Just imagine: the sun is shining in a clear blue sky over fresh powder snow. Everything is perfect, except for one thing: your hands and feet feel cold and won't warm up. It's uncomfortable, annoying and painful and makes the perfect experience a lot less perfect.

In 1863, an American developed the first roller skates with wheels positioned side by side. Soon, the two-by-two wheel formation became the standard and the in-line skate quickly forgotten. Revised versions of the in-line skate cropped up periodically, but the concept never really caught on. Given the technology of the time, in-line skates could not be designed to function as well as conventional roller skates.

By 1930, roller skates had found a permanent place in society, but it took more than 29 years, until 1959, before anyone was able to mass-produce a metal-wheeled skate. The next significant development came in 1973, when the skate was further improved and popularized by the introduction of the polyurethane wheel. In 1980, two hockey-playing Minnesota brothers discovered an in-line skate in a sports shop and decided that this design would be ideal for training in the hockey off-season. They studied the skate in detail and refined the model in the basement of their parents' home. That same year, they founded the company that would become Rollerblade®.

The 1990s were filled with further expansion of the market and industry, which was spurred by great strides in skate technology. Lighter, stronger materials, lower pricing, and technologies such as the revolutionary ABT® brake, continued to make skating more accessible to people of all ages, whatever their athletic ability. Today, skates have become an integral part of everyday life, whether they are used for an intensive workout or as a sustainable means of transport.

Rollerblade wants to inspire people to move freely on wheels, under their own power, on their own time, and in their own style.