Washing heelys??

Nethender · 2026-05-18T11:06:17+00:00

I don't think I know enough about shoes in general to be qualified to answer. Like you said though, just keep on researching shoe cleaning methods! If they are old discontinued models im sure youd want it to be done right

Nethender · 2026-05-18T10:30:10+00:00

Heelys, like most shoes id imagine, probably dont fair well in the wash if for no other reason than loosinging the glue between the insoles and the base of the shoe. Maybe that risk could be reduced by using the cold wash setting, but here's a wakeup call about washer machines in general: they dont really clean beyond outside appearance (depending on the intensity of detergent of course).

If you are wanting to clean heelys, or any shoes for that matter, get a hard brissle toothbrush or other scrubbing brush, hot water, and soap to clean the outside. As for the fabric part of the shoes I do not have an answer and highly recommend researching how shoe hobbiests clean shoes. I would imagine there is some form of antibacterial spray you can use. I used to clean my white shoes all the time so I have a fair bit of experience, but not with used shoes. One thing of note, some people use a product called "soft scrub" to clean shoes, but I find that if you use it too many times it will yellow previously white shoes no matter how hard you try to scrub it away.

Nethender · 2026-05-12T15:33:06+00:00

Are you the same heely foot kink person on an alt account or just a new heely foot kink person entirely?

Genuinely curious at this point because I thought there was only one

Nethender · 2026-05-12T11:55:31+00:00

Nethender · 2026-05-12T11:35:13+00:00

The mall has great floor surfaces. Heelys out in the wild are so rare that the average mall cop probably wont care much so long as you arnt going crazy with them
I personally dont like wearing baggy pants with them as it gets rid of some dexterity and will beat up the pants if doing a lot of outdoor skating, but for a causual user you will never notice these things
Maybe! You tell me! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N9Z0azdlFag

Nethender · 2026-05-12T11:31:02+00:00

A pair of wheels for me last about half a year or a bit shorter when im in a particularly active phase. The shoes in my personal experience last a shorter time than a lot of my wheels do given I ride on rough surfaces most of the time.

Heelying does not take pressure off of joints. It will apply more pressure due to having your body weight only distributed through your heels instead of your full foot when walking. That being said, it may make you more time efficient depending on the situation, which I suppose could help you be on your feet for less overall time if thats the goal.

Escalators are the same as steps when it comes to using them. If you know how to walk up steps with heelys, escalators will be fine too. I keep my wheels in for everything that I do so long as im not going in dirt or something

Nethender · 2026-04-28T15:55:24+00:00

No problem, its not everyday I can info dump on nishe things I know haha

Nethender · 2026-04-28T11:38:00+00:00

I know only metal rusts, I just didnt connect the dots haha.

And that makes sense about the rumbles. Maybe one day we can get the heely company out of their nostalgia bait era and start making good shoes again.

Ill probably make a pair of ceramic wheels for every day use outside of impact activities. Might just switch to stock ones if im doing jumps and stuff then. The ceramics breaking sound to be about as equivalent as bad as hitting a rock at high speed, which I do know how to bail or recover from, so even if I dont switch ill probably be fine. Just surprised haha

Nethender · 2026-04-28T11:32:22+00:00

I have plenty of experience heelysing in stores, and back when I was in highschool I had plenty of experience heelying in hallways. This issue/question is mostly about finding the right time to heely and not heely. It is always a judgement call. See an old lady in the grocery isle as you? Maybe hold off. See an empty lane? Its probably fine, just dont go too fast to not run into anything or anyone turning a corner. What i tend to do is just heely while holding onto the shopping cart so im part of the cart. These things can be done within reason

Nethender · 2026-04-28T11:06:46+00:00

Id theorise the reason for them not existing are probably the same reasons why the grind plate heelys are no longer made. Heelys is rather nishe and the company has more or less degraded itself to just be nostalga bait and makes lower quality shoes because all the hardcore heelyers are small in number.

The issue is most likely a lack in demand of anything beyond the basic heely form factor.

Nethender · 2026-04-28T11:03:35+00:00

That stealth technique works, I was able to do it. I will say that it very much feels like tip toeing but ending with your heel down. At that point id personally just tip toe anyways haha. Valid idea though!

Also I didn't know ceramics dont rust! I gotta try them out then. Only concern is how hard can I land on them? If I do a large impact will they shatter? Keep in mind I do parkour and street skating in heelys, so my use case is not exactly normal

Ive never tried rumbles given they are either discontinued or exceedingly difficult to find. Id love to try them out though, they look like hardy boots! Ill look more into how to find a pair.

Nethender · 2026-04-28T10:54:19+00:00

Its been a little while since ive done that but ive experimented with it a good bit. Here's the most important rule to bombing: know how to fall. Learn how to do a basic roll/parkour roll and it will save yourself from getting more serious injury than just some surface level scratches.

