With all the exposure fidget spinners are getting in the news recently I thought I would take a minute to explain exactly where this new craze that is sweeping our country actually started…

It all started wayyyy back in the 90’s. 1993 in fact. Catherine A. Hettinger of Florida, USA first invented the fidget spinner when she was suffering from myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disorder that causes muscle weakness. The disorder left her struggling to care for her daughter Sara who is now 30 years old. Hettinger held the patent for finger spinners up until 2005 when she was no longer able to afford the patent renewal fee. Shortly after the patent lapsed many copied of Hettinger’s invention flooded the market, including mass produced, low quality items out of China.

It wasn’t until late in the year 2016 that the fidget spinner trend really started gaining momentum. The now quite famous Forbes article by James Plafke titled Fidget Spinners Are The Must-Have Office Toy For 2017 was published on the 23rd of December 2016. This article is in some case regarded as the kickstart of the ‘fidgeting’ craze.

Only a few months after Plafke’s article, fidget spinners started appearing in school playgrounds throughout the USA and UK. In March 2017 mainstream media giants Reddit and Youtube started featuring fidget spinner tricks across their millions of daily viewers. Fast forward to the 4th of May where Amazon reports that every spot on it’s top 20 best selling toy’s list was occupied by variations of the finger spinner. Hows that for a craze!

On the 8th of May 2017 New Zealand news website Stuff.co.nz released an claiming “overseas suppliers were struggling to keep up with demand.”

At the time of writing iFIDGET is completely sold out of all fidget spinners with the next stock shipment still 8 days away.