Freestyle: These footbags are favorites for people who try and do a lot of stalls and tricks.

Advanced Freestyle: These are slightly smaller freestyle footbags, which is great for more advanced maneuvers.

Circle: These are favorites of people who are going for "hacks," passing around in a circle and creating various games that favor fun passing. 

Good All Around: You try and stall a little bit, you try to control it the best you can, you pass with friends, you play solo, these can do it all and are generally in the middle of the pop / stall combination.

Best For Beginners: These styles are great for everyone, but I think are the best to help the beginner learn to kick and control the footbag. 

I use these two terms to help describe the characteristics of the bag, which is just a blend of Fullness, Filling and Style.

Pop - The natural "liveliness" of the footbag. If you drop a hacky sack from your waist down to your foot on the ground, how likely is it to "bounce" off your foot.

Stall - The natural ease of delaying a footbag on your foot. If you drop a hacky sack from your waist down to your foot on the ground, how likely is it to "plop" and stay on your foot.

Fullness - How full is the bag? More full = more pop off the foot. Less full = more dead off the foot, easier to stall on foot, more effort to kick.

Filling - Sand/Metal/Plastic are used to create footbags with a different weight and feel, but also combinations are used to create the desired amount of fullness.

Panels - Footbags with less panels naturally collapse more = less pop/more stall. Footbags with more panels hold their shape = more pop/less stall. 
Low panel count: 6 - 14 | Medium panel count: 18 - 32 | High panel count: 50 - 120

Size - Most of my footbags are an average 2.25 - 2.3 inches in diameter, with two styles being a smaller 2 inches in diameter. Some prefer a smaller size for more advanced tricks, but it is all preference.

There is a reason why people enjoy buying different types of hacky sacks. Different styles change the style of play. Maybe you / you and your friends play various games or work on different skills and different bags change everything up!

Scenario #1: Maybe no one in your group cares about stalling the bag, and you prefer to just pass around for as long as possible, or see how far away you can get from each other and keep it alive. Does this mean you need a bag with the most pop? No it does not. You may prefer a bag with a ton of pop or you may still prefer a bag with a ton of stall because you think it's easier to control. It's all preference!

Scenario #2: You're at home, in your bedroom, just trying to work on freestyle tricks. Which bag is right for you? Well, you definitely want something that's a bit easier to stall, filled with sand or metal.  If you're new to tricks, just learning, you will want something with less panels and sand or metal filling like The Burly Buckshot or Kaboom. If you're more advanced, you may want the same type of bag or something smaller like the Heat Mini Pro or Napalm.

Scenario #3: You do a little bit of everything, you try and get a few "hacks" with friends and attempt the occasional trick. This is most of us. I wish I had a clear answer for you, but I don't. If you wanted one hacky sack, something like The Aftershock would be a classic choice, but The Burn or The Shockwave may be your favorite! These are good "all around" choices or you're a candidate for 2 to 3 footbags that are all totally different!