Move over, Needoh, the kids yearn for tradition. Gen Z has recently embraced the hacky sack, a bean bag-like toy that has entertained people on school campuses for decades.
Its roots actually go back to the 1920s, with something called “Oregon Ball” or “The Oregon Game” invented at the University of Oregon, according to the Willamette Week. However, it wasn’t until 1972 that Mike Marshall and John Stalberger started the “global footbag movement” after meeting in Oregon City, Oregon, according to worldfootbag.com. Eventually, the bag took on the name “hacky sack” and it was patented in 1979.
To play footbag, the small, bean-bag like ball has to move between feet. A single person can play it with their own two feet and it could also be played among countless people – the current Guinness World Record of 946 people was made back in 2000. Those who have played hacky sack at school might have the experience of standing in a large group of people, waiting (or hoping to avoid) the moment when they can kick the hacky sack themselves.
“By the early ‘80s, Hacky Sack had become a favorite pastime from playgrounds to college campuses,” said Wham-O, a company that bought the rights to the product in 1983.
Today, the hacky sack is “associated with college campuses in the 1990s,” Business Insider said in an article last month. Now, it seems like the hacky sack fever that took over Gen X has found Gen Z.
Business Insider reported that the recent trend started in the Northeastern U.S. a few weeks before its May 9 article, citing TikTok accounts of the rising tide of hacky sack games at high schools, as well as a report from The Boston Globe. When The New York Times wrote about the hacky sack revival in mid-May, it had already spread to Austin, Texas.
Past waves of hacky sack mania have been associated with hippies, or “stoner burnouts” as Business Insider noted. This time it’s a bit different, with the trend apparently appealing to “preppy jocks” instead, according to its report.
Hacky sacks have already become so popular that its hard to find them in stores, the outlet added. Vice also reported that it was hard to find them in stores as of May 28. Hacky sacks follow other toy trends fueled in part by Gen Z, like the Labubu craze and the need for Needoh’s squishy, sensory stress-ball like toys.
The Wall Street Journal too reported on the growing hacky sack trend in a May 20 article. That report said that Gen Z hacky sack players were pulling out new tricks in viral videos, wowing people who had kicked the sacks around between classes back in the 1990s.
Even as hacky sack videos go viral on TikTok, some have noted that the resurgence mirrors other “retro” trends among Gen Z that call back to a time without smartphones or constant social media scrolling. Audacy has reported on another of these vintage trends, the comeback of iPods and MP3 players that aren’t hooked up to streaming services.
