Why Rollerblading DIED...

Head to squarespace.com/jimmythegiant to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code JIMMYTHEGIANT
👉VISION MERCHANDISE(GLOBAL SHIPPING): www.jimmythegiant.co.uk/

I always thought it would be cool if there were blades you could pop off and on your shoes, for whenever you had to go in a store.

I’ll never forget my disappointment as a kid when I asked for rollerblades and got a pair of roller skates instead.

When I see a really insane roller skate or skate board stunt I’m just amazed how they survived long enough practicing that trick to actually do it.

As a skateboarder who goes to a lot of skateparks I can say that at least now in 2023 no skaters hate rollerbladers being at the park. rollerbladers are always so nice and cool!

Growing up during that period I always felt like rollerblading was a lot more fun as a casual thing, while skateboarding always seemed more like a 'sport'. Especially when snowboarding started to become popular, and they kind of share how to 'feel'.

I have a pretty good theory about why it died. Towards the end of the 90s and beginning of 2000s, skating rinks closed up. Unlike other similar sports like Skateboarding and Snowboarding, most kids got their exposure to rollerblading at a skating rink. These used to be a popular place for younger GenX and older Millennials to hang out when they were in middle school and early high school. Young kids would go there, play arcade games, do some skating, and see some older kids using rollerblades.

When those skating rinks closed up and were torn down, there was no more new blood for rollerblading. Think about it this way, how many kids do you all see in regular roller skates these days? Not many there either.

Man watching this video makes me want to get back into it too lol. The 90's were the time to be alive!

It always boils down to what gets promoted and sponsored. In the 90's everything in "alternative" sports was blowing up. Freestyle skiing was gaining traction and with that snowboarding got popular and before you knew it, X-games was huge, Red-bull was a household name - and neither of them really promoted in-line skating. I think a big part of it also had to do with video games and the fact that Tony Hawk pro skater was epic.

As someone who just bought a pair of rollerblades last week, I think everyone else's sentiment about "people are just doing what they like" fits me pretty good. Along with nostalgia

I honestly think that roller blading looks more cooler, extreme & difficult than skating

I was fully into aggressive inline as a teenager. This brought me back! I don't think any sport has risen and fallen as suddenly.

As someone whose cognisant childhood was from 2006-2016, firmly after the decline of Rollerblading, I never ever understood the mainstream obsession with Skate Boarding. I did both and always found blading to be infinitely better, skateboards were just these large unwieldy hunks of wood that seldom went very fast and were very hard to master quickly, whereas blades were superbly maneuverable and very very accessible as well as pound for pound cheaper by miles.

When sports "die" they often just become a lot more core, the passionate riders stay and the trend-followers leave. Lots of respect for the riders still doing it

I got into skateboarding after Tony Hawk. At first, inline skating looked lame, but it grew on me. I liked the idea that the skates were attached to you, like they were an extension of your body, and you had more freedom of movement. But I never got good at skateboarding or inline skating. Now I'm in my late 30's, overweight and with chronic back pain. I really wish I would have taken inline skating more seriously.

Flow Skate and Bill Stoppard got me into skating. They ain't about doing the gnarliest tricks, they are about cruising the cityscapes through the trickiest routes without breaking the flow and it looks magical. It's my third year on skates and I love it. Doesn't matter to me that it's not 'in'.

Watching this makes me want to buy some rollerblades again.

For me it was about being able to skate in the summer. Ice skating is one of the best things on earth, and finding a nice, smooth bit of road or walkway without pebbles anywhere was heaven on rollerblades.

It was probably the activity that put me closest to avoidable death as well... but that is another story.

man this video hit me with so much nostalgia growing up in that era skating and playing hockey with my brother. Watching airborne too many times and those 2 japanese guys in the xgames. Too bad I grew up in south africa where we didnt have much outlet for this kind of stuff. Being a teen in the 90s...

It’s not actually dead it’s still used in niche areas. But it did decline due to being inconvenient. Had to bring regular shoes with you, a lot of them required inner boots, most had a hard shell so it was awkward to pack in a backpack. Not to mention they were expensive for good set. Bikes and skateboards were so much more affordable and convenient.

"rollerbladers were seen as kids that would get in the way"

Scooter kids: "hold my juicebox"