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This week's tip:
4 Quick Tips for Buying Inline Skates
How to buy the right skates at the right price
By Robert Burnson
Before you start shopping for inline skates, figure out which kind is right for you.
1) Don’t be a “cheap skate.”
You can buy inline skates at big box stores like Wal-Mart and Target for $30. But you might as well take up bowling.
Cheap skates are a road to nowhere. Typically, their wheels barely roll and their bearings barely spin, and they are usually about as comfortable as a bucket of rocks.
The companies that make them aren’t in the skate industry. They’re in the business of selling cut-rate junk.
On the other hand, the brand-name skate makers are looking for return customers and product loyalty. That means selling quality skates and providing good customer service.
2) Don’t forget the protective gear.
Protective gear is a necessity. Inline skating is sometimes a contact sport, and what you contact is unforgiving: asphalt and cement.
If you are a new or beginning skater, always wear a helmet, wrist guards, ankle pads and elbow pads. In addition, if you are older, get yourself some crash pads to protect your hips.
Later, after you have some skill, you can safely do without some of your protective gear. But at the minimum, you should always wear a helmet and wrist guards. A broken head may never heal, and a broken wrist is always a possibility in a backwards fall.
Be advised, if you do without pads, your knees — and to a lessor extent, your elbows — will inevitably collect a few scars.
3) How to find bargains?
Here’s a little secret that the skate companies don’t want you to know:
Inline skates, at least those made by the big companies, are like cars. New models come out every year, usually in the winter or spring.
When the new skates arrive, most shops still have a backlog of unsold skates from last year. So, like car dealers, they cut the prices of the old models — often, dramatically.
Skate design tends to be more evolutionary than revolutionary. So if you buy last year’s skates, you usually won’t miss much, beyond the latest bells and whistles and an updated color scheme.
If you are looking for an extreme bargain on fitness skates, start cruising your local flea market. You may not find what you need on your first trip. But eventually, someone will be selling a barely used set of quality skates in your size. And all they will be asking is five to twenty bucks.
4) Still got questions?
If you’re unsure about what skate to buy, ask for advice on a skate forum, like the one on the Skater Network.
Or call a skate shop and ask to speak to the owner. Most skate shop owners are experts at fitting skaters with skates, even over the phone.
If you talk to one but don’t like what you hear, call another.
There are plenty of them. To find a list, just search “inline skates” or “inline skate shops” on Google.
There’s still nothing like talking to a real person.
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Robert Burnson is editor and publisher of the Inline Planet and organizer of the National Roller Cup. He has been skating since he was a boy. He started on the ice at the South Park outdoor rink in Park Ridge, IL, where he grew up. He took up inline skating after moving to Northern California in the early-1990s.
• Robert's page on the Skater Network
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