Three weeks ago, staff at World Footbag, the largest online retailer for the bead-filled sacks synonymous with 1980s and 90s schoolyards, noticed a sudden uptick of visitors. Within days, the influx overwhelmed the company’s servers.
The toy has come roaring back. Dubbed the “hacky sack epidemic” by teens on TikTok, it’s an analog outbreak that caught even the industry’s gatekeepers off guard. “It got to the point where it crashed our website,” said World Footbag co-owner Greyson Herdman. “It took off to a level that I've certainly never seen before.”
On TikTok, the game has become an inescapable obsession. In the first week of May alone, U.S. posts featuring hacky sack hashtags jumped by more than 330 percent, according to figures reported by Good Housekeeping. During that same period, searches for the term on the platform increased sixfold.
For Herdman, the revival is rooted in a desire for tangible, face-to-face connection. “I think that it's the camaraderie,” he said. “It’s simple play. It’s fun, but it’s meaningful, because you all get to celebrate in kind of this simple, simple achievement.”
The craze has been so relentless that World Footbag is now rationing its inventory, releasing only what its small team can realistically ship. On the company’s voicemail, a recording from Herdman’s wife, Kayla Geuttich, now greets a constant stream of callers with a mix of gratitude and a plea for patience.
For veterans like Chris Dean and Jasper Shults, who organise the U.S. Open Footbag Championships, the goal isn’t necessarily to turn every TikToker into a professional athlete. “As long as you have a hacky sack in your pocket, you can find people everywhere, anywhere, at any time, in almost any space,” Shults said. “It’s a pretty amazing little thing you can have access to.”
