Roller skating feels like pure fun, but it has a long and surprisingly dramatic history — full of inventors, crazes, crashes and comebacks. Here’s how we got from a wooden wheeled boot in 18th-century Europe to the rinks, parks and boardwalks of today.
1700s: The first skates (and the first crash)
The person most often credited with the first roller skate is John Joseph Merlin, a Belgian-born inventor living in London in the mid-to-late 1700s. The popular story says he rolled into a fancy party wearing his wheeled boots while playing the violin — and, unable to steer or stop, crashed into a large mirror. Whether every detail is true or not, it captures an early problem skating would wrestle with for a century: how do you turn and stop?
Early 1800s: Inline before it was cool
Many early skates actually had their wheels in a line. In 1819, a Frenchman named Petitbled patented an inline skate, and other inventors in Europe followed with their own designs. They still didn’t turn well, and they were mostly a novelty — sometimes used on stage to imitate ice skating.
1863: James Plimpton changes everything
The modern quad skate was born in 1863 when American inventor James Leonard Plimpton patented a skate with two pairs of wheels mounted on pivoting, rubber-cushioned trucks. For the first time, a skater could turn simply by leaning. Plimpton promoted skating heavily, and in 1866 he opened what’s often called the first public roller rink in the U.S., in Newport, Rhode Island. (Read more in our story on Plimpton and the quad skate.)
1870s–1880s: Toe stops, bearings and the first rink boom
Skate design improved quickly. Toe stops appeared in the 1870s, and in 1884 Levant M. Richardson patented the use of steel ball bearings in skate wheels, which made skates roll far faster and smoother. Roller rinks spread across America and Europe, and skating became one of the most popular pastimes of the era.
1930s–1950s: Rinks, organ music and the birth of derby
By the 20th century, the roller rink had become a social center — a place for dates, birthday parties and Saturday nights. Many rinks had live organ music. In 1935, promoter Leo Seltzer staged the first Transcontinental Roller Derby in Chicago, an endurance race that evolved into the contact sport we know today. The Roller Skating Rink Operators Association formed in 1937 to set standards and promote the sport.
1970s: Urethane wheels and roller disco
Early skate wheels were made of wood, metal or clay composites — loud, slippery and rough on the body. In the early 1970s, polyurethane wheels arrived, giving skaters grip, a smooth ride and the ability to skate outdoors comfortably. Combine that with disco music, and you get the roller disco explosion of the late ’70s: packed rinks, mirror balls, Venice Beach boardwalk skaters and Hollywood movies built around skating.
1980s–1990s: The inline revolution
Around 1980, two hockey-playing brothers in Minnesota, Scott and Brennan Olson, adapted an old inline skate design with a hockey boot and a rubber heel brake for off-season training. Their company, Rollerblade, turned inline skating into a worldwide boom in the late ’80s and ’90s — fitness skating, roller hockey and aggressive skating at events like the X Games.
2000s: Rink closures and the derby revival
As real estate prices rose and entertainment options multiplied, many classic roller rinks across the country closed their doors. At the same time, women in Austin, Texas, kicked off a grassroots revival of roller derby in the early 2000s that spread to hundreds of leagues worldwide.
2020 and beyond: The comeback
When the world shut down in 2020, people went looking for safe, outdoor, joyful things to do — and found roller skates. Viral skating videos on social media sent quad sales soaring, and many brands sold out for months. A whole new generation discovered what rink kids always knew.
Why history matters
Every rink has its own chapter in this story. Places like Super Wheels weren’t just buildings — they were where South Florida kids learned to skate, made friends, had their first couple’s skate and grew up. That’s the history we’re here to protect.
Grew up skating at Super Wheels? The floor remembers — and so do we. Share your Super Wheels memories and photos so the next generation knows where South Florida learned to roll.