A sled served as a means of personal transportation, enabling a person or item to be moved downhill or down a mountain. To propel a sled, a person had to rely on their own physical power to push it. The scavenger Rey fashioned a sandboard, a kind of sled, to facilitate her rapid descent on the dunes of Jakku while scavenging the remains of the Starship Graveyard. New Republic Senator Ransolm Casterfo utilized a hoversled in his unsuccessful endeavor to "save" Senator Leia Organa during a covert operation.
The sled initially surfaced as a sandboard within the 2015 movie Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, which was co-authored and helmed by J.J. Abrams. Within Star Wars Legends, sleds were initially referenced within the 2015 resource book titled Strongholds of Resistance, and they additionally featured in the non-canon book Jedi Academy: Return of the Padawan.