I wanted my daughter to learn to roller blade, but almost every brand of blades only goes down to size 11. So I got these since they are smaller and can be in roller blade form. As I excepted from character-themed roller blades, the quality leaves a lot to be desired. The wheels came super tight, which makes no sense, because they need to actually roll to use them. I changed the skates into blade form, and fixed the wheels. (I explain how to fix in the details section.) I gave her a mini-lesson on how to skate before we put any skates on, practicing the skate motions with socks on our hardwood floor. Then we went outside and put the blades on, along with a helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, and wrist guards. PLEASE do not forget these things, particularly when a kid is learning to skate or blade. They need to not be afraid of falling, which means falling needs to not be painful. We had a few buckle issues, but nothing we couldn't deal with. We started with walking in the grass to get used to the feel of them, then moved to very slow skating with me holding her hands on the sidewalk and explaining what to do. After 4 hours, she was able to move on her own on the sidewalk! We took them to the roller rink the next day, which has a more slippery floor. After a bit of getting used to the floor, she was able to do the laps with everyone else, albeit very slow, but not holding the walls at all! She wears a size 9 shoe, but given the issues I had with these I decided to go ahead and buy some size 11 blades for her since she did so well and loved blading. I think we can deal with the size difference to have much better quality. Overall I have issues with these skates, but seeing as how the appear to be the ONLY option for blades less than size 11, they are workable. Details on quality issues: First problem with the design of the skates/blades is lack of the ability to crank the buckle tighter. This is important on top buckles, because they need to be so tight the child cannot bend their ankle. If they can bend their ankle, they are risk for breaking their ankle. If they do not like the tight feeling, they are not mature enough to skate or blade, end of discussion. In the end I got them tight enough, but it was a hassle. Most blades have an easy way to tighten the top buckle to protect ankles. As we progressed in our day of learning to blade, the buckles loosened on their own. I think it might be that she fell in such a way that the little button on the buckle was bumped, loosening it. If that is the case, it is a glaring design flaw in blades clearly meant for learning. Those loosening buttons should be MUCH harder to press. We dealt with this by doing buckle checks frequently while wearing them. After using them for one day (about 4 hours) the skates look very beat up. She did fall a few times, but none at speed, so why do the skates look like they have had heavy use for a month? It makes me worry about the long term wear of these. It was not hard to convert them from trike mode to blade mode, but it does take a bit to do. It is not something you can do super quickly while at a rink or outside, I would consider it more of a thing to decide upon before leaving which way they will be that day. We never tried the trike mode, since my daughter is 4 and has an obsession with balance beams I thought she might be able to handle doing straight into blade mode, which she did. Onto the wheels. As I said before, the wheels came WAY too tight out of the box, so you need to make sure to check and adjust them if you end up buying these. I just took a screwdriver and loosened the screw holding the wheel on. You want be able to spin the wheel with your hand without much difficulty, and it should spin on its own for at least a quarter turn or half second after spinning it hard. If they are any tighter than that, they will not roll properly without excessive force, which might get extremely frustrating for the child. If you are thinking "maybe we try with tight wheels first to learn to stand/walk, then loosen them" that is not a great idea. If you want them to practice standing and/or walking in them before rolling (which is a really good idea) practice on carpet or in grass, don't make the wheels feel different at different times on the same surface this early in learning, because that might get confusing to small kids. The easier it is to spin the wheel, the easier it will be to roll, but also the easier it will be to have the skates roll out from under you and fall on your butt. Once the kid feels comfortable with the skates you can loosen wheels a bit more, since it will allow them to go faster. The wheels themselves are a hard rubber, which is better than some "beginner" skates I have seen with plastic wheels, but not wonderful. Ideal wheels should feel like they have a little give when you press into it very hard with a fingernail. Bottom line: If my kid was still in size 6 or 7 shoes, I would keep using them, but look into ways to replace the buckles and wheels. In size 9 shoes, I feel its better to just deal with the size 11 high quality ones being an inch too big for her feet.
