Inline skates
Inline skates are boots with [|wheels] arranged in a single line from front to back, allowing one to move in an ice skate-like fashion. Inline skates are technically a type of roller skate, but most people associate the term roller skates with quad skates, another type of roller skate with a two-by-two wheel arrangement similar to a car. Quad skates were popularized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Inline skates became prominent in the late 1980s with the rise of Rollerblade, Inc., and peaked in the late 1990s. The registered trademark Rollerblade has since become a generic trademark: "rollerblading" is now a verb for skating with inline skates, or "rollerblades."
In the 21st century, inline skates come in many varieties, suitable for different types of inline skating activities and sports such as recreational skating, urban skating, roller hockey, street hockey, speed skating, slalom skating, aggressive skating, vert skating, and artistic inline skating. Inline skaters can be found at traditional roller rinks, street hockey rinks, skateparks, and on urban streets. In cities around the world, skaters organize urban group skates. Paris Friday Night Fever Skate is renowned for its large crowd size, as well as its iconic +10 mile urban routes. Wednesday Night Skate NYC is its equivalent in New York City, also run by volunteers, albeit smaller in size.
History
The documented history of inline skates dates back to the early 18th century, when enterprising inventors sought to make boots roll on wheels to emulate the gliding of ice blades on dry land. Because these wheeled skates were modeled after ice blades, their wheels were arranged in a single line. Skates were simply assumed to have a single runner, whether it was a steel blade on an ice skate or a row of wheels on a wheeled skate.Wheeled skates
The first patented wheeled skate was filed in France in 1819 by Charles-Louis Petibled. From that point forward, more patents and documented designs continued to explore wheeled alternatives to ice skates. Around 1860, wheeled skates began to gain popularity, and new patents appeared under names such as "roller-skates" and "parlor skates". As inventions increased, roller skates began to diverge from the original single-line layout. Inventors experimented with two rows of wheels as a learning platform for beginner skaters. These double-row skates offered greater stability, but they were difficult to turn.Roller skates
In 1863, James Plimpton invented a roller skate with four wheels arranged in a two-by-two configuration, similar to a wagon, and added a clever mechanism for turning. It was the first double-row skate that allowed beginners to steer easily by simply leaning in the desired direction. Plimpton's invention sparked a rapid rise in roller skate popularity and spread across both sides of the Atlantic, creating a period of "rinkomania" during the 1860s and 1870s. His design also redefined the term "roller skate", which no longer referred to all wheeled skates but became synonymous with the "two-by-two" Plimpton style.After Plimpton
The development of precision ball bearings in the mid-19th century helped make bicycles more efficient and practical. By the 1880s, Plimpton-style roller skates similarly incorporated ball [|bearings] into their wheel assemblies, making skates roll more efficiently. At the same time, manufacturers began operating skating rinks as promotional ventures from the 1880s through the 1910s. All of these further fueled the Plimpton skate craze.Although Plimpton's roller skates took center stage, inventors and enterprises continued to introduce new roller skates with a single line of wheels between the 1870s and the 1910s. These models included features such as brakes, pneumatic tires, and foot stands placed below the center of the wheels.
Precursors
From the 1910s through the 1970s, many new variations of single-line wheeled skates were patented and manufactured. While still in the shadow of 2x2 roller skates, some models began to gain popularity among ice hockey players by the 1960s and 1970s, due to their better emulation of ice blades. In particular, off-season training skates used by USSR speed skaters inspired Gordon Ware of the Chicago Roller Skate Company to develop and patent a wheeled skate, which was sold through Montgomery Ward in 1965 under the name "Roller-Blade". In 1973, Ralph Backstrom promoted the Super Sport Skate, a joint venture with his friend Maury Silver, as an off-season training tool for hockey players. Both of these skate models became direct precursors to modern inline skates.In a related development, the ski boot manufacturer Lange introduced the first molded plastic ski boots with internal liners in the 1960s. In the 1970s, Lange entered the ice hockey market with similar [|plastic boots featuring hinged cuffs] and achieved some success. Meanwhile, skateboarding reached new heights during the 1970s, thanks to the introduction of [|polyurethane wheels] and their superior performance. The confluence of molded plastic boots with hinged cuffs, polyurethane wheels, Super Sport Skates, and the earlier Chicago Roller-Blade laid the foundation for the emergence of Rollerblade in the 1980s and its widespread appeal among the general public.
Modern inline skates
In 1979, Scott Olson, a hockey player from Minneapolis, discovered the Super Sport Skate. He began selling them to local hockey players as a licensed distributor and soon started modifying them. Olson, his brother Brennan, his family, and his friends replaced the stock boots with customers' old hockey boots and swapped out the original wheels for polyurethane ones. Through further tinkering, prototyping and road testing everywhere he could, Olson eventually arrived at a skate design with a plastic ski [|boot], an adjustable/expandable [|frame], polyurethane wheels and double ball bearings. This skate rolled faster, and remained more reliable on road surfaces. However, a patent search revealed that the Chicago Roller-Blade already covered many of these features. In 1981, Olson persuaded the Chicago Roller Skate Company to transfer the patent to him in exchange for a share of future profits.Thus began the modern history of inline skates, with Olson's company eventually becoming known as Rollerblade, Inc. by around 1988. The registered trademark "Rollerblade" became so well known that it entered common usage as a generic trademark. Around this time, the company began promoting the term "in-line skating" in an effort to prevent "rollerblading" from becoming a verb. The campaign proved effective, as media outlets, newspapers, and competitors adopted "in-line skating" as the preferred term by 1990. The phrase was soon shortened to "inline", the name by which these skates are known today.
Modern inline skates became practical for mass production and appealing as a recreational activity once key technologies came together. These included polyurethane wheels, ISO 608 standard ball bearings, and molded plastic boots. These skates incorporate double ball bearings with dual-purpose axles from Chomin Harry, single-piece frames from Christian Siffert, adjustable wheel rockering from Gordon Ware, single-unit boot/hockey frame with larger wheels from Maury Silver, plus additional innovations.
Design and function
Components
All modern inline skates share a common basic blueprint. A skate comprises a boot, worn on the foot. To the bottom of the boot is attached a frame, the most rigid part of the skate. The frame holds a number of wheels in place with wheel axles. In between a wheel and an axle are two bearings. Bearings allow a wheel to rotate freely around its axle. Finally, a rubber brake typically attaches to the frame of the right boot, on [|recreational skates].For many skaters, the frame is never removed or replaced. But wheels are consumables, as they wear down with use, and require periodic mounting rotations and even replacements. Inline skates usually come with a skate tool for wheel, bearing and frame maintenance. The tool will have a hex wrench or a Torx wrench for removing wheel axles from a frame, and wherever applicable, for removing bearings from a wheel, and for removing a frame from a boot.
Securing the foot
In the 1980s and 1990s, all inline skates had [|hard boots], borrowed from ski boot designs. A removable liner in a hard boot provides a snug yet comfortable fit between a skater's foot and the hard shell. Around 1996, K2 introduced [|soft boots] with an exoskeleton. These provide the most comfortable fit, at the expense of reduced rigidity. In the 2010s, hybrid boots with an endoskeleton were introduced to the high-end market. A hybrid boot has an integrated, non-removable liner. This is glued to a rigid endoskeleton shell integrated with the sole, providing direct power transfer from the foot to the wheels.All three types are able to secure a foot in them without slack, with proper closure systems. Soft boots are often laced, and hard shells are usually secured with buckles. Velcro straps are also common in all types of boots. Well-designed boots provide proper [|heel support] and [|ankle support] to a skater.