The History of Roller Skates Disha Gopal Dr Uday Dokras Young man on the Edvard Petrini's pedaled roller skates, [1] known as Takypod in Sweden, circa 1910 An overview of the evolution of dry land skating aka roller skates. Early 1700s - Skeelers In Holland, an unknown Dutchman decided to go ice skating in the summer, ice skating was the widespread method used in the Netherlands to travel the numerous frozen canals in winter. The unknown inventor accomplished dry land skating by nailing wooden spools to strips of wood and attaching them to his shoes. 'Skeelers' was the nickname given to the new dry-land skaters. 1760 - Crashing the Masquerade Party