Skates, a much preferred and desired accessory for the youths and kids of this generation. It is also referred to as the magic shoes. So, what are the skates? Well, these are specialized types of shoes that have wheels attached to them. So you can get the idea that it definitely will make your movement way lot faster.
In the market, there are various genres of skates available. Each of those has its uniqueness. So, in this article, we will portray different types of skates, along with their exclusive features. So that you can make the perfect choice for you among all these types.
Different Types of Inline Skates
A very simple and classic design of skating shoes, comprises a shoe, frame, two-five wheels and in some cases an additional brake. The wheels are attached to the show with the help of the frame, in a single straight line.
So, you might think that as the wheels are placed on a single line, then it’s must be hard to control. Yes, that is very true for the initial stages, but once you get control over it, this can turn into your biggest buddy. However, Inline Skates are of different types.
But, feature-wise, we will divide it into two basic categories:
a) Recreational: These are worn for recreation purposes, like skating in the park, roaming around the streets etc. In such skates, the same size of wheels is usually attached in a certain pair.
They have a manual brake behind the rear tire. So, you can slow down your movement by leaning a bit backward. For, such features, these skates are always the first choice for amateur skaters.
b) Racing: These are the aggressive types of inline skates, mostly used by professionals and athletes. If you are looking up to gear up your game or want to take your skating to the next level, then racing inline skates will be your new jam.
These are the fastest inline skates available due to its advanced inline skating technology. Roller hockey players and Skate racers use these types of skates mostly.
Read: How to adjust size on rollerblades?
Different Types of Roller Skates
There are many types of roller skates, so let’s jump straight to the specifications of different types of roller skates.
a) Rhythm/dance Skates: These are 4 wheeled skates, which gives extra balance and security. Look wise the skate shoes are very much similar to formal leather shoes.
Used mostly for Old school styles of dancing. In such dances, the key objective is to keep your feet flat on the ground most of the time. So, the balance advantage of these skates helps in this case.
b) Artistic Skates: Another type of 4 wheeled gorgeous looking skates. It has a classical look to it, with a higher ankle heel. The heel helps to transfer the weight to the forward, which helps to maintain balance, control and agility.
That is why it’s mostly used for skate dancing.
c) Jam Skates: These are light weighted quad roller skates. These have a cut low ankle design, which allows maximum movement to the skaters.
Also, they have a toe plug for braking, which adds another point to their uniqueness. These toe plugs come in different styles, so you can pick anyone up according to your fashion preference.
Read: Considerations before choosing the best jam skates
d) Roller Derby Skates: This type of quad roller skate is mostly used for professional sporting purposes. That is why these are more intense and have extra padding facilities to protect the feet from other skaters and track impacts.
For more security, they have a Velcro strap attached to it, for maximum tightness.
Read: Considerations before choosing the best derby skates
Read: Are derby skates good for outside?
Different Type of Hockey Skates
Speaking of skating and sports together, how can we ignore hockey skating right? So, let’s check out some types of hockey skates:
a) Inline Hockey Skates: Well, these skates have a design of classic inline skates, with some added features. These are crafted from reinforced leather and stitching. Some additional materials like plastic and carbon fiber are added to give it more durability.
These are designed in similarity with the ice skates, so that, transferring from ice skating to roller skating won’t be a big issue for any player.
b) Quad Roller Hockey Skates: These skates are safer and more trust-able for balancing. The quad wheel design and having a toe plug ensure having more balance while riding. It might not pull off the agility and speed of inline skates, but this is a great design to start with.
Also, as there are specific games for these skates, what is there to worry about?
c) Ice/Rink Hockey Skates: This is a completely different design of hockey skates, and as per the name, these are made for dealing with iced floors, not the regular ones.
These skates have blades beneath them rather than wheels. The blades have significant curves at both ends, which makes turning and rotating a lot easier.
Also, the blades are required to sharpen from time to time for getting a constant performance. Other than the blades, the shoe design is quite similar to other professional sporting skates.
