Those of you who enter here – be prepared for brutal honesty. Getting yourself a pair of kids' skates, when you are an adult, fully grown person, is an idiotic idea.
Having this out of the way, we’ll explain you why.
It happens quite often in our shop – adults want to buy such skates for themsleves. This applies especially to small frame women, who justify this decision by their small foot size and low weight. The logic here is as follows: if a woman weights roughly the same as 14 year old boy, she should be able to use the same skates, right?
On paper – maybe. In practice – no.
Weight category
Most of skates made for children are evaluated for user weight up to 60 kg. But the key thing here is, these tests are taking a kid, not an adult person, as a reference point.
For example, women of ages between 16-40 years can have up to 12% more muscle mass than younger girls. The proportions of muscle parts in the body are also different – grown women have significantly stronger legs. This translates to stronger pushes and more stress applied on skates. When it comes to men and boys, the difference is not that pronounced, but still present. We cannot wave it away, because even different proportions of the muscle mass in relation to joints and length of the bones cause biomechanics to work differently.
Skates made for children are not created to withstand prolonged exposure to forces generated by adult person. Most of them can literally fall apart over time.
Size adjustment won’t be useful and comes with downsides
When you are an adult, your feet won’t grow bigger. The size adjustment mechanism is useless for you and serves no purpose. In fact, it is one additional thing that can fail. Furthermore, seeing that the adjustable size boots are not solid, one piece constructions but are made of two shell parts joined together by sliding mechanism, energy transfer is negatively impacted in them. This applies even to solid designs like Rollerblade Apex:
The only exception are skates like Doop or Shadow, which sport a snowboard-binding like skeleton. In their case, though, the base is solid and only the cuff slides back or forth – it is also secured by screw and connection is located underneath the heel, where it doesn’t impact performance in negative way. They are made for adults in the first place, though.
Warranty claims
There are skates made for kids which, on paper, should meet all specs required for adults to safely use them. It is worth to mention models like FR Skates FRJ or Seba E3 Junior. These are basically the same skates as ones made for adults, but in smaller sizes and a set of different insoles to adjust the size. In theory, an adult user should be able to skate in them without any problems.
In reality, you are entering a lottery with those. No one guarantees that these skates will hold up – they may even be made out of lower-grade, less resistant plastics which are enough to meet the specs for a kids’ skate, but not good enough for one dedicated for adults, for all we know. In case of any issue, failure, the manufacturer and the shop are not obliged to accept the warranty claim. They can reject it, stating simply “the equipment was not used according to the specs and certification” and there won’t be anything you would be able to do about it.
Insurance
If you have any kind of private health/life insurance and you’ll have an accident during skating with blades made for kids on your feet, forget getting any reimbursement.
Insurance company is fully within their rights to state that by using a gear designed for children, you’ve put your own health/life at risk and that accident is your fault. You won’t be able to win such case. Especially if injury has been caused by skate malfunction. Even if buckle, which is vitrually the same between kid and adult models, snaps and causes accident.
Parts
Skates made for children usually come with softer wheels made out of lower grade urethane, as they usually do not need the top-tier ones. So any potential savings are undercut by the fact that you’ll have to buy a new set of wheels sooner than later.
In case of other important parts – liners usually won’t fit properly and frames, even if they are detachable, are not using any standardised mounting system and are not compatible with ones used in skates for adults. Thus, you won’t be able to upgrade your skates to a different frame set. A good example are popular Powerslide Jet skates, which allow you to take off the frame, but in reality, you are not able to buy any replacement.
Convinced already?
We hope so. The selection of skates made for adults is so rich, there’s absolutely no reason to go for ones made for children (if you are not a kid, that is). Do not go for models made for young ones, it is asking for the trouble.