Footbag Buyer's Guide
Footbags look interchangeable and absolutely aren't. Four things decide how one plays: panel count, fill, weight, and diameter. Here's what each one changes, so you can buy once instead of three times.
Panel count
More panels means a rounder sack with flatter landing faces. It's the single biggest factor in whether a stall sticks.
2–6 panels
The classic knitted or crocheted sack. Cheap, soft, and floppy — fine for a backyard, but the wide panels make flat stalls a coin flip.
8–14 panels
The sweet spot for most players. More panels mean a rounder shape and flatter faces to land a stall on, without the price of a competition freestyle bag. The Big Baby Sack sits here at 12.
26–32+ panels
Competition freestyle territory. Nearly spherical, very consistent, and priced accordingly. Worth it once you're stringing tricks together, overkill for a circle in the driveway.
Fill
Fill decides whether the sack lands dead on your foot or squirts off it — and whether it survives a wet lawn.
Plastic poly-pellets
What we use. Uniform, water-resistant, and heavy enough to drop straight and dead. Pellets don't grind themselves into dust or seep through a seam the way sand does.
Sand
Dense and cheap, and the classic leak risk — one worn seam and your sack empties into the grass.
Steel or glass beads
Heaviest option, used in some freestyle bags for dead stalls. Great feel, higher price, and unforgiving on a thin shell.
Beans or cork
Light and lively. Fun for kicking around, frustrating for stalls, and beans can swell if the sack gets wet.
Weight and diameter
Lighter sacks (under about 40g) hang in the air and drift — fun for kicking, hard to control. Heavier sacks around 50g fall predictably and sit still when you stall them. Diameter matters just as much: a smaller sack near 2 inches tucks onto the top of a shoe for toe stalls, while a big 3-inch bag is easier to hit but nearly impossible to balance.
Shell material
Knit and crochet shells are soft and grippy but stretch out. Faux suede holds its shape, grips the sack to your shoe for stalls, and breaks in like a good pair of boots instead of going limp.
How the Big Baby Sack spec's out
- ▸12 hand-stitched faux suede panels
- ▸Pro-weight poly-pellet fill (~50g)
- ▸Tight 2.2" diameter for stalls
- ▸Made to break in, built to last
- ▸1-year 0-leak guarantee, $15.00 in three colorways
Newer to the game? Learn how to play hacky sack.