Maybe you’ve seen them zipping around malls or on suburban sidewalks – kids on roller shoes, the footwear with a wheel in the heel.

“Heelys,” as they’re known, look like fun – and they are. But doctors say kids are getting hurt on Heelys because parents aren’t making them take enough precautions.

Some mall operators and guardians of other public spaces are banning them, to keep “heeling” youngsters from colliding with shoppers and other pedestrians.

The shoes convert to skates when users lean back on their heels – letting children zip over hard surfaces at high speed.

“These roller shoes are giving the same mobility and movements as skateboards (and) Rollerblades, and yet parents are thinking of them differently. They think of them as just shoes,” said Dr. Gary Smith, an emergency-room pediatrician in Columbus, Ohio, who serves as chairman of the Committee on Injury Violence and Poison Prevention for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Parents should make sure children take the same precautions as if they were riding a skateboard or a bicycle – wearing helmets and other protective gear – Smith and other experts say.

“I tell parents any time you have a child on wheels over a hard surface, you need protective equipment,” Smith said.

Increase in injuries

Last week, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons issued a statement recommending helmets, wrist protectors and knee and elbow pads for kids using the wheeled shoes.

Irish researchers report in the June issue of the journal Pediatrics that the orthopedic department of one Dublin hospital treated 67 children for injuries suffered while “heeling” and “street gliding” between July 1 and Sept. 15, 2006.

The injured children ranged in age from 6 to 14, and most suffered sprained or fractured wrists, arms or shoulders, according to researchers at Temple Street Children’s University Hospital.

“For one hospital, that’s a lot in a relatively short span of time,” said Smith, the Ohio pediatrician.

The report says the mishaps generally occurred outdoors, when novice users fell back or forward as they tried to balance themselves. Ten of the injuries occurred in shopping malls and seven in homes. None of those treated by the orthopedists was wearing protective gear.

The footwear the youngsters used was based on the design of shoes with the trade name Heelys, which have a retractable wheel in the heel, or Street Gliders, an adjustable set of wheels that can be strapped to the heels of regular shoes. Both have spawned imitators.

Popular product

Heelys says it has shipped more than 10 million pairs of the shoes worldwide since 2000. The company reported $49 million in sales for the first three months of 2007. The shoes are available in sporting-goods and specialty stores in 50 countries, according to the company’s Web site, priced from $59 to $90.

The company said its analysis of injuries reported to the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission over six years shows that heeling is safer than basketball, soccer, baseball, skateboarding, scooters and bicycles.

Heelys and Glowgadgets Ltd., the British company that markets Street Gliders, agree with the commission in recommending that children wear helmets and other protective gear when using their products.

“It’s just like anything, a skateboard or a bike. If you don’t take reasonable precautions, like headgear and pads, you could get hurt,” said Chris Taylor, the owner of Glowgadgets, whose strap-on wheels sell over the Internet for about $40.

Nationwide, 64 roller-shoe injuries and one death were reported to the CPSC between September 2005 and December 2006, spokesman Scott Wolfson said.

In contrast, he said, skateboard injuries were responsible for an estimated 125,000 emergency-room visits in 2006 and nonmotorized scooters for 44,000.