A lightweight fashion roller skate, capable of reassuring beginners and exciting pro riders while reducing the risk of heel tear.
Since it's redesign, Rio Roller have sold over one millions units across the globe.
Rio Roller has been given a timeless new look, with a chassis engineered to perfectly fit each sole across all sizes. Every component has been carefully redesigned to provide skaters with maximum control and comfort, no matter their riding style.
To develop Rio Roller’s first custom chassis, the design needed to enhance both performance and user satisfaction. The chassis had to provide greater stability and control for beginners while offering the responsiveness and durability required by more advanced skaters. Additionally, a new sole was designed to minimise the risk of heel separation, currently the most costly issue for Rio Roller. Both components were engineered to align with updated sizing, ensuring a better fit for the brand’s boot range.
Rio Roller embodies fun, fashion, and performance. A key focus was balancing the combination of multiple components, both plastic and metal, while seamlessly integrating the brand’s core values.
For the past 20 years, roller skates have faced many of the same design challenges. Most brands have relied on off-the-shelf components from factories with limited modern development, resulting in skates with mismatched parts, each upgraded at different times and by different manufacturers. Like the majority of its competitors, Rio Roller had also been affected by this approach.
Heel tear is a common issue for almost all skates in the market. This is where the boot would separate from the sole, and the fabric would also tear. Therefore, we aimed to reduce or eliminate this.
The original skate was heavier compared to much of the competition, giving a sluggish feel to the skate.
User feedback to us that the original skates were overturning when they leaned. A smaller turning angle was needed as most of the direction should be dictated by the user lifting and redirecting their foot.
Overall the components were not working completely in synergy. Users felt that this combined with a lack of support in the boot meant that they were unstable and at risk of falling.
Skate sizing had become confusing for Rio Roller, with sole sizes not matching as best as possible with the chassis, as the chassis is shared across several shoe sizes
Our skates used several of the same open moulds that our competition used. This meant that Rio was lacking a signature image that separated them from the market, which gave the same “boring” look.
With several clearly defined challenges, the goal was to design a new Rio Roller skate built to last over ten years while addressing these long-standing issues. As no competitors had successfully overcome them, this presented an opportunity to gain a larger market share and deliver one of the best mass-produced, affordable skates available.
Increasing strength and reducing risk of heel tear.
Key insights from the prototyping stages enabled me to refine the ideal depth for the boot, allowing it to sit within a deeper sole. This redesigned sole featured higher edges, creating a larger gluing area and increased surface contact for improved durability. We also tested the effectiveness of adding metal pins to secure the boot to the sole and prevent heel separation. The results showed that strategically placing two pins significantly enhanced performance in stress testing, increasing the load capacity from 133kg to 231kg.
Strength, durability and a recognisable style.
The redesign of the Rio sole significantly strengthened the skate, with strength tests indicating a potential reduction in return rates by over 70%. Additionally, we incorporated signature Rio patterns into the mould, ensuring the sole remains distinctly recognisable as a Rio Roller design.
Boot heel inserted further in to the sole.
Pins added reinforcing the boot and sole.
The final prototype almost doubled in performance in stress tests compared to the original.
Increasing strength and durability whilst reducing weight.
We focused on developing robust 3D prints for both the chassis and the truck, allowing for collaboration with end users and the incorporation of their valuable feedback. The truck angle was adjusted multiple times to ensure users felt the skate turned as expected while maintaining stability. The chassis was modified accordingly, with particular attention given to how users responded to stoppers in different positions and whether they wore down in the optimal areas.
The angle of the chassis and truck were experimented with and tested. The new angle gives the user more stability and control.
The stopper angle tested and altered based on user feedback. Height adjustability was added to increase longevity user preference.
User feedback was acted upon after each design decision was made. Ensuring our skate did not alter from its redesign goals.
A lightweight user focused skate.
One of the most important parts of this process was gaining insights from users at each stage and major change. Focus groups and relaxed interviews helped us to develop the perfect all round skate.
The chassis had now been produced for over 500,000 skates and is also being sold as an individual item. The Sole has been produced and is being introduced to the market in 2023 with the next production of figure skates.
