"Heelies": Won't anyone think of the children? ;)

[CalabashCorolla]

Over the past few months I have come to acquire a new pet peeve and that is those horribly trendy things that all the kids are wearing these days. I think (from information that my 10-year-old niece gives me) that they're called Heelies. I'm referring to the sneakers with wheels in the soles that kids can either walk or sort of roll around in.

Now, at 24 years old, I like to think that I embody a balanced combination of up-to-date cultural knowhow and common sense, but I really don't see how these things aren't outright banned. They can't really be used as roller skates per se, since I think they only have one wheel in each shoe, yet the many kids I've seen wearing them usually go from a run into a roll, which implies that you need to build up momentum (from running) in order to actually roll anywhere in them. Okay, I can see how that might be fun, but I've seen kids wearing these in places where you should never let kids run, let alone skate, including:
 - at least two indoor shopping malls, one of them having been extremely crowded at the time (right before the holidays)
 - the sidewalk on a downtown street. Not a large town, but still not a place where you would wnat kids running around
 - a crowded Amtrak station, with many people, not to mention pieces of luggage, to run into
 - the Washington Metro. SERIOUSLY. I had many a vision of some kid rolling right onto the tracks, their parents oblivious.

Every time I've seen a kid wearing, and running amuck in, Heelies, their parents have seemed mostly, if not totally, oblivious to the fact that, trendy toy shoes or no, these kids are running and rolling around way too fast on hard surfaces to fall on and amidst many (living and not) obstacles to run into. Call me old-fashioned, but doesn't that seem a tad dangerous?

My niece informs me that Heelies have been banned at her school (good for them!). They remind me a little of those "slap" bracelets that were popular when I was little, which were banned because they had metal strips in them that were cutting into kids' wrists. Heelies seem worse to me because they are encouraging kids to run/roll in places where they shouldn't. What do you folks think?

[Morty'sCleaningLady]

But, what about the children's fun?

Shouldn't that come before crushed groceries, dropped dry cleaning and the hips of feeble seniors?

I see that am the grocery store all the time and it drives me nuts.  Sadly the kids and their parents are oblivious to my evil eye.

[hobish]

To heck with the children. If i have enough $ this paycheck i am sooooo getting a pair.
I need new sneakers anyway.

[Lisbeth]

I saw kids with those running around at the laundromat two weeks ago.  They nearly ran into me and their parents did nothing to stop them.

Aaaaarrrgh.

[Twik]

Already a lawsuite about them http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006600086,00.html.

I'm conflicted. The shoes are clearly accidents waiting to happen - and yet, parents should be able to see that themselves, and not outfit their tykes with rolling deathtraps.

[Ko-Ko]

The problem isn't the shoes, it's the people in them. Like those kids who zoom around in them and knock people over. I had a pair of shoes like that once, and I used to wear them all the time, and nobody ever got hurt since I was smart enough to slow down when there were people around.

Ko-Ko
 

[CalabashCorolla]

The problem isn't the shoes, it's the people in them. Like those kids who zoom around in them and knock people over. I had a pair of shoes like that once, and I used to wear them all the time, and nobody ever got hurt since I was smart enough to slow down when there were people around.

I don't have a problem at all with the idea of roller skates, mostly because kids are told not to wear them in places where you're supposed to WALK. And that I think is where the disconnect is here. Heelies can be  similar in function to skates, but can also be worn as regular shoes, so I suppose some parents think that makes it okay for their kids to wear them everywhere. "Well, if it's unsafe to roll in them, my kids can just walk!" Unfortunately, the kids roll around in them anyway, and the parents never seem to teach them how to use them properly the way they would with skates. The complainant in the lawsuit mentioned above says that Heelies should have brakes. Well, they're sort of missing the point, which really is, WHY WAS YOUR KID ROLLING AROUND IN THE VICINITY OF MOVING TRAFFIC IN THE FIRST PLACE?!? But, of course, it's easier to blame someone else of your kid gets hurt...

[hobish]

The problem isn't the shoes, it's the people in them. Like those kids who zoom around in them and knock people over. I had a pair of shoes like that once, and I used to wear them all the time, and nobody ever got hurt since I was smart enough to slow down when there were people around.

Ko-Ko
 

exactly!

...and just to clarify, i'm joking about to heck with the children.
((although i am getting a pair of those, i hope))

There was a very long thread about this when this board first got up i believe.

