Roller skate buying guide

Your First Fitness and Distance Inline Skates

Written 7 October 2026 · by Cass · written with an AI assistant

Amazon prices were read on the listing on 7 October 2026, for the size and colour Amazon shows by default; other sizes and colours can cost more or less. Price and availability are set by Amazon and can change.

What top skaters recommend

Features first, brands only where a skater recommends a brand for a specific feature. Where a skater works for, is sponsored by or owns the brand they talk about, we say so.

Wheels to start: four, about 80-100 mm

• Viktor Hald Thorup, Danish speed skater at two Olympic Games, Rollerblade World Team member and owner of a skate shop (topskate.dk), says four wheels give more contact points, turn more easily and sit lower; his words: “I suggest 100 millimeters for adult beginners”, or a 4×110 frame if you want room to grow. Children go smaller; his own path was 80, 84, 90, 100, 110, then 125 mm (Viktor Thorup, 25 Jul 2023).
• Bill Begg, a well-known inline speed coach who writes the “Ask Bill Begg!” column and works for X-Tech, says that when you move from fitness skates to speed skates, going to 4×100 should not be intimidating, and suggests a 110-100-110-110 mix for stability (Inline Planet, 30 Jan 2013).
• Jan Welch, editorial director of Big Wheel Blading with 30 years in the industry (owner of the wheel brand Dream Urethane), starts beginners at 80 mm, 80A-85A for recreation (Big Wheel Blading, updated 14 Apr 2026). Alex Shulgan, professional skater and co-owner of In Move Skates, says four wheels for beginners and three for advanced skaters (NBC News, 9 Sep 2024).
• The Thisissoul skate shop channel (Amsterdam; presenter not named, a seller) is the strictest: stay low, never above 90 mm, and no three big wheels for a beginner (Thisissoul, 20 Sep 2020).
• Asha, coach at Skatefresh, the London skate school, lists 4×80 mm or 3×90-110 mm for fitness (Skatefresh, 2021).
• Disagreement on the start size. Welch and Thisissoul sit at 80-90 mm; Thorup at 100 mm. They agree on four wheels.

Moving up: in steps, toward 3×110 and 3×125

• What the champions ride. Bart Swings, inline world champion and five-time Berlin marathon winner (Powerslide/Matter team), skates 3×125 mm and says the size gives him stability, power transfer and control, pivoting on the middle wheel (Big Wheel Blading, 9 Oct 2017). Sheila Juan Franco, third at the 24h Rollertour and a London, Berlin and Madrid marathoner (Powerslide), rides three 125 mm wheels for long distance (Powerslide team page, undated, read 7 Oct 2026). Judit Abarca, creator of the Rollerobics fitness method (Powerslide), uses three 100 mm wheels (Powerslide team page, undated, read 7 Oct 2026).
• Step by step. Thorup went up one size at a time. Begg keeps 4×110 for strong skaters on long road races, and reports that world champion Kalon Dobbin could not adapt to 4×110 and went back to a mixed setup (Inline Planet, 29 Aug 2012; Dobbin’s case is second-hand).
• Disagreement on three big wheels. Joey Mantia, multiple inline and ice world champion, in a 2015 video published by his then sponsor Powerslide, says of 3×125: “I think anybody can step on them”, after a few sessions to adapt, and enjoys them most in marathons (Powerslide, 6 Jul 2015). He speaks of “normal” skaters, not complete beginners. Thisissoul, Shulgan, Thorup and Begg want four smaller wheels first. In the middle, Casper, presenter of Powerslide’s official channel (Powerslide staff), says three wheels is not necessarily a bad option for a first skate (Powerslide, 11 Mar 2024), and Asha says to pick the size for the skating you will do most, not the size she uses (SkatefreshAsha, 21 Dec 2022).
• Bigger is not always better. Asha rode 3×110 flat for years for speed and comfort on rough city ground, but says she sees skaters on bigger wheels develop pronation (rolling onto the inside edge). Dustin Werbeski, street, big-wheel and off-road rider (Xsjado, Powerslide, Undercover), prefers 110 to 125 mm on the road as a better balance of speed and control (Big Wheel Blading, 2017).

