Heelychat, the forum for heelys, the shoes with wheels - View topic

Joined: 15 Jun 2008 Posts: 1391 Location: UK

(Note: I am not at all against kids using or having heelys, I think the more the merrier, and respect to kids for the skill many of them display, just pointing out that heelys don't seem to be "aimed" at kids) Smile

Wonder where people got the idea that Heelys are for kids, and more so, that Heelys are marketed AT kids?

I mean if you look on Heelys.com website, the shoes are clearly divided into catagories of MENS and WOMENS. . . it doesn't say "girls" or "boys" or kids.

And if you look at the sizes sold, there is only ever ONE size of heely in the child size, and that's the biggest child size there is "13C" - and this is only in a very small percentage of heely models. . . almost all heely models start at ADULT size 1 and some even larger: Reflexes start in MENS size 3 and NEOs in Mens size 4. (slight error on the Heelypedia there btw for 9055 and 9056).

So, given that they pretty much only make heelys in the medium adult sizes, wonder why people get they idea they're a kid thing?

Joined: 22 Feb 2007 Posts: 1548 Location: Ohio

I think most of that stigma comes from the advertising they do, and just all the little kids that use them. They're not exactly possible to do for three year olds, who use child sizes, but more around the age of 6-9, and a lot of them use larger sizes.

reflex start at sz 1 and pretty sure i saw neos on ebay sz 1 too, not to mention that sz's 1-5 dont show up on the boxes as mens sz 1-5 but as Youth (it iterally says Youth) The earlier models started from szs 3 usually and were made up to 13.

and the only reason people say theyre aimed at kids is because well kids think theyre cool and it started early on from one kid showing all his friends, all those kids getting them ebcause they thought it was cool and then one of those kids goes on a trip and on that trip other kids see em. So heelys has taken advantage of that and aimed the commercials at kids, and like kain said basically the stigma, since early on kids started getting em, everyone thinks oh just kids have em, alot of people dont even know they have em for adults even. If you look on youtube for the early commercials and stuff, youll really only see adults using them and if you look for articles they interviewed adults that wore em, some lady taht wore em to go clubbing with her friends and teenagers, in the article it said the shoes were going to be a hit with teenagers but i guess kids got to it first.

Team Heelys - Northeast Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 1803

I think that it turning around .. I saw 1 older kid(15+) for every younger kid (12-) this weekend who was trying them.

MDHZ

@david not to mention the adults who took the lessons
some 42 year old dad
my mom
mikey d's dad.
That mom who took the lessons with her kids.

Team Heelys - Northeast Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 1803

Remember to mention that in the beginning, stick to indoor smooth surfaces.

And also tell them to check out Heelychat.

MDHZ

Joined: 15 Jun 2008 Posts: 1391 Location: UK

well evolution 9105 is evolution but the other evolutions are 9092, 9093, and 9094. So those could just be fusions or some other early grinding model. Released info on neos says theres only been 3. And taht brings another point to the heelypedia, me and slicer add shoes to th heelypedia it is WAY incomplete because we dontt add until we have a good source....or until people *COUGH* annoy us alot about certain models and then we just guess the info. I have alot of names and model numbers without pictures saved on notepad on my comp along with unnamed heelys picture saved in my pictures. Im defintely not adding them until i get the info of what store theyre available at or what sizes tehy come in.