[Leprchn]

To heck with the children. If i have enough $ this paycheck i am sooooo getting a pair.
I need new sneakers anyway.

Oh Yeah!!  I'm 38 and am desperate for a pair!!  I wear women's sz. 9 or men's sz. 7 and if I ever see a Boy's 7 or 7.5, they are SOOO mine!!!

[pryncsskittyn]

As a parent of a child who owns these moronic sneakers, I have to agree I feel they are very unpractical and useless.  Just to clarify, I didn't buy them.  He mentioned to his father that he wanted them for Xmas, and lo and behold, the magic part-time parent has them under the tree for his child.  
I've taken my son out a couple times on the sidewalk to teach him how to use them, and he's caught on pretty well, so I'm safe in my thoughts that they won't kill him.

First thing I noticed is that unless the kid is on a very smooth surface (like in a grocery store where I for one would never let him wear them), the child can't go very fast on them.  The wheels are built so that they don't turn completely freely and have enough friction inside the shoe to keep the speed moderate.

Also, They are incredibly comfortable and well built sneakers.  When you buy them, they come with a special tool to pop the wheels out as well as 2 solid stoppers to put in the area where the wheel would have been.  So my son wears them the majority of the time without the wheels in them.  

I'm excited for summer because I like to walk a lot in the summer and just feel uncomfortable letting him ride his bike along side of me because of his inability to stop properly just yet (we're working on it though).  When the weather is warm enough, he'll be able to wear them to walk to the library and the park with me.  I know he can't get going faster than I can run, and I never let him get far enough ahead of me that I can't catch him.

I do agree that they are really out there for child safety.  My sons came with a sticker on the sole that stated something like "The removal or tampering of this sticker releases the manufacturer wholly of any accidents or injury's that occur while using this product"...

I think a lot of the problems with these sneakers are the parents.  I'm extremely protective of my son and his safety (he wear elbow and knee pads as well as a helmet), so although I didn't want him to have them, it isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Just my insight, I'm still against them because not all parents are as careful.

[Virg]

Ko-Ko wrote:

"The problem isn't the shoes, it's the people in them."

Hear hear.  I've known kids who could wear these things safely, and I've known kids who couldn't.  I don't have a problem with any "toy" (including skateboards and such) as long as the operator can use it safely and is polite to others in terms of not damaging property or trespassing.

In short, rude kids in Heelies don't necessarily make Heelies rude.

Virg

P.S. in the schools in my town, Heelies aren't banned but the wheels are.  That is, the wheels are detachable and students must remove and store them while in school.  I think that's a perfectly acceptable solution, so that the kids can use them after school on the walk home or whatever, but in the building they're on solid ground.

[hobish]

To heck with the children. If i have enough $ this paycheck i am sooooo getting a pair.
I need new sneakers anyway.

Oh Yeah!!  I'm 38 and am desperate for a pair!!  I wear women's sz. 9 or men's sz. 7 and if I ever see a Boy's 7 or 7.5, they are SOOO mine!!!

I found them up to boys' size 7 in our mall ... i don't remember if they had 7.5 sized. I am about an 8.5 in womens' so depending how the sizes run they ought to fit. ( amm 33)

[Chivewarrior]

Those got banned from one of the classrooms at my last school after one girl fell on her head. (I was witness to this. She slammed right into a table and fell over, showing off. Teacher promptly banned them from his classroom.) Current school, we're allowed to roam barefoot anywhere but the dining hall if we want to (and some people do), so they don't ban these shoes. But the kids at my high school have enough sense to know there are some areas, like Dormname Hill, that wearing these is a bad idea.

Sister has a pair, but she can't wear the wheels... really anywhere, as far as I can tell.

[RoseRose]

I work at a childcare, and I see children as young as 5 or 6 with them.  They really can't go as fast as full-blown roller skates, and you don't need to run to get going, just you only go as fast as you were going, basically.

I think the Heelies themselves aren't bad, just that they need to be treated with respect.  The kids where I work seem to all do a decent job in not banging into people, although we have to occasionally remind one or two of them not to use them in the hall.

I ALSO think they're the coolest thing EVER, and want a pair.

[Slartibartfast]

I think they're kind of interesting, but . . . as a nation, we're overweight from not getting enough exercise already.  Do we really want to encourage our kids to cut out the only exercise they DO get by letting them roll around instead of walk?