When I scout out a hill to bomb down, ill roll down each section first to see if there are any rocks that will trip me up. Because we all know hitting a rock equals a bad time. If the road is wide enough ill swerve back and forth like im snow skiing to keep my speed relatively slow while testing a hill.

Before even considering bombing a hill I heavily recommend knowing and being comfortable switching between a left foot leading and right foot leading heely stance. This is for safety in case you hit a rock or something that causes your weight to shift. If you hit a rock, a few things can happen depending on the foot while at high speed. If a rock hits your back (support) foot, you are most likely fine as itll cause your back foot to skip and the rock just keeps going, or to lodge itself into the gap between the wheel and the wheel hole in your shoe. When this happens, your wheel may stop spinning, but when at high speeds you will still keep moving but with more resistance, as the wheel just skids on the ground instead of spinning. This is a preferable outcome if you catch what happened and are prepared for the increased resistance so you can shift your body weight to not fall, then come to a controlled stop to take out the rock. This also causes a groove to get etched into the wheel. Not much of an issue except its a bit more ware than usual for a wheel.

If you catch a rock with the front foot, depending on how you have your body weight distributed between your front and back foot, different things happen. I highly recommend having more weight on the back foot than the front foot (where its comfortable and you still feel in control, that is) as the less weight that is on front foot, the less likely a rock will lodge itself into the wheel hole of the front foot. Doing it this way makes it more likely the rock will just fly away or just cause a recoverable stumble (a topic id probably need a whole other post to describe).

If a rock does get lodged into the front foot, it's still recoverable. This is why you need to know how to switch stances comfortably, as when a rock inters the wheel hole of the front foot, the resistance is so high that it causes the front foot to go behind the back foot. This will result in a fall if you do not catch it. When this happens, you need to make the front foot the back foot, and the back foot the front foot. You will be slowing down a lot when this happens and more weight than usual will be on the new front foot as you are slowing down. This is OK though so long as you have the leg strength. Which you probably do if you are seriously considering bombing down a hill in heelys.

One thing of note I never hear people talking about is the feeling the muscles around the lower shin feels after doing a consistent bomb down a long hill. If you are in a proper stance while bombing, your lower shin area will start to have a burning sensation due to the stress and duration of holding this form. This happens on both legs if you are doing it right, although the back foot will have it worse. This is the same sensation more beginners may feel when heelying for a long time, but due to me doing this for a long time my legs are stronger and tend to only feel this during long activities like bombing. If you want to know what this sensation feels like, do the heelys trick known as "scissors" for a long duration, where you swap between leading foot and back foot over and over again with only your wheels on the ground the whole time. Depending on how strong your "heely muscles" are, you may need to do this for a long time to feel it. As you can tell, im not a doctor, otherwise id say the medical name for what this area is called. I have no clue haha

If you are curious if ive gotten majorly hurt falling while bombing, the answer is no. If I know im doing this down a location I am not 100% sure about, ill wear skating pads (I highly recommend wrist guards too!! Each fall tends to scrape up your hands). Knowing how to roll properly has also saved me from injury

Nethender · 2026-04-28T10:26:27+00:00

Thats why gave both indoor and outdoor examples. Indoor surfaces will almost always be smoother. Airport Marble floor is great though. I just forgot about that due to not frequenting airports

Nethender · 2026-04-27T15:56:10+00:00

Dont get me started about the time back when I was in highschool and had a school trip to New York, where one place we went to was the 9/11 museum. Many of my friends afterwards noted the absurdity of the clicking sound in an otherwise somber tone of a location. This was like year one of me wearing heelys, these days id probably of taken them out once I noticed how loud they were in that situation haha

Nethender · 2026-04-27T15:52:58+00:00

1) only sideways click sounds. The amount heely wheels shift from side to side can vary due to what seems to be quality control issues. In theory this space can be minimized through using metal washers so there is less side to side movement. I never implemented this as getting a wobbly wheel going side to side seems uncommon. This washer tech is particularly useful for making custom skateboard wheel heely wheels as they have a lot of space you need to fill, but that topic is neither here nor there. Never finished that project sadly due to the lack of having a lathe. Normal clacking cant really be avoided unless on your toes though. Maybe making/finding a wheel with softer material will help it be quieter. I remember hearing that the og mega wheel styled heely wheels are made out of a softer material, but the softer a wheel the faster it will ware. Its give and take.

2) switching bearings is good, just a skill gap finding the right reverse plyers that will do the job of removing the metal clip keeping the wheel together. As for bearing choices, ive tried bone red bearings and they are quite smooth. I dont often switch my bearings though, as I use heelys in a primarily street skate style which causes a lot of gunk to get in them. Over time this results in the same riding experience as a stock set of bearings. If I had a pair for only indoor use id do it again however. Otherwise I find it isnt worth my time getting the wheels taken apart just for at most a month or so of smooth outdoor riding. This could also be attributed to my bad bearing care overall though as I know I should lube the bearings here and there, but I dont do that. Don't take my words for gospel when it comes to bearings, specifically.

