The Evolution of Inline Roller Skates

1900 - The Peck & Snyder Company patents an inline skate with two wheels in 1900.

1905 - John Jay Young of New York City creates and patents an adjustable length, clamp-on inline skate.

1910 - The Roller Hockey Skate Company designs a three-wheeled inline skate with a leather shoe.

1930s - The Best-Ever Built Skate Company manufactures an inline skate with three wheels positioned close to the ground.

1938 - Christian Siffert, of Deerfield, Ill., patents a design for an inexpensive inline skate, which could not only be used on sidewalks but also convert to sharp-edged wheels, on ice. The Jet Skate, the ad claims, is the "only skate with brakes to stop quick." This claim was probably false, since at that time several brakes had been invented and patented for roller skates. The Jet Skate brake looked a lot like today's heel brakes and were designed to be used the same way. Brakes have always been a design problem for skate manufacturers.

1960 - The Chicago Skate Company tries to market an inline skate similar to today's equipment, but it was shaky, uncomfortable and the brakes were not dependable.

1966 - The Chicago Roller Skate Company manufactures their inline skate with a boot. The inline skate which influenced Scott Olson was a 1966 Chicago Roller Skate Company skate. These skates featured four wheels in a line with the front and back wheel extending beyond the boot like an ice skate blade, and they played an important part in the development of inline skating.

1979 - Scott and Brennan Olson, brothers and hockey players from Minneapolis, Minnesota, find the pair of Chicago inline roller skates and begin redesigning them using modern materials. They add polyurethane wheels, attach the frames to ice hockey boots, and add a rubber toe-brake to the new design. The modifications were intended for ice hockey training when ice is not available. After over 200 years of trial and error, inline skating is ready to emerge.

1980 - Scott and Brennan Olson estabish Rollerblade, Inc. after selling inline skates with no brake at all to the hockey players who were the early adopters.The Olson brothers introduced a new skating phenomenon that has never been equaled in roller sports history. The proper term to use when describing skating is inline roller skating or inline skating, but Rollerblade made such an impact that the name has become synonymous with the sport in spite of the fact that Rollerblade is an inline skate manufacturer.

The National Museum of Roller Skating
is your About.com guide's resource for many
of the historical facts in this article.

You can contact the museum by writing to:

The National Museum of Roller Skating
PO Box 6579
Lincoln, NE 68506

Or email:
Roller Skating Museum Curator

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