LAS VEGAS — For eight years, Paul Chavand been working hard to bring the world a pair of motorized skates. Why? To revolutionize the simple act of walking. Chavand’s dream is turn a simple stroll into an effortless glide on motorized wheels.
But don’t call them skates. Chavand, a mathematics teacher from France’s Burgundy region, gets rather upset at that. Skates imply imbalance, falling over and wildly flailing arms. Chavand’s Rollkers require no “skating.” You just stand still and the motorized wheels zip you along. Balancing is as simple as standing up, the inventor says.
So instead of “skates,” he calls his invention, rather comically, “under shoes.”
The big question is why you’d want them.
Reminiscent of electronic skateboards, Chavand’s Rollkers strap to your shoes and you just stand there. You don’t skate, so there are no balance issues. Chavand says Rollkers can handle rough roads and, in a video playing here at the International CES trade show, a wearer can be seen climbing stairs.
Chavand says Rollkers cut walking time in half. He thinks anyone who has to walk will benefit from his invention.
“The target is everybody,” he said in a thick French accent. “Everybody who has to walk a long distance. People who have to walk to the train. Thirty of forty minutes. Now the time is twenty minutes.”
I wasn’t convinced. Rollkers are bulky and slow. If they were fast and dangerous, they’d be much more fun, and I could see them taking off. But at six or seven miles an hour, they are a next-generation Segway. Something embarrassing to be seen on.
The battery lasts an hour to 90 minutes, and is regenerative. Chavand played down how much of an effect regenerative charging would have on battery life.
Chavand is aiming for a price of 200 euros — if Rollkers ever go into production. Chavand admitted the initial cost would likely be twice that. He is looking for manufacturing partners. He doesn’t have a launch date.
I told him to “get your skates on,” but he didn’t get the joke.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
2 responses to “Crazy motorized skates cut walking time in half”
Or you could put on a pair of rollerblades and get some exercise.
Cool, lets all get even fatter……