The Weekly DT – RocketSkates

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: 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.

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