When the world stood still, they found freedom on roller skates
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Anna Tarnow Staff writer
A 10-second TikTok video was all it took for actress Ana Coto to ignite a summer trend 鈥� that, and a pair of turquoise roller skates.聽
The video, posted in May, features Ms. Coto effortlessly skate-dancing down a road while lip-syncing to the Jennifer Lopez song 鈥淛enny from the Block.鈥� More than 15 million views later, as the reason why it鈥檚 currently almost impossible to find a quality pair of skates for sale online. There are now more than 1.2 million posts in the #rollerskating tag on Instagram and 2.2 billion views on the tag on TikTok. On YouTube, viewers can find tutorials and trick videos, accompanied by vlogs with titles like 鈥淟earning to Roller Skate in 5 Days.鈥�
Roller-skating, which is easily done in the open air and translates well to video, fills the lockdown void perfectly for many young adults. Even so, the newfound interest belies a thriving contemporary subculture that carries with it nearly a century of history and includes ties to African American culture and the civil rights movement. Though the sport has cycled in and out of style, its enduring appeal has captured generations of skaters.聽
Why We Wrote This
Do pastimes ever really go away? Roller-skating is back again, driven by young people escaping pandemic restrictions and a history that connects it to Black culture.
鈥淚t gives you a sense of freedom,鈥� says Darius Stroud, an influential roller skater who has been on the scene for decades and is better known by his skate name D-Breez, in a phone interview. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to align with what somebody else does. ... It allows you free creation and expression of the self.鈥�
The latest spike of online attention is tied, in part, to the fresh image the sport has gained since brands like Moxi (started in 2010) and Impala (started in 2017) began selling bright, trendy roller skates that can be easily coordinated with stylish outfits. Flashier than the black-and-white binary of rental skates, they鈥檙e marketed as high-performance gear suitable for rough outdoor skating and high-impact tricks.
For the most part, contemporary American skate culture is also diverse and welcoming, though atmosphere and skate style can vary wildly depending on locale. Women are at the forefront of both聽bowl skating and the competitive team sport roller derby. Roller dancing has been closely tied to trends in music since disco took off in the 1970s; today, there are dozens of regional dance styles, most originating from Black culture.
鈥淲hat is wonderful about the roller-skating community is that it鈥檚 so inclusive,鈥� says Rebel Mang, a roller skater who creates tutorials on her YouTube channel , in a phone interview. 鈥淚t鈥檚 inclusive, it鈥檚 forward-thinking. ... There鈥檚 something about the intersection of roller-skating and queerness that makes me feel more me and more represented within my identity.鈥�
The sport鈥檚 popularity has waxed and waned constantly since it began. In the 鈥済olden age鈥� of skating from the 1930s into the 1960s as many as 18 million Americans regularly skated. Beginning in the 1970s, with a generation infatuated with disco music. And the sport is inextricably tied to African American culture, from civil rights movements to desegregate roller rinks to the origins of music and dance styles 鈥� like disco 鈥� that tend to accompany spikes in skating鈥檚 popularity. Today, skaters continue to innovate within contemporary variations on the sport including roller derby, park or bowl skating, and adult-night events.
D-Breez, for example, currently organizes the Independence Roll, a national skating convention held annually in Chicago. His event is one of dozens of similar national-level roller rink events attended in large part by members of the Black skating community, the first of which was organized by a skater named Vanessa Poindexter in the early 1990s 鈥� the same decade when rink skating became associated with burgeoning genres of hip-hop and rap. (The 2018 documentary 鈥淯nited Skates鈥� covered the underground scene, as well as the fact that rinks across the nation are being rezoned and permanently closed, and that .)听
Ms. Mang notes that today鈥檚 skate world is not without its shortcomings. 鈥淚t has glaring faults,鈥� she says. The history of segregation in roller rinks is still felt today, where coded anti-Black language 鈥� 鈥淣o saggy pants鈥� 鈥� is not uncommon. On some sites including TikTok, , potentially聽minimizing the spread of content from nonwhite skaters. What鈥檚 popular online 鈥渋s just not an accurate representation of what the skate community is,鈥� says Ms. Mang. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not what you see on social media.鈥�
Veterans of the scene agree that the current wave of interest is not so much a revival of a dead sport but the latest iteration of an established discipline. 鈥淪kating goes through its phases,鈥� says D-Breez. 鈥淚t鈥檚 basically an art form and a sport. And any time a sport gets some popularity and traction, it鈥檚 good because it brings eyes to that sport, and it makes people understand it. ... Which, of course, can help the rinks stay open.鈥�
Ms. Mang says that her participation in skating 鈥渉as helped me to love my body in a way that I鈥檝e never loved my body before.鈥� But it鈥檚 more than that, she adds. 鈥淚t feels like you understand where somebody is coming from when you know that they鈥檙e roller-skating.鈥澛犅�
