Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Culture

The Weekly DT – RocketSkates

Caleb Denison
By

This post originally ran on our brother site Digital Trends:

Rocket skates have been the stuff of childhood fantasy ever since Wile E. Coyote first strapped a pair of miniature Acme rockets on an old pair of roller skates as part of a harebrained scheme devised to capture The Road Runner (which, of course, never happened). That Saturday morning cartoon originally aired in 1952, and now, some 62 years later, RocketSkates are finally a real thing. Well, sort of.

Related Videos

Related: Acton’s RocketSkates are like mini Segways you strap to your feet

Naturally, strapping rockets to your ankles (or any other body part) is sure to be a spectacularly bad idea. Thankfully, Los Angeles-based entrepreneur, Peter Treadway, was clever enough to realize that with his own take on RocketSkates. As it turns out, modern-day technology makes the use of ballistic missiles as a means for bi-pedal mobility completely unnecessary. Armed with brushless DC motors, lithium-ion batteries, and microchips, Treadway set about developing what we now know as the RocketSkates, a product which made its debut as a Kickstarter project that wound up being wildly successful.

Seen in the video above, Treadway shows the RocketSkates in action as he skillfully snakes through event-goers at the Luxury Technology Show. He makes it look easy, but you can tell some practice will be needed by first-time users.

In addition to travelling up to 12 mph, the RocketSkates can connect to smartphones to track travel, and play games or simply meet up with other RocketSkaters.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
The NFL Has A New Streaming Service, But Is NFL+ Worth It?
Upgrades, Add-Ons, and Several Restrictions Apply For NFL+
Matthew Stafford (9) of the Los Angeles Rams during the 2022 NFC Wild Card game.

Looking to upgrade your football-watching experience this fall? Good news: there’s finally an NFL streaming service.

The National Football League joined the ranks of its professional peers, announcing the launch of the new NFL+ streaming service on July 25. The NFL believes that expanding the sport and bringing the televised game onto a forward-thinking platform can bring fans deeper into the action.

Read more
Is Wordle Worth Jumping on the Post-Viral Bandwagon?
The Post-Viral App Is Still Helping Drive Revenue at The Times
Wordle game #196 solved in 4 guesses

The Wordle app’s popularity has cratered since The New York Times (NYT) acquired the app, but the latter is only one possible reason for the former’s fall.

Wordle’s plunge from late January highs are down almost 1000% in July. An average of 350,000 users posting game results to Twitter in the first month of the year. Those tweets are barely breaking 40,000 posts in July. Gaming function, management missteps, seasonal changes, knockoff apps, paywall rumors, and the essential nature of the phrase "gone viral" all factor into the decline. Despite the dive, Wordle’s January acquisition has been a success for NYT.  According to first quarter earnings, subscriptions to app games are driving growth for the media giant.

Read more
Incredible Prime Day 2022 Deal: Two Smart Bulbs for $10
Hotel Room with a Notebook Computer on the Table Near the Bed

Photo provided by PxHere and licensed under Creative Commons (https://bit.ly/3Hn9miG)

Prime Day 2022 has finally arrived - and with it some truly epic Prime Day deals. We've got some great Prime Day smart home deals for you, and one of the best deals around right now is this smart light bulb bundle from Merkury Innovations. You'd normally pay $16 for this bundle, but with this smart light bulb Prime Day deal, it will cost you just $10, saving you $5 off the usual price  -- and at that price, you could afford to pick up more than one.

Read more