Starting the Trend

I am glad that I am working harder on the blog portion of my brand (despite missing a blogging event today…but I digress) because there is a unique topic that I would like to address on paper that I normally wouldn’t address verbally. A few months ago, Facebook promoted a product involving this new “thing” called the fidget cube. Well, the video was posted in September of last year. It was the latest & most innovative gadget at that time. The funny thing was that it’s meant to help with anxiety & stress. There’s reference to it stating the cube could also help anyone who has ADHD or Autism. When this item was released, there was a kickstart program on kickstarter.com (Original Fidget Cube Kickstarter) that was presented saying that there was $15,000 needed in order to back the product. Well, as of October, the company had gained nearly 6 and a half million dollars of backing support and donations. Now, we’ll fast-forward to January (for the sake of this blog). Many “backers” of the original fidget cube were patiently waiting for their cube to arrive in the mail. As those official fidget cubes were being made and prepared, I didn’t feel like waiting. I also want to note that I did not back the initial project for the cube. I was going to wait until the site officially went live to sell them (which it has). I then decided to get the fake fidget cubes until I decided to get the official cube. The shocking part was that most of them were pretty good. Many of them are in my possession to this day (or someone may have asked to borrow one). I have about 4 or 5 fake fidget cubes (that I purchased…even have a little baby cube). I always remember attending Magfest in January & watching someone’s performance. I decided to bring my cube with me. One of my friends was in love with that thing like it was giving her all kinds of life. The rest of my friends with me from the cool kids were using the fidget cube as a form of sanity and balance to handle the random toe-stepping and anonymous bumping (which normally could run you up a wall). What was funny was that I purchased each one of them their own fidget cube (one of them lost theirs but since lost a replacement). In so many words, the fidget cube is meant to take your mind off of what’s directly going on in front of you. For instance, when I would be sitting in meetings or participating in activities that were meant to kinda consume my mind, & I needed something to cover my air or mental space. Well, I had the fake cubes, & they mostly worked. However, I wanted the real one. Well, in mid-January, I ordered my fidget cube (the official one from Antsy Labs). I know I was told it would take a while, which was fine. However, I didn’t realize long would mean FOUR MONTHS!!!! I personally believe the business didn’t know what to do with the demand of the consumers. I was to the point where I was doing research and asking people on Reddit what their experiences were involving the fidget cube. Well, when companies who made similar devices caught on to this delay, they decided to bring out their own little toys & fidgeting devices. One device that started to make a HUGE trend in the fidgeting market is the fidget spinner. Something shocking is that the person who originally invented the fidget spinner (Catherine Hettinger) isn’t making a DIME off of the spinning trend (spinner inventor not getting a dime). Meanwhile, you still have the prototype cubes in existence along with these random devices (like a 12-in-1 fidget dodegon…wasn’t sure what it was called) coming along and taking over the fidgeting community. I will say that the fidget spinner started and really introduced the products as a whole to become their own trend. The reason I say this is because people thought it wasn’t much of a big deal. Now, all of a sudden, you have kids being told they can’t have them in certain schools (spinners banned), adults are spending more time fidgeting than working, or that there is more time being placed into a 5–300 dollar device (yes there are spinners that are that expensive) that no one even knew existed a couple of years ago. I personally know that I have a tendency to fidget from time to time causing me to need a pen to click or a toe tap or two to occur, but I fidget. The cube came along as a staple of how to handle my “alleged” fidgeting. Many of my co-workers would see it on my desk along with the other activities and things to keep my brain occupied. When I started as a temp in my job, I was given one of those peg toys that you usually see at Cracker Barrel or even Captain D’s if I remember correctly. Regardless, little things like those are a huge trend and attention grabber whenever someone comes to my desk or tries to figure out how to address or approach me. Obviously, I am able to expose my introverted ways when utilizing these activities, because I sometimes forget other people are around me. That’s also me not being very consistent in the “sharing” category. OK, so there’s my one random tangent for the week. Anyways, what I do want to share is that the fidget trend is big, but it’s big because a company that was kinda setting the footprint of it didn’t really have their product as readily available as expected. There were even backers of the product who didn’t receive their fidget cubes yet, & the cubes were made available to some individuals since January (maybe even earlier). It was almost like a soft release while not publicly sharing that the product is ready to be shared with the general population. The other factor that comes into play with these fidget devices (which is why I have been patient) is the price point. Many of the inexpensive spinners, cubes, and other fidget devices do the EXACT SAME THING as the real products that are considered to be out there. The problem with the fidget spinners is that the individual who patented the product never really did anything with the concept, & here we are 14 years later & you can’t stop people from spinning different variant spinners on their desk or using their thumb and pointer fingers to hold the spinner and watching it spin for seconds leading into minutes, only to repeat the process. The interesting part of it is that some people look and think of it as stupid, while others are seen for observing it as a major definition of time consumption.

The point of writing this blog is to share that if you’re gonna be a part of the trend, even if you show up late to the party, you could make an even bigger impact on those who have been a part of the process long before you were thinking of doing that activity. When it comes to the fidget cubes, they missed their mark heavily on this one. The reason being is because they didn’t truly take the proper time into factoring in the high and heavy demand of the product. That’s what has kept the device afloat for this many months, & people STILL want the cubes (as well as the spinners). Side note…the fact that one of the spinners is called a secret service spinner means that it was nothing short of true definition of time consumption. The strongest factor that comes into these devices is the same factor used when thinking of video games…replay value. If I finish using the fidget cube now, am I gonna pick it up again in a couple of hours or do I end up forgetting that it’s there for a couple weeks? That’s what I want to leave you with today. I hope everyone enjoyed reading & I am glad that you are still hanging around with my unique and random blog. Until next time, take it easy.