Types of Indoor Skates
a) Rink: Mostly come with low-cut boots, which gives more speed to it for practicing faster movement. They do not have all the features of a professional skating shoe, but good enough to get you started, and keep you on regular practicing.
b) Recreational: these skates have high-heeled boots. And as we have learned before, heeled boots ensure more balance rather than speed, these skates are used for recreational purposes like dances and rhythms.
Types of Outdoor Skates
a) Fitness: These are mostly heavy-duty inline skates. Comes with three/four wheels. Feature-wise, it’s quite similar to racing inline skates. They have comfortable paddings inside, which will ensure your comfort, and usable for a longer period.
b) Commuter: Inline typed skates are mostly preferred for outdoors or commuting. Because these skates have a narrower surface area and firm grips, which are eventually helpful on rough roads. Also, the single queue of wheels ensures easier turning and movement on the streets.
Types of Speed Skates
a) Inline Speed Skates: Talking of speed, inline speed skate is the king of the game. It can be of 3-5 wheels. The build of it includes the usage of carbon fiber and customized plastics, which ensures longer durability and comfort.
b) Quad Roller Speed Skates: Speed skates are available both in inline and quad roller designs. The boot design significantly resembles regular shoes, with less padding and less outer surface.
That is why, they are lightly weighted, which can give maximum acceleration. The design of it ensures tremendous freedom of movement.
Read: Rules of Short track speed skating
Kids Skates
Comes both in inline and quad roller design. Build wise, the main focus is upon balance and braking. Also, most of the skates are plastic or carbon fiber build, so these are light weighted. Rather than laces, these skates have tight Velcro strap for maximum security.
Most of the skate wheels contain traction and semi-precision bearings, which help to get a better and stronger grip and also make them learner-friendly.
Fitness/Performance Skates
These are specialized types of inline skates, designed for working out, racing, training and urban skating. These skates are low weight and durable. Designed for long distanced traveling. Fitness and performance skates differ from wheel size, weight and bearing size mostly.
Performance skates tend to be a bit heavier as these focus mostly on keeping balance. Fitness skates offer less weight for getting maximum speed and for getting the full experience and impacts of regular running.
Aggressive / Street / Ramp / Skatepark Skates
These skates are particularly designed for dealing with high impacts. That’s why these are used on the ramps, streets and for doing trickery. You can jump above and land down with pressure relentlessly with these skates.
Usually, these skates contain smaller wheels, which help them to shift, turn, rotate and grip down quickly. The wheels are attached to the boot with a much stronger frame. These skates are a bit heavier and generate less speed.
And these skates always come without a braking system. So, experience is required for using these skates.
Read: How can you start aggressive inline skating easily?
Endurance and Long Distance Skates
Bigger wheels, less weight and a very effective, strong gripped break. These are the key features of endurance skates. Comes in inline designs. The boots fitting system is very much comfortable and does not hamper your feet while long riding. These skates are mostly used for skate marathons and adventurous riders.
Types of Slalom skates
a) Freestyle Slalom: Tricks, edge stunts and dance-like maneuvers are mostly performed by freestyle slalom skates. That’s why these skates are very much reactive, offer maximum support and are extremely easy to handle.
Freestyle slalom skates do not have any rear brakes. They have a shorter frame for easier control and sharp movement. And the parts of the skates are easily shifting and changeable.
b) Speed Slalom: These offer almost the same features of regular freestyle slalom. Other than the flat and same sized wheel alignment and heel braking facility. These skates have a bit bigger wheels which generate much speed.
All-Terrain Skates
These skates are specially designed for off-road skating and adventure lovers. The large wheels of these skates allow the skater to skate through muddy paths, sands, ice, mountain trails and rocky roads. There are also available designs of these skates, where you can clip your shoes or boots.
Some models also come up with a hand-activated braking system to gain much control over its movement. The long-wheelbase of it will allow you to move over a variety of surfaces with very low impacts.
The Bottom Line…
Skating is always fun if done properly. Skating can be done for various purposes. But you have to keep in mind that Different skating options require different types of skating shoes. To help you with that, in this article we have provided you a wide list of various types of skates with key specifications and features.
Different skates and different types of skating wheels are used for different purposes. Which one will you pick? That’s completely up to you. But, this article here will help you to get an overview of the most popular genres of skates.
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