Heelys Review

I recently was given the opportunity to review a pair of Heelys. Yes, that’s right, those shoes with the wheels. I knew my oldest son, age 11, would be the most excited about it so I let him pick out which shoes we were going to receive. He chose the style called the Edge which were navy blue with yellow trim. He thought they were very cool looking, “like skater shoes.” They had a ton of different styles from cute sparkly ones for girls to regular looking sneakers that adults could easily wear. When they arrived in the mail and he pulled them out of the box, I was surprised to see that they came with plugs in the heels. In my opinion that is a huge selling point. I don’t know if they have always made Heelys that way or not but if I had ever gotten to the point of seriously considering these as a gift, that feature right there would have been what sold me. It is one thing to spend money on fun “skating shoes” but if they can also be worn as your kids every day shoes then it is really two gifts in one and you just saved yourself from spending a ton of money on that next pair of Vans or whatever. Thanks to a very shoe obsessed aunt my son has a couple of other pairs of very cool sneakers including Tony Hawk, Nike high tops and World skater shoes and he still chooses to wear his Heelys most days now.

So my son who is pretty good at picking up sports and is pretty athletic used the tool that came with the shoes to pop out the plug right away and stick the wheels in. We went over the directions and watched the video online on “heeling”. He tried them back and forth in our downstairs area first. He said it was a weird sensation at first and although he didn’t fall he was waving his arms all over the place at times to keep his balance. After about twenty minutes of it though he had it down and ventured outside with them on. Now, he looks like a pro and what I love about it is if he is over at the park skating around with them on and gets tired he can just stop and pop out the wheels and pop them in his pocket.

So since my son wears about the same size shoe as me now, I decided I was going to take the Heelys for a spin too. Well my athletic abilities are not quite up to par with my son’s I am afraid to say. Being an 80′s child I of course was an avid roller skater when I was younger and I did enjoy roller blades for a few short years in the late 90′s before kids. The Heelys were just a completely different sensation at first. You have to life up your toes and balance on the back of your foot where the wheel is. That sensation alone just feels odd enough that your immediate reaction is to stop doing it and put your toes back down. It took some time doing it over and over again before it began to feel some what normal but I did finally get the hang of it. My son got a good laugh out of it all and I am sure most people think of Heelys as a kid thing but there really isn’t any reason why adults couldn’t use them too. Like I mentioned earlier, the styles they come in are similar to a pair of sneakers you might purchase anyway. And if adults can roller blade or skateboard(like my husband), I guess why can’t they do this? Heelys also sells these cool new inline footboards called NANOs that basically turn your Heelys into inline skates similar to roller blades. Anyways I turned the Heelys back over to my son before I could seriously injure myself but it was a good time. Honestly, before reviewing the Heelys I probably would not have spent the money on them. I didn’t think it was something that the kids would use enough to make it worth it and I also didn’t know they could be worn as regular shoes. Now I am convinced it would make a great gift, especially if you have a child that needs new shoes anyways. Heelys has a special going on right now for Black Friday. Between Nov 25 – 28, buy any pair of Heelys, get the second pair for $25. Or, buy a Nano, and get a pair of shoes for $25. Free ground shipping on all orders!