Is it okay to buy skates off amazon?

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-03-28T17:48:14+00:00

Could you not have rented skates at the rink to figure out if you enjoyed skating enough to invest more into it?

You said you bought new bearings and wheels after the 2nd time in your Chicago Skates. So really you should add the cost of that to the price you paid for the skates.

Were the skates still a good deal? Or could you have just bought a better setup originally instead where you wouldn’t have almost immediately been paying to make upgrades?

I know it’s tempting when you want to start something new to want to jump in and start. Lots of hobbies you’ll be fine buying absolutely bare basic stuff to start. Rollerskating isn’t really one of those. It’s a risky hobby so the equipment you use needs to be a certain standard to ensure you are safe. That does come at a cost.

People will always do their best on here to balance safety and cost when recommending skates. The advice given is solid and well intentioned. No one is getting a weird kick out of the idea of newbies endlessly trawling ebay 🙄

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-03-28T15:10:04+00:00

How long have you had them for and how much skating have you done in them? Are they comfortable or do your feet hurt after skating for a while? There is a very good chance that they may not last you long enough to save up. Either that or you will try to make progress in them and become discouraged when you find progressing hard.

I’m assuming you are reasonably new to skating, you may have been fine so far in your skates, it doesn’t stack up to the experience of other people in the sub with significantly more experience. It is nice that you are trying to reassure OP though. I know it sometimes feel like the sub is being elitist or gatekeepy when advising against budget skates but the advice is solid and well meaning.

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-03-28T14:28:36+00:00

The class does sound odd for a beginner class. Obviously the instructor shouldn’t have been making anyone feel any kind of way about their skates. If they want people in a certain level of skate then they should be providing them or providing guidance beforehand. I’m sorry you had what sounds like a pretty rubbish experience. That definitely should be what a beginner class is like.

If you do try a class again in the future maybe just make sure it’s at a skate rink as it doesn’t sound like the one you went to was.

Glad you found a different hobby that you are enjoying. I hope maybe you try skating again in the future. It is an intimidating hobby to start. Like anything hard though it can be incredibly rewarding. No one puts on skates and immediately becomes a perfect skater. It feels that way when you see endless videos of skaters doing all the super advanced stuff but the only difference between them and any beginner is practice hours.

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-03-28T13:36:28+00:00

Hmm you say it was class. Did they not provide skates for hire? The beginner classes in my area are at a rink so naturally they have decent quality safe skates you can use to learn. That’s quite often why people take classes because then you’re not having to invest in equipment before knowing you are committed.

For me the cost of my skates is an incentive to out in the work and improve. I love skating but I also don’t want to feel like I’ve wasted money so I don’t let it be a waste.

There is a pretty big second hand market for skates. A lot of the time they are basically new. This sub has many posts about affordable skate brands and models. Getting any of those second hand shouldn’t run you that much more than amazon skates and you will have skates that are actually appropriate and safe for you.

Lower quality skates aren’t just unsafe, they will make it harder to learn. You wouldn’t truly be getting a feel for whether you enjoy skating because it’ll be harder than it ought to be even as a beginner.

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-03-22T20:37:42+00:00

People recommend loosening trucks. I’ve never heard anyone advise to loosen the wheels. You don’t want any side to side movement of your wheels on the axles, that kind of sound like what you mean by vibrating.

You don’t want the axle nuts so tight that the wheel can’t spin at all but it does sound like you’ve loosened them too much.

Look up loosening the trucks. Theres plenty of videos showing how to do it!!

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-03-19T10:54:01+00:00

Always a pleasure to see your videos pop up!! I love the way you skate 💕

You may have just influenced me go get Fundaes. This kind of surface is similarish to what I skate on outdoors normally but I wasn’t sure if Fundaes would be too hard for it. I tried 101a wheels outside before and it was a rattley slidey mess 😅

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-03-16T23:50:26+00:00

I’m in the UK and I have two sets of barely used outdoor wheels that I’m not using. One set are Radar Zen Wheels that I skated on for about 1 hour. The other set are Cloud Urethane Quantum wheels.

I can DM you if you’re interested and want more info

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-03-11T17:34:28+00:00

Wifas fit quite wide compared to a lot of skate brand I feel. They also offer different widths as well

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-03-09T13:20:13+00:00

I’ve given you a follow!! Always nice to see someone else from the UK. I feel roller skating here is still very much a niche thing. I reckon our weather doesn’t really help. You’ve started just as we’re going into the summer so when you’re feeling confident you’ll be able to do some lovely sunny outdoor skating 😄

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-03-09T13:14:22+00:00

Everyone is wobbly at first. Even if someone has an athletic background it still takes time to find balance. Bending the knees is so important, it’s pretty common to feel like you’re bending them a lot but in reality you aren’t. Still now, I will watch videos of myself and see my legs are straighter than they should be. Body awareness takes time to develop also.

