Craving freedom in times of confinement, desperate to let off steam, it’s no wonder that more and more people are lacing up their skates and hitting the streets. And with retro trends taking us back to the 1980s, good old rollerblades are back in full force; they are even propelling roller girls and roller boys into social media stardom.
If you tried to buy rollerblades this summer, you may have faced delays, due to out-of-stock situations. Sales skyrocketed after the confinement. For example, Oxelo, Decathlon’s dedicated brand, sold 50,000 pairs of rollerblades in just one week, and in France, sales were up 250% in a year.
On social media, roller-skater videos are all the rage, transforming these millennials and gen Z-ers into real influencers, followed by a rapidly growing community worldwide. On TikTok, the hashtag #rollerskating now has 3.3 billion views. In April, when the young American actress Ana Coto filmed herself gliding down a sunny Los Angeles street on blue roller skates, with a Jennifer Lopez song in the background, the film went viral and garnered 17 million views in just a few months. This craze for roller skates has not gone unseen by brands, prompting big names in fashion to call on these new roller-skating stars to promote their collections. For their latest show, Etam invited Oumi Janta, a roller girl with 1 million followers, to rollerblade in the middle of fashion show around the models: the reaction from the public and on social media was explosive.