Boot: support first, low speed boots later

• Thorup: an adult beginner starts in a fitness skate with a high cuff; a low speed boot only when the ankle and technique are ready. He says he moved to one too young and saw his ankle collapse. A high cuff gives more support, less mobility (Viktor Thorup, 6 Feb 2021).
• Begg: speed boots tire the ankles and feet, so plan a transition.
• Asha wants a rigid boot for any adult heavier than a child or a small woman. Ricardo Lino, a pro since the late 1990s with one of the largest skating channels, says a soft boot is good for distance and ventilation, and that support depends on the shell and cuff height more than the “soft” or “hard” label (Ricardo Lino, 2 Aug 2017). Casper says he ran a marathon in a soft boot.
• Disagreement on “semi-speed” skates (high carbon cuff on a speed-style frame). Thorup in 2020 told people never to buy them: heavy, they limit ankle flex and build bad habits (Viktor Thorup, 28 Dec 2020). In 2023 he still prefers going straight from fitness to a low boot, but accepts semi-speed as a transition, or for late starters and ultra-distance; he has co-developed such a model. Begg recommends a gradual transition rather than a jump.

Frame: low, aluminium, removable

• Thorup prefers the lowest, most compact frame possible (closer to the ground, more control, less ankle effort) and aluminium over carbon, which softened in heat for him (Viktor Thorup, 21 Apr 2021). Thisissoul also wants metal rather than plastic.
• Many entry fitness skates have a frame you cannot change, says Thorup, so choose the wheel size when you buy. Welch and Casper want a removable frame (standard 165 mm or Trinity) so the skate can take bigger wheels later. Mantia wished he had had a frame that converts between 4×90 and 3×110 as a kid (Cádomotus, 12 Jun 2014).

Wheel hardness and bearings

• Thorup: real urethane wheels, not the plastic of the cheapest skates; soft for rough roads and rain, hard for a smooth track, and soft in training to spare shins and back. Ewen Fernandez, multiple world champion and two-time Berlin marathon winner, answered “soft” when asked his preference (Rollerenligne, before 2018). Casper gives 80-88A as the common range.
• Bearings: Thorup says ABEC 7 or 9 is enough and to clean them after rain; Casper and Thisissoul say keep the stock ones. No skater in our compilation tells a beginner to upgrade bearings.

Technique before gear

• Mantia says there is no magic move, only attention to the basics (Bont blog). Asha: technique matters most whatever the wheel or frame size. Thorup: there is no single best skate.

What nobody covers

• None of the top racers we read (Swings, Felix Rijhnen, Sandrine Tas, Fernandez) gives gear advice to beginners; their setups are their sponsors’. No speed skater in the compilation talks about brakes; for fitness skaters, Asha says keep the heel brake until you can stop at least one other way. Only Thorup and Begg give brand-free numbers for distance skating.

From the skater behind this site

• Size: follow the brand’s own chart and advice, including “go up a size” when the brand says so. Measure your foot in millimetres, standing, at the end of the day. Try the size calculator.
• Tight means the fastenings, not the size: laces, straps and buckle done up firmly.
• Wheels: 78A-85A outside, 95A and up on a smooth rink or track floor; hard wheels pass the grain of the road straight into your feet. Check yours with the wheel hardness tool.
• Bearings: the ABEC number is a machining tolerance, not a speed. A clean ABEC 5 beats a dirty ABEC 9.
• Pain: a rigid inline shell causes some pain even on a good skate; a poor skate hurts more, new or not.
• Inline, not quad: he skated inline most of his life, and his favourite skating is going fast on flat city ground. He also says the city is not for beginners.

The comparison

One 3×110 skate is now in the table, the Macroblade 110 3WD; no 3×125 skate has been price-checked for this page yet. By the skaters’ own advice, both come after a first skate.

Our pick

Start on four wheels of 80-100 mm with a supportive boot and soft wheels, which is where four of the five voices on a first setup meet. On a budget, the Bladerunner Advantage Pro XT and the Zetrablade fit the four-wheel advice but have composite frames. The Macroblade 100 3WD is the step up: aluminium frame, 100 mm, 85A, but on three wheels. Save 3×110 and 3×125 for later, as Thorup and Begg did.

How this page was compiled: 17 skaters, coaches and gear specialists are named (inline speed, marathon, fitness, freeskate and big-wheel), drawn from our skater compilation of 7 October 2026. Each claim links to its source. Full compilation and method: the skater gear compilation.