THEY'RE shoes as well as skates, James Bond would be proud of them and they're here, writes Barrie Hudson (pictured).

Swindon is one of only a handful of places where the coolest of the cool can buy a pair of Street Flyers. Would-be fashion leaders with £100 to spare have already begun making their way to McQueen's Menswear in Havelock Square.

The McQueen's chain, which includes stores in places such as Salisbury, Southampton, Winchester and Chichester, is currently the only one stocking Street Flyers.

Swindon branch manager Nick Gilchrist said: "There have been buyers of all ages.

"We have had the skates in stock for about a week, and sold half a dozen pairs over the past three or four days. They were invented by an American skater about two years ago.

"He was tired of having to change from his shoes when he wanted to skate."

He says the idea came from an aeroplane's landing gear.

"Everywhere in the States is going mad for them, and it is the same in Australia," he said. "They have even been written into the scripts of Neighbours and Home and Away."

Swindon already has a thriving skating scene, with each new innovation eagerly snapped up by enthusiasts.

Each Street Flyer, currently available in sizes four to nine, has a pair of tough plastic wheels, one set into the sole and the other the heel. These can easily be pulled out and locked in seconds, making a pair of inline skates.

Enjoy it . . . I nearly split my difference!

GIVE Street Flyers a try, I was told. You'll enjoy it, I was told.

As somebody who has never owned a pair of roller skates, let alone the inline variety, I took that promise as I would a pie crust.

That is to say, with a pinch of salt.

For an uninitiated person such as me, wearing a pair of Street Flyers is a bit like trying to get about on a frozen lake, except that you are wearing the frozen lake on the bottoms of your shoes.

I can imagine these beasties being just the thing for the accomplished skaters who dart gracefully along our pavements.

However, as my last experience of getting about on four small wheels was riding a £9.99 Halfords skateboard in the early 1980s, graceful is not the word for my performance.

It was more like the attempts of a newborn giraffe to stand, but without the newborn giraffe's excuse of being dazed by a recent two-yard fall onto its head.

Still, given a practice area where nobody could see me, a week of free time and a gross of Elastoplast, I might succumb to the Street Flyers' charms.

Maybe I'll get in touch with the store and ask them for a free pair in exchange for acting as guinea pig.

Or if I offer them fifty quid, they might split the difference.

Which is what I nearly did when my feet went in opposite directions.