Our wheels have been turning for nearly 250 years. Wood, ivory, metal, tire, rubber or urethane... Wheels have been made of all kinds of materials. Technological innovations gave a fresh boost to skating in the 90's. The use of plastic materials in 1979 was a small revolution. Overview of the innovations that marked the history of our dear skate wheels...
on 08/11/19 - Read 46351 TimesRead more
Roces was born in Montebelluna, not far from Venice (Italy): from ski boots, over ice skates to inline skates. Review of a 65 year long history...
on 11/11/17 - Read 20325 TimesRead more
The Hypno brand pioneered in the late 90s and early 2000s with their stiff shoes and removable frames. A flashback...
on 30/10/17 - Read 23517 TimesRead more
While visiting the facilities of the next Roller Games in Nanjing, we had the opportunity of visiting the FIRS World Roller Museum, which opened for the Speed Skating World Championships in September 2016...
on 06/06/17 - Read 7574 TimesRead more
OLS publishes an overview of the history of skating, from the creation of the first inline skates to traditional skates through ‘cycle-skates’. Let’s pay tribute to one of the few skate historians, Sam Nieswizski, the author of 'Rollermania' (1991), that remains the key reference in the history of skating through the ages…
on 25/08/15 - Read 271477 TimesRead more
There are more and more dual density wheels on the market, for speed skating, long distance, freeskate, roller derby, hockey and even aggressive skating. What is the use of this technology? Answers...
on 18/01/15 - Read 13899 TimesRead more
The following article is constantly evolving. The market of speed skating wheels is one of the rare markets to be in perpetual motion. In less than 20 years, the wheel diameter has grown from 76 mm to 110 mm and it seems that the race is not over...
on 09/10/13 - Read 56135 TimesRead more
After our first part dedicated to the genesis of outdoors and long distance skating, let's turn the spotlight onto more recent history, onto a renewal period for outdoors skating, from 1980 'til today. Here we go for a little time warp...
on 24/03/13 - Read 16785 TimesRead more
Many people think that long distance and tour skating only developped with the boom of inline skating in the middle of the 90's. They forget to take into account our predecessors, strapped onto wooden or metal wheels. A bit of history...
on 09/12/10 - Read 18300 TimesRead more
A trip in Paris (France) bring us to the shop Hawaii Surf. Eric Gros, the owner, allowed us to visit his miracle cave. In the abyss of the cellar, behind the most recent models, hide some unknown and rare pieces, skates which crossed through the ages, absurd inventions, outmoded design. Travel through the time...
on 09/11/07 - Read 31071 TimesRead more
Years passing, we could have believed that the reputation of the roller would have evolved a lot. Nevertheless, in mind of numerous persons, this practice evokes more a leisure than a real sport. Some consider it as a totally childish pastime. Others are even surprised when they learn the existence of speed-skating race. Roller-skating : childish pastime or real sport?
on 19/03/07 - Read 33891 TimesRead more