The dream of the 90s is alive in Nairobi

February 14, 2019 7:40 AM

Did you ever wonder where the rollerblades you had in the 90s are now? If you donated them to a charity shop, there's a good chance that they ended up in a container of secondhand clothing exported to Africa (a trade known by the Swahili word mitumba, meaning “bundles”), made their way to a skate shop in central Nairobi, and right now are in the possession of a stylishly attired young Kenyan, racing deftly down a busy street in Kenya's inline skating craze.
posted by acb (4 comments total)

Surprised they didn't include video in the article. Here's a video on Nairobi's City Skaters from OkayAfrica (sibling site to Questlove's OkayPlayer.)
posted by larrybob at 9:28 AM on February 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

Why did we give up on these? Such a pleasant way to get around and collect interesting scars.
posted by es_de_bah at 9:55 AM on February 14, 2019

Nairobi sounds really interesting. Although I've never been there, I've been to a couple of tech/digital rights conferences in the Philippines and Sri Lanka, and both times there was a strong Nairobi contingent. The Indian Ocean community seems very dynamic.
posted by JamesBay at 11:50 AM on February 14, 2019

Awesome post, seeing the youth's joy and seeing an inclusive subculture being made created a nice warm fuzzy feeling in me.

As a 90s kid, I used my rollerblades often for a summer or 2 (primarily practicing street hockey with myself or playing said games with friends) but the poor quality of our roads limited their use.

I remember having our street hockey games in specifically in my backyard, the tennis court, or a friend's because the pavement (concrete or the tennis court, asphalt) of the typical asphalt roads in Cleveland that eroded after just a year or 2.

As for the cost, totally calling out my ignorance, but $3/hour cost seems a little steep for those not in the Nairobi's middle class.
posted by fizzix at 12:54 PM on February 14, 2019