If you’ve been hearing that rhythmic thud-thud-slap sound around BHS, you’re not hearing things. That’s the sound of Branford High School’s newest obsession – the hacky sack.

While it has been around for decades, the hacky sack is experiencing a nostalgic resurgence after exploding in popularity on social media recently.

“I’m not really sure how me and the fellas got started, I think we saw some TikToks, some famous people were doing it, and some kids were blowing up on social media,” sophomore Chris DiStasio said. “I thought we could give hacky sacking a shot.”

A hacky sack, also known as a footbag, is a small crocheted bag filled with sand or beads. Among the players, there’s one shared goal: don’t let the sack touch the ground but, you only use your body and legs, no hands allowed. Groups typically circle up with one bag, aiming to keep the sack in play for as long as possible.

BHS students are seemingly playing everywhere in the building – the senior balcony, hallways, even classrooms.

Students left and right have been buying up sacks and playing with their friends, with some turning back to social media to keep the trend going, like students Vincent Gustavson and Matt Polemeni.

“My friends and I were sitting in [my friend] Matteo’s basement, and there was a hacky sack… he started kicking it around, and we just started playing,” Polemeni said.

“A week later we started seeing it all over TikTok, it was this huge thing… a bunch of schools had social media accounts on hacky sacking, run by the students, so I was like ‘maybe we should make a Branford account,'” he added.

The account, started by Polemeni and his friends Coen Widmeyer and Silas Comen, has gained over 250 followers and 20,000 views within the last two weeks. One video, of the group sacking at Branford Point, garnered nearly 11,000 views.

“We post our hacky sack highlights on TikTok. We’ve got a lot of different people in the videos and every video so far has gotten a lot of views,” said Gustavson.

After the social media page’s success, and the massive popularity of the footbags at the school, Polemeni, who is also the Class of 2028 Historian, noted a new campaign was underway. He explained how custom Hornet-branded hacky sacks would soon be available for purchase before the end of the school year.

Sunshine Daydream, a lifestyle and counter-culture inspired shop, on Route 1 in Guilford, has become the local hacky sack supplier. The manager Dave* noted the recent sales of the footbags were more than he’s ever seen in his decade at the store.

“We place an order for hacky sacks maybe one a year; people come in and buy them every here and there,” Dave said in a telephone interview. “One group came in and I noticed we were running low, so I placed an order to restock, and the shelf was sold out in two days after restocking.”

Dave also mentioned how, particularly teenagers, are buying not one hacky sack, but multiple at a time, sometimes even upwards of six at once. Each one sells for about $13, he said.

“I called the distributor and he said they have been flustered. They’re usually pretty calm over there, but he said the phone’s been ringing off the hook for restocking orders of hacky sacks,” he added.

While the craze was started by social media, it’s taken a more offline turn than expected.

“Hacky sacking has almost brought the whole school together, we’re playing with a bunch of upperclassmen, too. It’s just a great time,” Polemeni said.

“I’m glad kids are going out and hacky sacking outside. A lot of kids told me they actually started doing it because they banned phones in school,” Dave said.

*Dave only provided his first name.

This story was originally published on Branford Buzz on May 8, 2026.