Who On the SouthCoast Had a Fidget Spinner?

Fidget spinners exploded on the pop toy scene in 2017 but faded away almost as quickly as they arrived. Friends in the toy business told me it was a phenomenon unlike any they'd seen before.

The spinner craze hit in early February. By June, it peaked, and by July, spinner sales plummeted.

What exactly is a fidget spinner, anyway?

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A fidget spinner is a toy with a ball bearing in the center of a multi-lobed, two-or three-inch flat structure made from metal or plastic designed to spin along its axis with pressure.

Money.com credits Catherine Hettinger with inventing the fidget spinner, "which she first began imaging back in the 1980s."

In a May 2017 article, Money reported Hettinger "started brainstorming devices that could distract young children and provide them with a soothing toy to play with."

Two decades later, Hettinger would develop "the idea that would become the original fidget spinner," which Money called in 2017 a "wildly popular device" and "the must-have toy for kids and adults this year."

I worked part-time in a toy store in 2017 and can testify to the popularity of fidget spinners. There was a huge demand.

Because of the ease at which youngsters could conceal the small spinners, they quickly became unpopular with teachers as students began bringing them to school. Some schools actually banned fidget spinners from classrooms.

Some in the press promoted fidget spinners as beneficial for people with ADHD, autism or anxiety; however, I've found no medical reports to back that up.

Fidget spinners are still available today on Amazon and other online retailers, but their popularity waned almost immediately after they hit the mass market.

One theory is that they are boring –  all they do is spin around.