gang as a passion project in 2015, looking to build a community of adult roller skaters and push for Leeds to get its first permanent roller rink.

Around the same time as becoming a single parent in 2017, Mel got her coaching qualification and launched roller skating classes, while juggling work as a supply teacher.

And when the pandemic hit and Mel was left unemployed, it was a catalyst for the growth of Roller Girl Gang. Her online store began to flourish, attracting customers from all over the world, and she opened her first shop in Leeds Corn Exchange in 2020.

Mel, 44, said: “My goal at the beginning, which has remained the same, was for Leeds to have its own roller rink. Leisure spaces are so important for connection.

“The pandemic really accelerated the interest in roller skating. Leeds has got a number of community groups who all offer roller skating in their own little locality and I’d love to see a permanent space for all of them. There are so many more people we could reach and change lives for.”

Roller Girl Gang recently won the Bricks ‘n’ Clicks category at the Good Retail Awards 2023 for seamlessly combining the online skate shop with the bricks-and-mortar Corn Exchange hub. Mel had a “special moment” during the award ceremony in Birmingham, when one of the judges on the panel approached her and praised her business.

“It was such a vote of confidence,” Mel said. “It’s a wonderful thing to have supportive friends, and supportive customers who have become friends over time, who are telling you the most lovely things about your business.

“But it’s something completely different to hear from business leaders within the industry who are incredibly well reputed - who have said your tiny business with its five part-time members of staff is something special.”

“We’re looking forward to rolling into the future,” Mel added. “And one day realising our permanent skate space.”