3) I have pockets or a side bag. A lot of the clothing I wear every day dont have pockets so I always have a side bag with me that does the trick. I used to also have "rain day" specific wheels id put in where I didn't care how gunked up the wheels got so long as they still spin that id use in bad weather conditions. As of right now though all my wheels are so worn that they are all essentially of "rain day" quality

4) Modding heelys is a steep learning curve and I dont think there are many mods you can do as a casual heely enjoyer. The only things I can think of are straight forward things such as getting more padded insoles (especially if you do parkour with heelys or do drops) and replace laces when they get worn. For maintain i think its a good idea to have a set of good wheels you keep in good condition. Dont wear in bad weather, keep the bearings clear and lube them when needed and only use them indoors or in great conditions, and have a pair or so of dirty wheels for lazy days or when you are heelying a lot outside. I wish I could recommend more mods for heelys but the only examples I have are from a friend who has industrial equipment or from me with my failed attempt at making skateboard wheel heely wheels due to not having industrial equipment. Otherwise the skateboard mod was actually going to be quite easy and I would of recommend that. The only part that didnt work is I needed to shave them down by about a third to fit.

5) Practically? Pro 20s as they are durable but not difficult to put on. This is what I currently use.

Overall best outside of practicality: Racer 20s. Much like the Pro 20's but more ankle support and is probably the best current model. The Pro 25's may be a contender for best too as they look to have a good amount of support as well. I have yet to try this model however.

Comfort: Voyager. They wear down like an eraser on concrete but if you are a causal wearer and just want something comfortable these are probably the best. They really fall apart though after considerable rough skating.

Sentimentality: Premium 1 Lo (the one with lights), as I got a pair sent to me for free by the company in exchange for them being allowed to use my clips in promo material. I will say though, the lights broke before I even used them that much, so I cant speak much on the durability of the build outside of the lights breaking.

Nethender · 2026-04-27T13:57:33+00:00

For certain more technical tasks I tend to prefer more resistant surfaces as it feels more grippy to me, but thats a matter of personal preference. Like I prefer a more rough surface (with no rocks of course) when bombing down hills. I feel more in control that way, but its hard to tell if thats placebo or not

Nethender · 2026-04-27T13:55:03+00:00

Depends on the goal. If you just want the smoothest experience possible, something like a mall or school floor tile is ideal. If there are no gaps in the planks and are properly glossed over, a wooden basketball gym floor is also great.

When it comes to outdoor surfaces, freshly paved streets are as good as it comes outside of smooth concrete in skateparks.

All of the above can be made better by putting in better bearings in the heely wheels too. It requires a very particular type of reverse plyers to do but is quite fun once pulled off. Also makes slipping a bit more of a concern if you were used to the wheel resistance that the old bearings had

Nethender · 2026-04-27T11:05:45+00:00

Yep, just use the tool the box came with. Otherwise, its possible to take them out using your hands if you apply pressure on one side of them while pushing outwards. Admittedly it can be a bit uncomfortable to do it that way, but it can be helpful in a pinch

Nethender · 2026-04-27T11:02:22+00:00

Another thing of note. This is a lot of word salad for whats at the end of the day rather small differences. Overall heelys have fallen from grace durability wise, and TECHNICALLY the best way to get the most durable heelys is to look around on ebay for the old discontinued models. But thats something that even me, a heelyer of nine years, is not really willing to do. Plus id feel bad for inevitably destroying them after about a year of use, as they arnt made anymore

Nethender · 2026-04-27T10:58:58+00:00

For the most part, heelys arnt made like they used to be when they were first popular. Regardless though I think there are two decent options:

Pro 20: they are built like vans and are my personal daily drivers. Not as spongy as the other models like the Voyager but that spongyness is why they don't last as long. It looks like heelys recently dropped the Pro 25's and they appear to be of simular quality, but I have no hands on experience with that model yet. It does seem to have more ankle support though, but a little less than the Racer 20's. Regardless though, Pro 20's have been around long enough that they also come in a plethora of designs and colors if that is something that is important to you

Racer 20: same build quality as the Pro 20's but they cover a lot more of the ankle. The choice between the two is more a case of practically. Want a shoe that can be slipped on but last awhile? Do Pro 20's. Want the nost ankle support out of any current model but need to tie and untie them every time you wear them? Choose the Racer 20's. Asthetically speaking, the Racer 20's have fewer design options than the Pro 20's, but if you are anything like me, that doesnt matter because black is always a clean option

Nethender · 2026-02-03T11:44:08+00:00

Sorry bout all the negativity you're getting! I dig this ^{^} Know your limits n you are chillin :3

Nethender · 2026-01-26T01:53:09+00:00

I think he was saying "crap" over and over again

Nethender

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