How to Create Your Own Heelys

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Heelys is a patented brand of footwear that is a hybrid between regular walking shoes and roller skates. The Heelys shoe has at least one wheel that is incorporated into the sole of the shoe to give the illusion of skating without visible wheels. The owners of these shoes can easily transition between walking and skating, which adds to their appeal. While it is possible to purchase these shoes in local shoe shops or through online vendors, if you have a favorite shoe at home that you would like to transform into a Heely, the process is relatively simple and requires only a few tools.

Remove the wheels from either an old skateboard or a pair of inline/roller skates. Use a screwdriver to loosen and detach a wheel from the board or the skates.

Take an old pair of shoes that you would like to embed with wheels. Just make sure that the sole is thick enough to house the wheel. To determine whether the sole is thick enough or not, simply place the wheel next to the shoe's sole. The wheel should only extend slightly past the bottom of the shoe but have plenty of room (at least 0.5 inch) between the padding of the shoe and the wheel.

Use a black permanent marker to draw a square on the bottom of the shoe's heel; this will be used as the guide for cutting the hole. If needed, use a ruler or straight edge to ensure that the lines are perfectly straight. Hold the wheel against the square to make sure that it is large enough. Repeat this step for the other shoe.

Cut along the lines with a small but sharp knife. Dig out a hole deep enough to accommodate the wheel. There should be a small space between all sides of the hole and the wheel; the wheel should protrude no further than 0.5 inch from the sole. Repeat for the other shoe.

Place a screw through the center of the wheel and slide it into the hole to gauge the fit. The screw should extend slightly past the width of the square.

Use the knife to cut small slits along either side of the square to accommodate the screw. Repeat this step for the other shoe.

Wrap a small piece of duct tape around the ends of the screw once the size of the hole is a good fit for the wheel.

Position the wheel into the hole. The ends of the screw should fit securely in the thin slits that you created in Step 6. The duct tape will hold the screw in place and prevent it from shifting from side to side. Repeat this process for the other shoe to finish your Heelys.