Heelys – Wheeled Shoes

You’ve seen them but probably haven’t bought a pair. At least I hadn’t. Heelys are the wheeled sneakers that most kids envy, and some adults do as well. I only had a passing interest until I read about the new X2 models that featured two wheels instead of one. The X2 was designed to help ease the learning curve. When you are feeling more confident you can remove the second wheel. Better yet, now everyone could enjoy them together since larger sizes were made available.

When mentioning Heelys, I get a different reaction from kids and their moms. The kids thought they seemed fun. The mothers, on the other hand, would look at me wide-eyed and exclaim how dangerous they were. Fun or dangerous? I was about to find out.

I wasn’t sure if I would be receiving just a pair for myself or one for my daughter as well. Either way, my daughter was eagerly awaiting the package delivery. Can you imagine her excitement when we got this?

We immediately sat down and laced up our Heelys. Both of us had the ‘Jazzy X2’ style, but mine were blue size 8 and my daughter’s were black size 3. They fit perfectly and were actually pretty comfortable. I was surprised that the wheels were in a separate package. Included with the shoes is a small crowbar-type tool. You need to use that to pry the two covers off the bottom to insert the wheels. One thing I didn’t realize until later was that the two wheels for each shoe are different sizes. That meant I also learned how to remove the wheels at that time since I did one wrong.

We started playing in our Heelys around the house since we have laminate in the living room and linoleum in the kitchen. With the two wheels it was fairly easy to get used to, especially if you know how to rollerskate/in-line skate.

Unlike those skates though, you cannot roll for very long on a level surface. That means you walk, push, roll, trip a bit, then walk, push, and roll again. Great fun but you won’t really get anywhere faster. That’s not to say they aren’t useful though. Whenever we have to go grocery shopping (which usually spans 3-4 different stores) my daughter would grudgingly accompany me. Now she actually asks when the next time is that we need to do errands. I have to admit that I do enjoy racing her down the aisles though.

So we covered the fun, but what about the dangerous? Yes, you can slip easily. This is especially true when getting out of the car. I almost always forget I have them on and practically do the splits when stepping out. Not smart. Don’t try to get a running start or go too fast because you will definitely trip and could possible do a ‘face-plant’. The other day we went to walk the dog but had to turn around to go home because my daughter slipped and fell for no reason. She was okay with the exception of a light scrape (didn’t break) but I wanted her to change shoes. If you are not specifically thinking about how to walk/roll in Heelys that is when accidents are prone to happen.

I love the fact that you can replace the wheels with a cover to just use them as regular shoes. I really think my shoes are cute but it really hurts my feet/legs if I wear them for very long. Imagine doing errands all day or running and playing with your kids just on your tippy-toes. Blisters and soreness are soon to follow. By the way, I have no idea how kids can go on only one wheel. My daughter and I tried it and that was accident waiting to happen. Well, she tried it. I never managed to get going since I had to try to balance all my weight (I’m not telling) on two tiny wheel on my heels – wasn’t going to happen.

In conclusion: