Fearless 55 Footbag

The pinnacle of advanced professional freestyle footbags is here. Some companies like to throw around the term "Pro Footbag" as a marketing gimmick. The Fearless 55 Footbag on the other foot, err... hand, is the real deal. Back in the 90's large, light, floppy bags were the norm even for top professionals. However, there has been a general trend towards smaller, slightly fuller, and heavier bags particularly over the past few years. This is because dexterities have become more popular and more numerous. Back in 2001, there were only a small handful of people (myself included) that had landed a four dex move. Now, there are probably about 100. More dexes means more uptime sets, and tighter windows (the space available between the legs for the footbag to travel).

The Fearless 55 is the culmination of Richard Abshire's 15+ years of hand-stitching professional bags as well as input from the top player's in the sport today. In the words of one of second world ranked, Jim Penske, "I would have to say the Fearless 55 bag is the best Abshire yet!" The footbag consists of 32 panels in a carefully balanced eight color "atomic pattern" (see picture below) using the A-910 panel cut. It's then filled with environmentally friendly (and heavy) tungsten and topped off with a small amount of other fillers for proper consistency to weigh in at 55 grams. "Fearless" is a footbag term that describes a level of play whereby only moves worth five adds or more are done: "This footbag was specifically designed with performing five add tricks in mind," says Richard Abshire, the inventor and stitcher.

That said, if you are not a freestyler, but rather a casual kicker, this is probably not the footbag for you. The life of this footbag will be cut short by hours of kicking; it was designed to be stalled. If you are a casual kicker that would like to learn freestyle, the Mr. Sandbag and the Infinity footbag are perfect for you. Richie stands behind these footbags, but know that you shouldn't expect a full refund if you happen to misuse/abuse this footbag.

The Fearless 55 is now available in both facile or amaretta. The amaretta style fearless 55's have an extremely supple feel and are clearly top of the line. The break in time is quicker, and many top players love how they perform, but the life of the bag is slightly less than the facile footbags. Steri-strips are great for repairing the small pinholes that appear over time.