The History Of Skateboard Wheels
Jun. 24, 2021
The History Of Skateboard Wheels
Skateboard wheels were first invented in the early 20th century. Some creative children tie the old roller skate wheels to 2 by 4 boards. The original skateboard wheels were made of steel, which was very difficult to use because the wheels had very little traction.
In the 1950s, the first commercial skateboard was manufactured, still using metal wheels. By the 1960s, manufacturers realized that metal wheels were not suitable for skateboards, so they tried to make skateboards with clay wheels. However, clay wheels are not much better than metal wheels, and the driving speed is fast, bumpy, and difficult to control.
It was not until the 1970s that skateboard manufacturers began to use polyurethane wheels for skateboards. The inventor of polyurethane skateboard wheels was Frank Nasworthy. He noticed that polyurethane wheels performed better on rollerblading and thought they would be better on skateboards. When polyurethane roller manufacturers began to make polyurethane rollers for skateboards, the sport took off. In the mid to late 1970s, young people across the United States began to use skateboarding as their sport, not just a novel activity. The first skateboarding skills and official skating rules were also formulated in the 1970s.
By the 1980s, polyurethane roller manufacturers were busy making rollers for skateboards, and skateboarding has now become a recognized sport. Since the 1980s, the structure of skateboard wheels has not changed much. Some modern polyurethane formulations provide better traction and elasticity than the original mixture, but their structure remains basically unchanged. Transparent wheels actually provide better performance than colored wheels because the paint on the wheels allows less polyurethane on the wheels. The greater the concentration of urethane, the better performance the wheel will have both in flexibility and traction.
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