The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Kids are over fidget spinners, but adults getting into them
When Mark Ventura won a fidget spinner at work, he was pretty unimpressed with his prize. He’s an adult. What was he supposed to do with a whirring hunk of plastic that kids on social media were obsessed with?
But then he twirled the threepronged gizmo a few times, and suddenly the 28-year-old D.C. resident understood. And then he couldn’t leave home without it.
“When I’d leave for work, I’d check for my keys, wallet, phone like normal,” he says. “And then it started to become a part of my routine to also put the fidget spinner in my pocket.”
Now, at the office, he can’t keep his hands off the thing. “I call people all day,” says Ventura, founder of the e-commerce website Adoshi.co. “While the phone is ringing, I’ll have it out and I’ll just be spinning it.” And spinning it. And spinning. . .
It was bound to happen: In our Peter Pan culture, it’s only a matter of time before a plaything migrates out of the playground and into the world of adulthood. Think coloring books. Think Facebook.
So even as the trend fizzles out among Generation Z, never fear grown-ups are stepping in to give fidget spinners a whirl. The gadgets have made their way into office buildings and onto subway commutes, dutifully serving as the mindless activity our restless hands crave.
And now comes Fidget SpinnerCon, the first-ever expo devoted to the whirling toy. Co-organizer Aaron Martin expects the event, to be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in October, to attract 300 “fidget spinner enthusiasts” young and old.
Martin, 46, initially discovered spinners when his 9-year-old son began collecting them in April.
“Like a lot of dads, I purchased quite a few for him,” the Eden Prairie, Minnesota, resident says. But then he started seeing “some nicer, solid, more well-made fidget spinners as well. I picked one of those up.” Now he takes it with him on his business travels.
The expo will showcase these “quality” spinners, which can sell for anywhere from $20 to $100, Martin says. His personal spending limit?
“Around $50,” he says, nonchalantly.
That’s a serious sum considering that most classic spinners sell for $5 or less — they’re usually plastic, after all — though noted rich person Kim Kardashian has sold her own line, characteristically shaped like a dollar sign, for $15 apiece on the Internet.
Fidget-spinning as an adult requires a healthy dose of self-awareness, of course.
“I still haven’t figured out if it’s socially acceptable for me to have this thing,” says Ventura. “Is this millennial life now? We play with toys. We Pokémon Go. Is that just life now? Are childhood and adult life merging into this amorphous blob?”