For more than three decades Jean-Marie Leduc has been marking the evolution of skating one skate at a time.

At 78, Leduc has one of the most extensive collection of skates in the world.

“I’m now up to 353,” he said. “It took me 35 years to get that number. At one point, I said I’ve got 100 and I’m stopping. But then, all of a sudden, I’d see another pair.”

The basement of his Ottawa home is temporarily filled with skates, some laid out on tables, other neatly organized in boxes. Luduc normally keeps the skates in a bank safe, but has taken them out of storage for a few weeks while he starts writing a book.

“By seeing the evolution of the skate, whether it’s figure, hockey, we can see the sport improving because the skate itself does improve,” he said.

Leduc started collecting skates in the early 1980s after his son started speed skating with a club in Ottawa. His son, a national champion by age 12, would later quit the sport, but his father continued on as President of the Ottawa Pacers Speed Skating Club, and as a speed skating announcer. 

Many of the skates displayed in his basement, and in a photograph booked created by his son-in-law, were picked up at antique shops. Leduc said one of his first stops on a trip was to find the nearest antique shop.

It was at one of those stops where Leduc found one of his most prized possessions: a pair of bison bone skates that are about 15,000 years old.

“I was flabbergasted. I just couldn’t say anything,” he said.

That precious pair of skates was purchased for just $24, a figure Leduc describes as a steal. He said the antique dealer didn’t realize the bones had likely been used as skates.

“A year after, I met her again and I told her what those bones were and she said that had I known this, you would have paid more than $24,” he said.

Although he said his collection is quite comprehensive, he said he is always on the lookout for a unique pair of skates.

Leduc does not know how much his skates are worth. He hopes that one day the full collection will find a permanent home in a Canadian museum.