My kid got some of these for Christmas. I’d assumed the wheel could be retracted into the shoe, but it’s a big wheel. You have to remove the wheel entirely, and it leaves a fairly big hole. There’s a plate you can put over the hole if you want it to be a regular shoe.
They’re getting banned from schools all over the place.
I thought a few years ago I saw some roller skate sneakers that had 4 small wheels that could be retracted into the sole of the shoe. Those seem like they would be better, as long as you were on a very smooth surface.
Hell, I remember seeing a pair of those used to make a getaway in an episode of Charlie’s Angels, so the whole idea has got to date back to at least the mid-70’s.
Funny thing about Heelys – every one of my peers expresses the same additude about them: pure hatred. “They’re so stupid! Don’t kids know they’re gonna get hurt on them? Don’t they yadda yadda yadda…” My take: Every one of my peers is jealous they weren’t around when they were thirteen.
We were at the mall recently, getting The Littlest Briston’s photos taken. We had to wait outside the photo studio for about a half hour, and the entire time there was a kid running up the hall, and then skating. Then he’d run back down the hall, and skate. Back and forth. Back and forth. For a half hour. One of the other parents near me turned to her husband and said loudly “God, no wonder kids are so lazy these days…wheels on their sneakers…how lazy can you be??”
Yes, she was calling the kid lazy, when the kid had just spent a half hour running back and forth, burning more calories than this woman had worked off in a month. Meanwhile, her kid sat on a chair the whole time with a GameBoy. :rolleyes:
Oh, the museum where I work now (just started Wednesday) has ramps to get up to the various floors, and the kids are all using them to wheel down the ramps. It’s just an accident waiting to happen.
Those wheeled sneakers are great. I’d like some in adult size too.
Also, does anybody know where to get the sneakers with the blinky LEDs in them? My wife NEEDs a pair of those in the worst way. She wears about the same size as a 10 year-old boy, but we never see lights on sneakers much above 5 year-old size. Ideas anyone?
I found a couple of links, one and two , for a brand called Heelys, which makes adult sizes for men & women, in case any of you are feeling like trying it out.
I too hate those things. Some little kid was alternately running and skating around a bookstore in Copley Place the day before yesterday, which reminded me of my low opinion of parents who buy those things for their kids and let them wear them while out doing errands. I’m sure that a lot of kids like PunditLisa’s nephew get hurt wearing them; you can explain to a kid that rolling here or there is dangerous, but it’s foolish to think that a small child is going to both understand and remember at all times.
Hal Briston, you see teens wearing them? With the exception of one adult, every other person I’ve seen with them on has been under the age of ten.
I don’t mind them. They do look like fun. I have seen children, teens, and adults using them in my store. While I don’t think a home imporvement store is the safest place to be wheeling around, I can also feel sympathy for the kids whose parents force them to sit and behave for hours on end while they (the parents) choose stuff for a massive remodel. Many kids will wheel past the carpet and rug displays in my department. It’s more safe than anywhere else in the store (padding if they hit a wall covered in rugs) and it tends to be the least populated area of the store.
My only question is this:
Aren’t these kids going to develop strange calf muscles from standing like that all the time?
They look like fun but I want to drop-kick the parents who allow their children to skate around in banks and malls.
A week or so ago I was in a train station and some little bastard was skating around the crowds of people. He almost bashed into me and about 30 other people. I giggled everytime he wiped out. Once was a knee slammed REALLY hard on a marble floor.
Any time I see kids using them in stores they seem to have stopping and starting well under control and they don’t seem to be going all that fast. If my kid wants them for his birthday next week, I’m getting them for him.
My friends who teach have told me that it is nearly impossible to enforce a ban on Heelys so our district just prohibits them from wheeling around school.
The first time that I saw these shoes was about 4 years ago in high school. One of my friends had Heelys in our senior year and our Bio teacher loved them. She would always ask my friend to skate around the classroom and she used to send her on errands to the office as well.
If they were retractable I would have bought several pairs already. All I think about when I see the shoes is one of my campers who had to play ping pong in his socks because his shoes had a permanent wheel attached.
They do come in adult sizes. A girl I used to work with, in her 30’s, has a pair. I can roller skate without issue; however, I tried her Wheelys on and almost busted my ass.
