The History of Roller Skating
Roller skating is a popular competitive and recreational sport where participants wear shoes fitted with small wheels to move on roads and rinks.
Within roller skating, there are many sports you can try including roller hockey, speed skating, fitness, and dance. Those who want a thrill can also use roller skates to perform tricks and stunts down a skate park.
But what is the history of roller skating? The first known roller skate was made in the 1760s but it was not until the 19th and 20th Centuries that the roller skating concept was born and became popular.
Nowadays, the market for roller skates has boomed, with customers able to select from different designs and styles from brands such as Moxi, VNLA, Roller Derby, or Riedell.
If you have wide or flat feet, you can still go roller skating! You just need to make sure to choose a pair of skates from this list of recommended wide roller skates and you are all set. Roller skating is for everyone.
In this article, we explore how the simple concept of a shoe with wheels has transformed over time into a multi-dimensional activity and a multi-million-dollar industry.
Roller Skate Development
Image – Pexels
The history of roller skating has to start with the history of roller skating itself.
The roller skate is widely credited to have been invented by Belgian, Joseph Merlin in the 1760s. Early models were based on an ice skate and were made with the inline arrangement, where the wheels are arranged in a straight line beneath the skate boot.
The first patented roller skate was made by M. Petibled in Paris in 1819. Petibled’s design followed the tradition of an inline wheel arrangement with three metal or wooden wheels. The added design feature was connecting the wheels to a block of wood which was also connected to the boot.
Although Petibled’s design was an improvement on previous models, it didn’t achieve widespread popularity. The roll of the skate was rough while turning and stopping were very challenging.
The roller skate that caught more public attention due to its practical design was the model designed by James Plimpton in Medford, Massachusetts in 1863. Plimpton is credited with the first skate design with two parallel wheel pairs, with one located at the front and the other at the skate rear.
Plimpton’s skates attached the pairs of wheels to spring-based carriages, now referred to as trucks. This design is known as the first ‘rocking skate’, as it allowed skaters to shift on the skates to easily perform turns and spins. In modern-day parlance, this skate design is known as quad skates.
The rocking skate propelled roller skating into the mainstream, with the first major boom in recreational skating sweeping across Western Europe and the US at the start of the 20th Century. Famous skating rinks at Madison Square Garden and Chicago Coliseum drew many folks into the sport.
Improvements to the Quad Skate
Technological advances were swiftly made to Plimpton’s original design to improve performance. Ball bearings were introduced in the 1850s as part of wheel construction and allow for a smoother ride.
The large rubber toe stops now commonly found on quad skates were first introduced in the 1950s. Although the braking concept could also be found on some roller skates in the 1850s.
In the 1960s, performance was enhanced significantly with the introduction of lightweight plastic wheels. The polyurethane material made the wheels more durable, have better grip, and improve roll speed. Plastic wheels were a game changer and created the path for modern roller skating.
Creation of Rollerblade
Another roller skating boom occurred in the 1980s, largely due to the founding of Rollerblade Inc by brothers Scott and Brennan Olson. Rollerblade Inc created a range of inline skates with four wheels that stretched the full length of the skate boot. This design improved skater maneuverability and radically increased the speed potential.
Rollerblade Inc also created lightweight plastics and lighter boot construction materials to improve the comfort and feel of roller skates, allowing skates to feel more like a regular shoes.
Growth of Roller Sports
Roller sports first started when the quad skate was introduced in the 1860s. The first game of roller hockey allegedly took place in London in 1878, while speed roller skating events became throughout the 1890s into the 20th Century. This included large-scale speed skating events for men, women, and relays on the open road or around a track.
Figure skating and dance competitions using roller skates became popular in the early 1900s, with associations developed to set the rules to adjudicate competitions.
The International Federation of Roller Sports was founded in 1924 and became the chief organizer for international speed and artistic roller sports.
Roller Derby
A roller sport that caught mainstream public attention was roller derby, which has succeeded on an elite level. The sport was founded in 1935 in Chicago, where skating teams would circle a layered rink to collectively complete 57,000 laps.
Nowadays, Roller Derby is a contact sport where two teams of five men and five women compete against each other, as one skater per team attempts to pass as many competitors as possible, with the opposing team attempting to block or slow them down.
The sport is a great spectacle, with the high-speed skating combined with aggression and theatricality making it highly compelling.
The sport suffered a collapse in the 1970s but made a revival at the beginning of the 21st Century.
Final words
The history of roller skating is intrinsically linked to the history of roller skate.
Since the creation of the first roller skate in the 1760s, inventors have sought to improve the design, materials, and performance capability of shoes on wheels. Perhaps the most significant advancement was in the 1980s with the creation of improved inline skates, which are credited with dramatically increasing performance capability.
The result is that roller skating continues to be a popular recreational activity with many sporting options available such as roller hockey, roller derby, and speed skating. Many of these sports are great spectator sports with elite-level leagues and competitions.
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