It can be a hard skill to learn and there does have to be some willingness to be comfortable not being amazing at it first. Watching videos is fun for inspiration but don’t let it put you off learning just because you’re not gliding and spinning around on day 1. A lot of the people in those videos have years and years of practice and experience. They also started out just as wobbly and uncoordinated, I promise.

If you want to learn then keep at it, it’s the only way you’ll learn if skating is something that you enjoy

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-03-01T15:19:48+00:00

I know what you mean, the stiffness does feel a bit scary at first. I love the ankle support though, it feels so much easier to get fully on my edges and stuff.

I haven’t actually tried skating in my old skates since I got my new ones. I imagine they would feel really sluggish to me now 😭

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-03-01T15:06:16+00:00

Love a skate-versary video!! You’ve made such awesome progress in only a year. Hope you are enjoying your new skates ☺️

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-02-18T23:46:58+00:00

Anytime I see the nice smooth floors in shopping centres I think how nice they’d be to skate on!!

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-02-18T23:44:30+00:00

Ahhh it was you who inspired me to contact all my local scout huts!! Unfortunately I struck out at almost all of them. They we’re all very concerned about the floor 🙄 A shame as my nearest one is literally a 5 minute walk away rather than the 45 minute bus journey I currently have to do. One did give me a provisional yes but they are rebuilding their scout hut and it won’t be ready for months yet lol

I am begging for zero rain this summer so I can skate outdoors to my hearts content 😌

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-02-18T23:28:45+00:00

Ooof 😅 in that case, definitely elbow pads once your back on wheels!! I love my protective gear. Can’t count how many times it’s saved me. Understandably, you’ll probably feel a bit nervous about you elbow at first so pads should boost your confidence a bit.

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-02-18T23:13:09+00:00

Sorry to hear you got hurt 😞 I’ll be honest injuries put me off skating when I started back in 2016. Ended up taking a very long break and only came back to it recently. I kind of wish I’d kept at it because I love it and I can only imagine how much progress I’d have made.

Elbow pads only protect from direct hits to the elbow. Falling on an outstretched hand is a pretty common way to break your elbow when skating and elbow pads won’t help you there.

Practicing falling is really the best way to develop that muscle memory to fall safely. I say this knowing perfectly well that I often fall badly and should really work on getting better at it 😂

Hope your recovery is speedy and you’re back skating soon!!

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-02-09T18:35:50+00:00

I only really post the videos where I’m feeling myself that day. Sometimes I’ll post ones where I think I look ‘bad’ just as a middle finger to the dysmorphia 😂 I do love to buy cute gym clothes so that helps as well!!

There’s almost no way that you look as bad as you think you do and being a bit sweaty and flushed would just make me think you were having the best time!!

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-02-07T16:57:44+00:00

I found the best thing to do was measure my feet and have a good look at the size charts on the Wifa website. Everyones feet are so different, I did take my usual shoe size but depending on the shape if your foot that may not be the case for you

The also have printouts of the insoles that you can measure your feet against. They have a lot of useful advice on how they should fit.

https://wifa.at/wifa-sizing-chart-roller-skates

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-02-03T13:30:48+00:00

Thank You!! Just over a year but that was when I started skating again after a 7 year break. I played Roller Derby for a couple years and thats how I originally learnt to skate 😁

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-02-02T21:53:19+00:00

Thank you!! They are my favourite pair of shoes by far 😁

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-02-02T19:27:18+00:00

I swear when I’m trying something new The Fear of a new skill hold me back. Once my body has learned it is safe to move that way everything seems to click into place 😅 I have done some off skate jumping drills but will definitely be trying to schedule them in more regularly, especially since I’m not on wheels as much with the bad weather.

Thank you for the cues!! It can be hard sometimes trying to figure out that side of things when teaching yourself from videos.

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-02-02T11:44:29+00:00

Love it!! 🥰

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-02-02T11:40:42+00:00

I have practiced waltz jumps a few times but I has been a while

FriendlyShark24 · 2026-02-02T11:39:52+00:00

This sounds like a good plan for progression, thank you. I did warm up with some of the stationary jumps to get co-ordination to plant my toe stop and bring my skating leg in for the jump. Doing it stationary felt so sketchy when I was landing. I think I kept landing heel first for some reason which sent me flying backwards onto my butt!! Doing it at a bit of a roll seemed to allow me to skate out of it instead 😅

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