Before You Buy Inline Skates...

What's up skate fam, welcome to DSkates. Today's episode is directed to the newer skater, those of you who want to get into inline skating but don't know where to start. We'll cover everything from different boots, to what wheel sizes might be best for you, and more. The hobby of inline skating is one that has many challenges when it comes to first picking it up. And like many products, the first thing that beginners want to do is check Amazon for the best listings and grab the item with the highest amount of 5 star reviews. While that works out fine for some products, I can assure you it's certainly a bad idea to approach buying a pair of inline skates like this. First, let's get one thing out of the way. Amazon reviews are absolutely not sufficient advice to take when considering if a pair of skates is worth buying. All the people who have purchased these skates are beginners, and beginners are the least qualified to tell you whether a skate is good or not. I know it might sound a little harsh, but as someone who has decades of skating experience and loads of exposure to skating products across multiple industries, I can confidently say that beginners consistently give bad advice to other skaters and don't know how to determine the good products from the bad ones. Recently, I saw a video released by professional skater Riccardo Lino where he purchased the most sold pair of inline skates on Amazon, the Roller Derby VTech 500, which retails on Amazon for less than $50. In his review, he spent a very brief period with the skates doing some very basic forward skating, testing the heel brake, and then finally running through a couple of standard stopping techniques before taking the liners out of the boots and pulling everything apart to show what exactly is going on inside the skate. I'll leave a link in the description if you want to take a look at that yourself, but the abridged version is that the brake is plastic instead of rubber or urethane, which means it'll be virtually useless and will disappear in no time. The liner, which should be a well-constructed single piece with ample padding, pulls apart into multiple pieces and is extremely thin. And finally, the wheels basically started to disintegrate under very minimal friction when being used in T-stops and powerslides, which are standard stopping techniques. And to top it off, the reviews are stellar. Not only are they stellar, but there are even some that essentially make excuses for the reviews that complain about the poor quality of the wheels. I can't tell you how many times I've seen beginners review products like this and even make the claim that the skate is suitable for beginners and advanced skaters alike. As if someone who is new to a hobby is in any way qualified to say what is suitable to someone who's highly advanced in it. This isn't the first time I've seen cheap skates like this fail on such a level. The Impala Roller Skate Company first launched their quad skate marketing campaign a few short years prior to the 2020 pandemic. And when the lockdown hit, quad roller and inline skates were flying off the shelves. With major brands unprepared for the certain influx in sales and unable to keep up with demand, the Impala Skate Company, making a very affordable skate, skyrocketed in popularity. At that time, I remember seeing a ridiculous amount of Reddit and Facebook discussions about the failures these skates suffered, including one in particular where a beginner skater's boot quarter tore away from the sole, resulting in a harsh fall that broke both of her arms. And it didn't take long before Impala was making inline skates as well. At $100 a pair with the pleasing aesthetic designs, these things sold like crazy. And while I have to acknowledge they did a significantly better job at making their inline skates suffer far fewer failures, even landing a spot in the Barbie movie, they are still not a skate that I would recommend to anyone. As a lifelong skater, my advice to anyone looking to get into inline skating is, your experience in the beginning will likely decide whether you continue to skate in the long term. Telling yourself that you want to get the cheaper skates just to try it out is not the best way to try inline skating, because it will not facilitate an experience that is as enjoyable as it could be. And if you don't enjoy it, why would you keep doing it? Which is why I've made a list of inline skates you can look to in 2025 to get into inline skating and have a more enjoyable experience. First, you should know, there are a few categories of skates that you can get. In this video, I'm focused mainly on urban and fitness skates, which you can use in a parking lot, on trails or sidewalks, and as your skills advance, you can skate through the city in them. I'm not going to really touch on aggressive skates used in skate parks, because these are really only for that purpose, and you're simply not going to have a good time trying to use these in an urban setting, especially as a beginner. We'll also cover wheels and frames, as all of these skates come with various options, and that can get a little overwhelming. In the fitness category, I think K2 and Rollerblade brands are probably the most well known. They offer a pretty wide variety of comfortable and capable skates. Rollerblade's most notable lines here are the Zetrablade and the Macroblade. The Zetrablade you can get for around $130, while the Macroblade runs closer to $180. I think these are both great choices. Their main differences are that the Zetra has a plastic frame, while the Macro has an aluminum frame and a more supportive cuff, so it's worth the extra money if you're willing to spend it. An aluminum frame will always beat a plastic one in terms of performance and durability, and these days companies use aircraft aluminum, so it's super light. If you're okay with the plastic frame and want to spend even less, you can get the K2 Kinetic for $99.95, and in the $180 range to compete with the Rollerblade Macroblade, K2 has a skate called the Fit 80 ALU, which also has an aluminum frame. If you're looking for something stylish and colorful, or maybe you had your eyes set on those Impala skates that I told you earlier that you shouldn't buy, I'd definitely recommend looking at the Rossi's 1992. Rossi's has been around for a long time and makes great skates. The 1992 is a much higher quality skate. Rossi's actually produced that skate for Rollerblade, and the shell of that skate was their design from the early 80s, so if you buy the 1992, you're actually getting the real thing. However, the issue I have with all these skates is that they do not have interchangeable frames. The beauty of urban skates is that they're some of the only skates on the market that are highly modular, allowing the user to switch between varying 3, 4, and 5 wheel setups. Having a modular system means that if you like your boot but want to try a different wheel size, you can do that without buying the whole skate all over again. It also means that if you find yourself having ankle trouble, such as pronating, you can adjust the position and alignment of the frame to compensate for that, something that the fixed frame system of standard fitness skates does not allow for. If you want this modularity but still prefer to stay with traditional fitness skates, Powerslide makes a few skates that fit the bill. The Powerslide Fusion is an option for the most entry level, while the Swell is a little better choice if you're willing to spend a few extra dollars. These skates come with Powerslide's frame system called Trinity Mount. This just means that the frames mount to the boots with three bolts. Any frame in the Trinity system can fit any boot in the system regardless of size. And while the frame system is proprietary to Powerslide, they have licensed other companies such as Endless Blading, who I personally think makes the best frames on the market, to make frames for Trinity. I think it's also important to note that Powerslide is known for being a little more on the narrow side in terms of fitting. So if you have trouble finding standard fitting skates that aren't too wide for you, Powerslide may be the way to go. If the fitness skate doesn't do it for you, I understand. While comfortable, the fitness skate boot is typically very soft and not so much on the supportive side. If you're looking for ankle support and a shell that can protect your feet, the way to go is a proper urban skate. This is a skate with a plastic shell that more commonly is a modular setup. Furthermore, all the skates I'll name from here on are in a modular mount system called 165. This means that the frames in the system have two mounting points that are 165 millimeters apart. There are other systems that use this distance naming scheme such as 150, 180, and 195, but 165 is the most universal, especially in urban skating. So I'm going to focus on skates in that 165 range. Again, Rollerblade just makes a great skate for the money. I think Rollerblade really provides the best value in terms of what you get for price, but there are many options from other great brands in this category. The beginner skate that's most affordable from Rollerblade is called the RB Cruiser. Then we have the Rollerblade Lightning, and if you want to spend even more and get a more advanced skate, the Twister models are great options. The Lightning is something I would personally use even being an advanced skater, so I think it's something to consider if you know you're going to want a good skate that doesn't break the bank and won't need to be replaced anytime soon. Also, I like that Rollerblade makes a version of each model for women with different fitment. Again, K2 also has options here. The K2 Surge is their entry-level skate at roughly $200, admittedly a bit higher than Rollerblade's entry RB model. Flying Eagle is a brand that's also been around for a while, and though I've never used their skates personally, I've always heard good things about them. They've got a few options that are in the $150 range, so maybe worth looking into if you just think that they look cool. And back to Powerslide, we want to be a little careful here with certain models. Their lower entry-level urban skates, the Zoom model, comes with a riveted frame setup, meaning the frames are fixed to the boots rather than a modular system like their Trinity mount I mentioned earlier, so I would stay away from the Zoom. For similar pricing, you can get any of the previously mentioned models, or if you want to look at modular Powerslide options, the Storm models are their $165 model. The next is the most popular in this urban category from Powerslide, and is made in their Trinity system, but like the Rollerblade Twister, these two models are priced a little higher, so if you're looking to stay in that beginner range of spending less than $200 on your skate, I would steer clear of Powerslide, because in terms of what you get from other brands, the Powerslide Zoom just can't compete with what others are offering in this price range. And the last brand on the list, we have FR Skates, which admittedly is closer to $200 for their entry-level skates, but for people with feet that are pretty wide, FR is definitely going to be the better option than most of these other brands. In my experience, FR skates have more room in the toe box than others. The base model that FR offers is the FRX, which comes in around $190. It's a well-made skate, but the issue I have with it is that the 45-degree strap near the ankle is a hand-pull velcro strap, and it can be tough to get leverage and tighten the skate, so I think spending the extra $30 to go one level up and get the FR3 will be the move. The FR3 has this ratchet 45-degree strap instead, which is going to be much better for getting your heel locked into the boot nice and snug. Also, with the FR3 model, you'll get a 7-hole mount system, so there's a lot of choice here in terms of frame positioning, and also you can venture out from the 165 mount into some of the other lesser-used distance measuring mounts, like the 150 and 195. And FR Skates just makes a quality skate in general. In the urban category, my personal picks are going to be the options from Rollerblade for those who have a more standard width foot, and FR Skates from those who have a wider foot. And finally, I want to talk about wheels and what is the best for beginners. In short, I personally recommend that beginners start with a standard 4-wheel setup. Typically, 4x80mm is going to be the most common, and if you have smaller feet, you might look for something in 4x76mm. Larger feet, you can look at 4x84mm or 4x90mm. And while I do see beginners on triskates, meaning a skate with 3 large wheels, I strongly disagree with recommending this sort of setup for someone who is new to inline skating. Beginners should take time to build the strength in their ankles, and learn to control their inside and outside edges before graduating to larger wheels. So, when looking at these skates, I think it's best for someone new to skating to stick to the more stable 4-wheel options. As far as sizing goes, it's widely known among inline skaters that the brands of the industry do not do the best job at sharing width information of their skates. Which is why at various points, I mention that some brands are generally narrow, or others are wide. But, that is a gross generalization, and not an exact model. To know if a skate fits you, correctly, you need to try it on first. If you don't have an inline skate shop near you, I highly recommend using an online shop that allows you to return your skates at no cost if they don't fit. In the US, inline warehouse is a good option for this, and if you can find any of these skates being sold on Amazon by major inline retailers, that can also work. But, what I don't recommend is going with whatever $50 skate is rated the highest. This strategy will almost always result in disappointment. If you must buy from Amazon, I'll leave a few Amazon affiliate links in the description that you can check out and order from there. And, I hope you found some value from this video. If you did, please give it a thumbs up so it can help more people. If you like inline skating content, and are looking to learn more about skates in general, and get better at skating, I have plenty of video reviews and tutorials, so please consider subscribing to Deez Skates. Thanks for hearing what I have to say on this topic today, and I will see you the next time I lace up.