Roller skates are making a comeback and we are here for it.
As stay-at-home orders have forced people all around the country to be more creative when exploring the world outside of their humble abodes, roller skates—the long (almost) lost staples of '70s, '80s and '90s America—have enjoyed a resurgence of sorts. The popularity of the activity has most acutely been noticed in an international spike in viral roller skating videos on Instagram, TikTok and other social media forms, in addition to the establishment of entirely new brands selling the product.
An emblem of the culture that was, the roller skate joins the bike in defining a summer unlike any others before it. The rather nostalgic modes of transportation have truly taken center stage in American life during quarantine—a fact that has even led to shortages in supplies.
On TikTok especially, where virality is the name of the game, the activity has gained momentous traction—a search for #rollerskating on the platform yields 2.3 billion views. Although it's hard to pinpoint the exact moment the fad took off, a video of actress Ana Coto gliding through Los Angeles while Jennifer Lopez's "Jenny From the Block" plays in the background has been seen well over 14 million times on TikTok and will likely become the trend's most recognizable visual reminder.
Whether roller skating is simply having a moment or the trend is here to stay is yet to see. For what it's worth, glancing at teens and adults skating through towns does bring back memories of a more hopeful, less anxious America—an image we can't get enough of at the moment.
To that intent, here are some weirdly soothing videos of folks gliding their way through summer:
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