LEILA FADEL, HOST:
In the '80s and '90s, hacky sacks were a staple of college quads and outdoor festivals. Not that I would know because I'm so young. Recently, the bean bags have been discovered by a new generation. Deena Prichep reports from Oregon, the modern hacky sack's birthplace.
(SOUNDBITE OF HACKY SACK THUDDING)
DEENA PRICHEP, BYLINE: The footbag lovers of Portland - AKA flop - meet up at an elementary school every Saturday morning. There are a couple dozen people split into a few circles.
UNIDENTIFIED FOOTBAG PLAYER #1: See if you can get it from there.
UNIDENTIFIED FOOTBAG PLAYER #2: Look at you.
UNIDENTIFIED FOOTBAG PLAYER #1: That was perfect.
PRICHEP: This group has been meeting for about 20 years. There are international champions and Guinness World Record holders doing toe kicks and clipper stalls.
(CHEERING)
PRICHEP: And then there's eighth grader Killian Morton (ph), who's a bit newer to the sport.
KILLIAN MORTON: Yeah, probably two weeks, maybe a month.
PRICHEP: It's hard to say exactly why so many kids started kicking hacky sacks a few weeks ago. Some speculate it was a trend from East Coast prep schools or a hacky sack cameo in the movie "Project Hail Mary," or just the natural result of kids looking for something to do when the schools ban cellphones.
MORTON: It's just like, out of nowhere on one random Monday, everyone just had one and was kicking them in the hallways.
PRICHEP: From Colorado to Kansas City, middle and high school teachers report groups of kids playing hacky sack before sports games and in the hallway between classes. Kids are also uploading TikToks and reels with their moves, which then spread to more schools, just like Killian's.
MORTON: It's kind of crazy how quickly they picked it all up because they're, like, doing tricks and stuff.
PRICHEP: And kids are doing this everywhere. According to the latest Google Trends report, searches for hacky sack went up over 5,000% in the past month. TikTok reports a 7,000% increase in year-to-date searches over the last year. And they say this trend only just started at the end of last month.
STEPHANIE SALA: We just can't get enough. And as soon as we get them in and post to Instagram, we're sold out.
PRICHEP: Stephanie Sala owns the Five Little Monkeys toy stores in the San Francisco Bay Area and says they're selling a couple hundred sacks a day. Greyson Herdman, who runs the online shop World Footbag, says they're selling out everywhere.
GREYSON HERDMAN: A shipment that would usually have lasted us half a year has sold out in two weeks.
PRICHEP: Herdman says footbags need to have the right weight and flexibility for a good hack. And they have to stand up to being kicked. So even the cheaper hacky sacks are usually handmade, either crocheted in Guatemala or handsewn in Pakistan or the U.S., which means it's not that easy to just ramp up production.
HERDMAN: Usually, we do, like, around a dozen daily sales on our website. And it was doing, like, a sale a minute before it crashed. The footbag has made the generational shift.
PRICHEP: And at this Saturday meetup, you can see why. People are outside in the sunshine pulling some amazing moves, encouraging each other and just having fun. Fourteen-year-old Brennan Rhyme (ph) has been kicking for well over a year. For a while, he was the only kid at circles like these and is beyond psyched that it's finally caught on with other teenagers.
BRENNAN RHYME: I've been trying to, like, pass out bags and stuff. And it just finally clicked for them. And they just all started, like, simultaneously doing it.
PRICHEP: These newbies are still working their way up to fancier moves. But they're putting their own spin on it. Tricia George (ph), who has been kicking for over 40 years, has been delighted to have her Instagram suddenly followed by the new generation. But she's equally excited to follow them.
TRICIA GEORGE: I mean, the things they're doing with their bodies. They catch it, they lay down, they roll on top of each other and they pick it up. And they throw it from the roof.
PRICHEP: Because as long as you're having fun and not using your hands, there isn't really a wrong way to hacky sack, as long as you can find one.
For NPR News, I'm Deena Prichep.
(SOUNDBITE OF RICHARD HOUGHTEN'S "NEW MEXICO") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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