The History of Rollerblades

The idea for roller blades came before roller skates. Inline skates were created in the early 1700s when a Dutch person attached wooden spools to strips of wood and nailed them to his shoes. In 1863, an American developed the conventional rollerskate model, with the wheels positioned side by side, and it became the skate of choice. 

The History of Inline Skate Development

There are historic ice skating relics that date back as far as 3000 B.C. But, inline roller skates probably originated much later in Scandinavia or Northern Europe where ice skating was an easy way to travel short distances. By the early 17th century, these early Dutch called themselves skeelers and skated on frozen canals in the winter. They eventually used a primitive form of roller skate, made by attaching wooden spools to a platform to allow similar travel in warmer weather.