Early film footage of roller skaters from around 1909 shows women in long skirts and men in suits circling a rink, some gracefully and some not. It looks quaint now. At the time, this was a craze, and the skates on their feet were the product of decades of invention.
How the skate got its wheels
People had experimented with wheeled skates since the 1700s, but early designs were hard to steer. The breakthrough came in 1863, when American inventor James Plimpton patented a four-wheel skate with a pivoting mechanism that let skaters turn by leaning. Plimpton opened rinks and promoted skating as a respectable social activity, and by the 1880s rinks were spreading across the U.S. and Europe. Another boom came in the early 1900s, the era of the film, when roller rinks were among the most popular places for young people to meet.
The century since
Roller skating has reinvented itself every few decades:
- Roller derby began as an endurance race in Chicago in 1935, promoted by Leo Seltzer, and later turned into a contact sport. A grassroots, mostly women’s revival in the 2000s made it popular again.
- Disco roller rinks of the 1970s added music, lights and polyurethane wheels, which made skating smoother and faster.
- Inline skates took off in the 1980s and ’90s, led by Rollerblade.
- Heelys, sneakers with a wheel in the heel, became a playground sensation in the 2000s.
In 2020, during pandemic lockdowns, quad roller skates had another moment, as videos of skaters on social media sent sales soaring and some brands sold out.
What stays the same
Watch the 1909 footage alongside a modern rink video and the technology is different, but the faces are not: concentration, wobbling, laughter and the occasional fall. Wheels on feet have been fun for more than 150 years.
Sources: Roller skating, Wikipedia; James Leonard Plimpton, Wikipedia; Roller derby, Wikipedia.
