This is the Bee footbag. My friend Shawn ordered it. We've had it for a few weeks now, and used it at bunches and bunches of sessions. The other night, Shawn busted his first butterfly, legover, pickup, and flapper stall with it, and I hit whirlwind first try, along with plenty of strings. So, it shreds quite well. Shawn loves it.
The stitching is very even, and the bag is nice and round. It's a bit smaller than a golfball, and surprisingly soft and gushy. It feels almost like Amaretta suede.
Jake is a very communicative stitcher, and very available. If you want a cool custom bag that shreds well PRONTO, Jake is your man. The bags are $30, and he uses BBs, lead, poly pellets, and wire insulation as his filler. See the stitcher contact info thread for more.
This is just a second review, these bags are really very choice.
I've purchased bags from a good deal of those of you that stitch. I consider myself rather good at breaking bags in as I do it not only for myself but for others around me. I play around tiltless level nowadays and figure myself to be a good judge of filler, stitching, material, and playability of a given bag.
This is the second in a series of reviews I intend to write. If you agree with what I say and would like me to review a bag by you, by all means pm me and I will add you to the list of people to purchase from and review.
That being said, Lets start.
The Filler: The filler in Jakes bags is rather interesting, he uses a mixture of shot, BB's and vinyl rings. I believe this to be rather good for fill. It's heavy, dense, and allows the bag to sit pretty well. The vinyl feels a bit weird, but it's more to add volume than to add weight. Overall, his fill is good. Though could use a small bit of tinkering with.
Stitching: The stitching by Jake is great! A lot of the stress that would end up on the panels is decreased by the way he stitches and gathers the bag, thus making them very forgiving. I like this as it makes the bag feel like it could take a beating and keep on kicking. (that does not mean you can use toe picks ups, you lose at footbag if you toe pickup any bag.)
The material: The material is from fields fabric and the colors I chose were somewhat thick. This made for a longer break in time but I'm willing to make that sacrifice as I dislike the weaker colors and want my bags to last as long as physically possible.
Overall Playability: I believe these bags play great after they've broken in. They are a bit rolly, though in talking with Jake it appears that was more due to the fact that it had more vinyl in it than needed. But it played great even before I messed with the vinyl in it.
My Feelings: Overall, I like the bag. I'd like to see a little tinkering with the fill, but some filler works for one person and not for others. It's a good fill, just with a little tinkering I believe the rolly effect would be reduced. Either way though, the point becomes moot because it sits like a rock after break in. Also, these bags are suited for those of you that like heavier bags. Mine weighed in at just over 50 grams and it felt great to me, though I know that may be a bit heavy for some. Though the current trend it bags tends to be for heavy bags, so this may be right of the alley for a lot of people.
So, if you like heavier bags that break in rather quickly and become very stally, these are for you. Also, I recommend them for those of you just getting into 32 panel bags. As I stated, because of the stitching and gather, these bags are very forgiving and I know players just getting into 32 panel bags tend to try and rush the break in and destroy the bag. Like I said these can take a bit more of a beating, doesn't mean you can rough them up just means they're forgiving.
Quick note on the stitcher I speak to Jake quite a bit and he a great guy. Very concerned with the performance of his bags and very helpful in trying to make sure they're as good as they can possibly be. He's great to deal with and I imagine he'd do this for anyone purchasing a bag from him.
To me the bag feels like it has no break in time because it was very stally out of the package not only do I have one of his 32s to talk about I have a 26 also and they play great I highly recommend these bags to anyone who wants a small perfectly filled fast break in bag!!
(Also he is a very nice guy)
Edit: The only con with this bag is that the colors I choose (pink and green) have a very wierd texture but, that doesn't affect the bags playability one bit.
