… are really creepy if you don’t know what’s really going on. I first saw a kid wearing them at a store a few weeks ago. The kid was walking, walking, walking, and then all of a sudden, he was just gliding along on his heels. And, of course, from my point of view, he was doing this on regular old shoes. Just gliding along, 10 feet, 15 feet… It was a really peculiar sight. Suffice to say, I didn’t know what they were. I just did some searching, though, and discovered that they’re called Heelys. You can see some videos of them in use here.
Strangeness.
Saturday I saw two girls with something similar: they had two wheels on the side of their shoes, that werde fixed with a kind of band or belt around teh shoe. Scary…
Ah, I just found out. these things are called “Pliws”
Welcome to 2002, Josh. Oh, wait, it’s 2007! You’ve just now noticed Heelys? Good to see you out of your cave!
When I worked on Honey back in 2002, one of the young actors had them. That would mark the first time I had seen them.
Zeitlos: Those Pliws things are hideous!
Fig: In my defense, the town / area I’m in normally doesn’t get the latest fad until a few years after the fad starts. My wife noticed this when she first got here, from New York state. Stuff that had been wildly popular in New York a few years previous was just becoming popular in southern Ohio.
Skateboarding has also recently become a huge fad here.
Josh: You need to move far, far away from there….
I am aware of this.
Here in Costa Rica, I think about 85% of all children under 10 have those shoes. I hate them. I’m afraid I’m going to be mowed down by and out-of-control pre-adolescent who will cry if I get upset when he makes me bleed.
Having never heard of them before, I saw a commercial for them last night. What odd devices.
Erin: I don’t know if that many kids around here have them, but I know the percentage is rising. I keep seeing more and more kids “sliding” around on their heels.
Joshua: Yeah, really bizarre looking.