Roller skates and roller blades are both types of athletic footwear that allows the user to roll on wheels. Roller skates and roller blades differ in their wheel arrangements. Roller skates utilize four corners of wheels on the bottom of the skate, much like the wheels on a car. Roller blade wheels are aligned on the middle of the foot, from the heel to the toe, in a straight line of three, four or five wheels.

The wheels on roller skates and roller blades offer different possibilities and different styles of skating. The four wheels on roller skates are in position for the best stability and balance. They are thick wheels shaped like car tires, while roller blades, also called in-line skates, have wheels geared for speed. The straight design of in-line skates also allows for quicker turning. Their design was meant to mimic ice skating, and the less stable design with taller, thinner wheels usually results in more injuries.

Another difference in roller skates and roller blades are the stoppers. Roller skate stoppers are round and positioned on the front of the shoe, at the toe. These stoppers require the skaters to raise their heels and tip their toes forward to stop. Roller blade stoppers are rectangle and generally positioned at the rear of the skate, near the heel. To stop on roller blades, the wearer simply has to do the opposite of roller skates: lift the toes and slant the heel into the ground until the stopper meets the surface of the floor or ground.

Roller skates and roller blades, while sharing a common lineage, have different histories. Roller skates were very popular with children in the 1970s, and were cultural phenomenon in alternative areas like roller rinks and roller derbies for the more extreme. Roller skates were first patented in 1760 in Europe, and today’s form of roller skate was first devise in 1863. Both roller skates and roller blades, though, are approved by the American Heart Association as good aerobic exercise tools.

Roller blades, or in-line skates, were first developed out of the roller skate design in the 1980s, as a substitute training method for ice skating. They became popular in the 1980s and 1990s with the marketing of the Rollerblade brand of inline skates. Roller blades have helped to increase the popularity of roller hockey, freestyle slalom skating, and speed skating.

Roller skates and roller blades, though in the same family, have one key difference. That difference is in the wheel shape and design. And the design difference, quad or in-line, spells the difference between speed and stability in roller skates and roller blades.