Roller blades are a type of roller skates that are used for inline skating. These skates are unique because they have four or five wheels in one a line instead of a four wheel skate with two pairs of wheels next to each other. Inline skates can either have a front or back stopper as well.
The name “roller blades” comes from the company Rollerblade, which is owned by Nordica. They were not the inventors of inline skates, but Rollerblade was the first company in North America to produce inline skates for commercial use so the company’s name and inline skates became synonymous with one another.
There are many different types of inline skates, differentiating on wheel sizes and what sport they are used for. Different sports include hockey, speed skating, and even distance skating. Jason Lewis became the first man to cross the United States on roller blades in 1996 and Kacie Fischer became the first woman to do so in 2012.
Wheel Sizes and Purposes
44–59 mm for aggressive skating
47–80 mm for roller hockey skating
68–72 mm for artistic inline skating
72–80 mm for freestyle slalom skating and downhill skating
72–90 mm for general recreational skating
84–110 mm for speed skating
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