Before you start using your brand new footbag, there’s a couple of things you should know. Since footbags are made to be kicked, they are quite durable, and if you don’t abuse them, they will serve you for a long time. Still, if you don’t know how to take care of them properly, their lifespan will be much shorter and their condition will detoriate more quickly.
The first thing you should remember, is that while kicking your footbag is what it was made for, excessive force might prove to be too much for it. It is perfectly fine to kick the bag high in the air with a flashy jumping trick, but don’t go overboard. If you are thinking about having a contest with your friends about who can kick your bag the hardest into a nearby spot on the wall, I would ask you to use your soccer ball instead.
Second important thing, that a lot of players forget about, is that professional footbags really don’t like being scraped against hard surfaces. It wears down the fabric and will cause holes to appear over time. Not to mention the panels will start looking rough and jagged, instead of nice and smooth. This means that you should avoid picking up the bag from the ground using your feet only. You can see it often in hacky sack circles – someone will drop the bag, and instead of picking it up with his hand, he will scrape it with his shoe against the other shoe to put it on the toe area. This can quickly ruin your footbag, so please make sure to avoid it.