Rollerblades Were The Greatest Form Of Transportation In The 90s, And Here's Proof
Admit it, in the 90s, there was nothing cooler than owning a pair of rollerblades. Everyone had to have them. Every kid had them at the top of their Christmas list, and every adult was rushing out to the store to pick up a pair.
They came in pretty rad colors, had these intense buckles, and when you wore them you felt like you could move faster than anyone.
People wearing inline skates would rocket past you on the sidewalk, making anyone who didn't have them super jealous because they were stuck walking like chumps.
It started with athletes, turning the old roller rink skates into something that moved a lot faster than they had ever before. But over time, everyone started to realize how fun it was to cruise around and slowly it became one of the biggest fads of the 90s.
Rollerblading isn't the cool activity that it used to be though. Sure, there are still some people who do it, but it's not like people like to advertise that fact.
Back in the 90s, it was a part of your identity. It was how you identified yourself. If there were dating apps back then, you'd probably see "passionate about rollerblading" on every profile, the way you see "I love hiking" on them now.
But back then, we just had to show off our love of rollerblades by wearing them around town in our fluorescent-colored shorts with lime green knee and elbow pads protecting us from the falls caused by our wicked stunts.
Did you ever go rollerblading? If you did, chances are you owned one of these iconic pairs.
The little kid versions that fit over your shoes.
The iconic skates every young kid needed in their house. I feel like far too often we would try to wear them without shoes, thinking it would work out okay, but we were very wrong.
The more colors on them, the better.
If the wheels are one color, then the straps, laces, tongue, ankle guard, and details all need to be a very different color. There is no such thing as too much color.
A "simple" look.
If you wanted something a little classier, then you could opt for a simple neon green on black option, but where's the fun in that?
It's very important that they have names like "Lightning" so you know they go really fast.
I can feel the pavement vibrating through my knees just looking at them.
While it's more important that you can actually stay upright while wearing them, style is obviously pretty relevant too.
Does anyone else remember how annoying it was to buckle these up? I know it was supposed to be easier with those snap down levers, but personally, it always felt impossible to get them tight enough.
There were a lot of color choices, as long as the colors you wanted were some kind of grey or black base with a lot of colors thrown on top.
I don't know why you'd want anything else, these are obviously very good choices in my opinion.
How many of you owned rollerblades? When was the last time you went for a cruise?
The 90s was really full of crazy fads. Who else remembers Devil Sticks? How about the swing music revival? Or literally any of the fashions we thought were cool... We truly did survive a lot...
Source - Vice / Refinery 29