SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – A squishy stress toy that’s been sitting on store shelves for years is suddenly becoming one of the hottest items in South Dakota, thanks to the power of social media.

NeeDoh, a line of sensory squeeze toys made by Schylling, has exploded in popularity on TikTok, where videos of people squeezing, stretching, and collecting the colorful toys have racked up millions of views. The viral attention is now translating into real-world demand, with retailers across the country struggling to keep them in stock.

At Child’s Play Toys in Sioux Falls, owner Nancy Savage recently announced a new shipment during a Facebook Live video.

Within hours, both Sioux Falls locations had sold out.

“So I’ve been in business, this November will be 17 years, and I have never seen anything like this,” Savage said. “It is the craziest thing.”

The frenzy isn’t limited to Sioux Falls.

At Black Hills Rally & Gold in Sturgis, manager Madison Bestgen said the store ordered what they believed would be enough inventory to last through the summer.

Instead, the shipment disappeared in less than two days.

“We made an order that we thought was going to get us all the way to the end of summer, and then when we got it in at the end of February, it lasted like a day and a half,” Bestgen said. “At that moment, we were like, ‘Oh yeah, this has blown up. This is something bigger than we thought.’”

The toys themselves aren’t new.

Both stores have carried NeeDoh products for nearly a decade and have built a steady customer base among children and adults alike.

But that changed once the product gained traction online.

“We had them out for people to play with, we’ve shown them to people, people with arthritis, we’ve sold them to so many adults, but all of a sudden, it went viral,” Savage said.

The surge in popularity has become a textbook example of what retailers call the “TikTok Effect,” where a single viral trend can transform an ordinary product into a sensation.

“It can change anything overnight into something absolutely wild,” Bestgen said.

The demand has been so intense that customers are traveling significant distances in search of the toys.

“We have people coming from everywhere,” Bestgen said. “We have people from Rapid City, Spearfish, Gillette, even, that are driving just because they want these NeeDohs.”

Savage has seen similar enthusiasm in Sioux Falls, especially when she goes live on Facebook to tell everyone.

“This is kind of a funny one, but at one of the salons downtown, somebody was getting their nails done, and the light popped up, and both the nail tech and the person getting their nails done ran down to pick up NeeDoh,” she said with a laugh.

NeeDoh’s popularity has also sparked a treasure-hunt mentality among collectors as stores wait for new shipments to arrive.

Savage believes that’s creating something positive beyond the sales numbers.

“It’s a fun, fairly inexpensive summer activity for people to go on a NeeDoh hunt and go around town looking for NeeDoh,” she said. “I think that is building community.”

Whether it’s the stress relief, the satisfying squish, or simply the influence of social media, retailers say the craze shows no signs of slowing down.

More information on Black Hills Rally & Gold Inc. can be found here.

More information on Child’s Play Toys can be found here, and the upcoming drop on Savage’s Facebook live can be found here.