Did you own a pair of these roller skates?

Published by Paula Bray on January 11, 2010 5 Comments

This photograph was taken during the opening of our new exhibition The 80s are back. One of our visitors was dressed up in eighties style including this great pair of roller skates. I remember having a pair that were similar but they had a few red stripes down the side as well as the red transparent wheels. So of course they were photographed for nostalgia purposes but also for the great item that they were. Did you own a pair? Do you have a story to share?

Photography by Paula Bray
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0

  • http://web-goddess.org/ Kris

    I own a pair of skates EXACTLY like those. I saw them in London in Camden Markets nine years ago, and they were so similar to ones I had as a kid that I just had to buy them. I lugged them all the way to Australia, and they’ve sat in my closet ever since.

  • Kim Gough

    My sister had a pair. Luckily for me, she had about the same sized foot and would let me borrow them. We had our own unofficial roller rick – an unfinished basement with a cement floor – and could often be found, each with one roller skate on, scooting around and squealing in delight. I never became a very good roller skater, but had a lot of fun.

  • http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/imagesrvices/ Paula Bray

    Kris
    Thanks for sharing this. If I saw a pair of the skates that I used to own I think I would have to buy them too. Not sure if they would actually get used though too.

  • http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/imagesrvices/ Paula Bray

    Thanks Kim
    I think most skaters dream would be an unfinished basement with a cement floor.

  • http://www.smartservicescrc.com.au Annette

    My first pair of roller skates had plastic wheels so when my parents bought me a new pair with ‘double ball bearings’ very similar to the ones in the picture but perhaps not quite so sexy, I soon learned how to fly. I recall pre teen years full of courage and fearlessness during which I would skate down the avenue hill round the corner into the crescent (taking the racing car outside to inside lane approach) at top speed, impervious to the dangers of traffic (this is in the Burwoods, Leeds 7, West Yorkshire) and only concerned with the thrill of the wind in my hair and going as fast as those eight little wheels would let me. I had the same addiction to speed with ice skates (regular at Bradford rink) and today with modern skates find I still have the same problem I always had but am now afraid of (age does that to you), and that is how to stop safely, there is not always a wall to aim for with hands outstretched.