Skyrunners are illegal because the manufacturer refuses to pay the royalties and therefore may not sell them in any of the countries where the patent applies. That doesn't seem to stop them from attempting it.
The earlier Skyrunners had some serious defects but then, so did most of the other legal brands. Today, this is no longer the case. Sure, they may not be built to the same level of quality as a pair of 7's, Powerskips, or Velocity stilts however, I feel the fact that they were chosen to be used in the Beijing Olympics says plenty about them. I believe we all make derogatory comments against them based largely on hearsay and not due to personal experience with them. Because the manufacturer continues to insult the patent owner with his "less than ethical" marketing practices, we rally together to trash his product at every given opportunity. I repeat, there was some merit to the negativity based on the earlier MkI models but since the MkII's were released I have not encountered many dissatisfied users.
To wrap this up...
If you purchased a pair of MkII Skyrunners on eBay, you have been had over in some respects because they were illegal for sale in this country. Now that you have them you will be unable to resell them but you still have a perfectly serviceable pair of stilts so, use them until they give up the ghost. That may be in a few weeks, months, or even a couple of years. Just boil it down to experience. At least you will know better next time around.
