The Surprising History of Footbag: From Backyard Invention to World Sport

The Surprising History of Footbag

Footbag — better known to most people by the trademarked name Hacky Sack — was invented in 1972 in Oregon City, Oregon by two friends, John Stalberger and Mike Marshall. Marshall had been kicking around a small handmade beanbag, and Stalberger, recovering from a knee injury, started using it as a low-impact rehab exercise. They called their new game "Hack the Sack."

The Original Hacky Sack

Marshall died unexpectedly in 1975, and Stalberger continued developing the game in his honor. In 1983 he sold the Hacky Sack trademark to Wham-O — the same company behind the Frisbee and the Hula Hoop. Wham-O's plush, sand-filled footbags ended up in millions of teenagers' backpacks throughout the 80s and 90s.

From Pastime to Sport

While Wham-O turned footbag into a toy, a parallel movement was turning it into a sport. The International Footbag Players' Association (IFPA) was founded in 1983, and the first World Footbag Championships were held that same year. Today the sport has two main competitive disciplines:

• Footbag Net — a singles or doubles game played over a 5-foot net, similar to volleyball with feet only.
• Footbag Freestyle — a routine-based discipline judged on difficulty and execution, scored much like figure skating or skateboarding.

A Truly Global Game

Footbag exploded internationally in the 1990s, with strong scenes in Czech Republic, Poland, Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Japan, and the United States. The current freestyle World Champions are routinely Czech, Polish, or Finnish — Europe has dominated the discipline for two decades.

Why It Stuck

A footbag costs less than $10, fits in a pocket, and only requires two feet and a few square meters of space. That low barrier to entry is exactly why it spread on college campuses, music festivals, and skate parks long before social media made niche sports go viral.