Fun On Four Wheels - Quad Skates

The first ever roller skates were created in 1735 by Belgian inventor John Joseph Merlin, although they were an archaic design far removed from what we know as quad skates today. Merlin famously showcased his new invention whilst playing a violin and crashed into a mirror in front of horrified onlookers and caused quite severe injury to himself. This was probably due to the fact that they had no brakes and were almost impossible to steer!

The style of roller skates, or quad skates that we know and love today were originally patented some years later in 1863, by James Leonard Plimpton, in New York City. These were a vast improvement on previous designs. 

During  the 1860’s and 1870’s this safer and more user-friendly design fueled a huge increase in popularity for roller skating, in a movement dubbed “rinkomania”, with skating rinks popping up all over America, Europe and eventually around the world. This continued right up into the 1930’s. 

The use of quad skates fell out of favor in the 1900’s until waitresses at many drive-in outlets began wheeling meals to customers using quad skates. This seemed to spark a resurgence in popularity of quad skates which hit its peak in the roller-disco era of the 70’s and 80’s. 

Eventually, roller skating evolved from just a pastime to a variety of competitive sports; speed skating, racing on skates, and inline figure skating, very similar to what can be seen in the Olympics on ice. In the mid 1990s roller hockey, played with a ball rather than a puck, became so popular that it even made an appearance in the Olympics in 1992. The National Sporting Goods Association statistics showed, from a 1999 study, that 2.5 million people played roller hockey. Roller skating was considered for the 2012 Summer Olympics but has never become an Olympic event. Other roller skating sports include jam skating and roller derby.

In the 90’s inline-skates came along, thus stealing a lot of the thunder and popularity of quad skates, however in recent years quad skates have once again made a startling comeback. 

There are several reasons behind this recent upwards trend in the world of quad skating but perhaps the biggest one of these is the COVID outbreak and subsequent lockdowns. With gyms, sports centers and football and rugby pitches closed for the foreseeable future, many people looked once again to the humble quad skate as a means of keeping fit. Like cycling, rollerblading and jogging, roller skating can be enjoyed as a group or just as much so by a solo individual, both as a means of staying in shape and as a mode of transportation. 

Roller skating saw a revival in the late 2010s and early 2020s, spurred on by a number of viral videos on the popular video sharing app TikTok. Many popular brands sold out to the point of back-order, with many people taking up the hobby during COVID-19 quarantines across the globe.

As a way of showing how popular quad skates have become, even as far afield as Venezuela, there is a tradition in the Capital city of Caracas. The roads of Caracas are closed on Christmas morning to allow citizens to roller-skate to church. 

So if you are looking to get involved with roller skating, either at a competitive level or just to skate for fitness and the sheer pleasure of it, look no further than www.skateattack. 

The UK’s premiere online skate shop stocks a huge range of products for all your skating needs and cannot be beaten on price. 

Either order online now or call 0208 886 79 79 for friendly, professional advice.