The Next Generation Bean Bag - The Late '60's and '70's Trend That Won't Die

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Take the late ‘60s and '70's trend that refuses to die: Just as the times have kept alive the lava lamp and the capsule chair, it continues to pump life into another ‘mod' furniture necessity from that era - the bean bag chair. According to current web statistics, approximately 135,000 searches a month involve the search term ‘bean bag' or ‘bean bag chair', and over 500,000 searches a month for 'bean bag'. Bean bags are still alive and kicking.

The original designed bean bags were hampered with some design flaws, including failed seams and general poor construction. This would allow the small polystyrene beads to leak out, sometimes creating large, un-fun clean ups and even inhalation hazards. Newer designs places the beads in an inner bag, reducing the chance of the beads from leaking and creating that un-fun clean up process again. Some newer bean bag chair designs often use a combination of poly plastic beads and shredded polyurethane foam. The result is a much more comfortable chair. Depending on the type of fabric or material used for the cover, the outer cover can be laundered or dry cleaned.

Take bean bags of style, for instance. You can now, depending on your styling preferences, modify your home décor with a more relaxed, younger theme, by including bean bag sectionals, club chairs or bean bag loungers. With the increasing outer fabric choices offered (faux suedes, leathers, etc.), you can truly integrate these retro looks into your room decors.

For even higher style bean bag trends, check out the different bean bag style offerings written up by Time magazine back in 2006. Some of these will truly blow you away.

Whether you're a fan of a school or attended a college, many colleges and universities have licensed their names and logos for merchandising purposes. Bean bag chairs have been a staple for years on campuses, and are very popular still today. Fans of college sports teams can find almost every Division 1A school is represented in the available lines of beanbag chairs. So whether you are Terrapin from the University of Maryland, a Blue Devil from Duke University or a Razorback from the University of Arkansas, there is a college bean bag chair for you.

Introduced several years ago to the retail market is the urethane foam bag. Bags of varying fabrics are stuffed with a urethane foam (typically shredded foam, some of the foam being memory foam), which provides a more comfortable feel than the traditional bean bag, which are made up of polystyrene beads. The urethane material conforms to your body better, and creates a luxurious sitting surface, reducing pressure points better than the bead system. These bags come in varying sizes, some of which are pretty large (can seat 3-4 people). Very comfortable, cozy bags!  These bags sometimes require you to, periodically, pull the foam out and stretch it back to its original shape, because over time the foam can compress and stay compressed.

The bean bag has also evolved into the popular world of video gaming. Known for its addictive quality, video gaming is typically a long term, stationary event, requiring some comfort requirements. The bean bag has evolved to provide a more ergonomic, comfortable shape and style for video gaming. Beanbags.com, for instance, offers a cool line of vinyl video bags, which position you properly for gaming. Also available are video bag chairs composed of polyurethane foam. Very comfortable feel.

Great for tailgate parties before big sports events, or for the backyard, bean bag toss games have been popular for years. Over the years, this phenomenon has grown popular again at tailgate functions and get togethers at the backyard barbecue. It's a generally safe game, but at some tailgate functions I've attended, some eye goggle protection might be required....