Back to what the OP said-
YOU have fun one way
OTHER people have fun a different way
You are definitely entitled to your opinion. And you should definitely share it. But please don’t tell me why or how i should yoyo.
Your points were great, sorry if you took that the wrong way. Just the arguing has gotten out of hand.
i hear where you’re coming from, but i don’t think that i would have settled to marry someone with whom i was not in love with my whole being (which seems to be samad’s perspective). it is a bad example, but it also kind of underscores most of what you’ve expressed in this thread. you’d rather be with someone who’s ‘alright’ and who ‘gives you stuff’ than be alone. it’s a reasonable perspective, if not an inspiring one.
there are grains of truth all over this thread. i agree that being sponsored is really nice. i also agree that you should only represent a company whom you really believe in. and i certainly agree that most yo-yoers (young or old) place too much emphasis on the drama/importance of being sponsored.
i’m sponsored by spyy because i think their yo-yo’s are incredible and think the world of steve buffel. if there were some other company that i thought made better yo-yo’s or were run by a better person, i would put in my notice because when i say ‘these are the best yo-yo’s around’ (which is what’s implied by wearing the shirts, passing out the stickers, and throwing the throws), i want to be sincere. that said, i have hundreds of non-spyy yo-yo’s that i also think are peachy keen and throw regularly. i think the attitude that the op is trying to shake players out of is the one that says ‘holy crap! a sponsorship for me?! yes, of course, where do i sign?! i’ve done it! i’ve WON!’. it’s nice to get free stuff, but if you don’t maintain your integrity, that’s all it’ll be - a pile of free stuff.
the premise of this thread is that yo-yoing should be about fun, and not just some sort of extrinsic ‘success’, but it’s important to note (as some have) that it’s also about meaning and overcoming challenges. sometimes those things are fun, but sometimes they aren’t. i’ve played yo-yo every day for a long, long time. sometimes i do it to find casual joy, and sometimes i do it intensely with a specific focus which i take very seriously. learning to hit spirit bomb on a no jive was not fun for me, but i was compelled to do it because i felt that it was ‘important’ and beneficial to my character. a yo-yo IS a toy, but that doesn’t diminish its capacity to reveal the chinks in your armor; to enlighten or humble, none of which are particularly ‘fun’.
i think everyone needs to find their own reason to yo-yo and respect each other’s perspective. whether you’re seeking some kind of outer reward, inner quiescence, deliverance from some kind of addiction or torment, whether you’re proving something to yourself or to some other, whether your yo-yoing comes from a place of innocent joy or terrible pain, we’re all drinking from the same well.
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Yes anti drug. I yoyo rather then shoot up. Seems simple enough I transferred my addiction.
What I am saying is people may only be able to pull fun out of this by being totally serious, as in a competitor, or sponsored player. If that is what makes them happy then who the hell are you to tell them not too. It would be the same as me standing here saying if you don’t take this serious then you can’t possibly be having fun, so get with it and get sponsored so you can start having fun.
If you can’t understand what I am saying then I don’t know how to help you, understand.
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Comparing sponsorship to marriage is taking it waaaaay too seriously. Sure, I suppose there’s some loyalty involved. You want to do your sponsor right. But that doesn’t mean you have to swear off all other yoyos or stop liking other companies or shut your eyes to the idea that something legitimately better might come along. And it most definitely doesn’t mean you have to expect the same out of other people when you don’t even know what’s going on behind the scenes.
There are so many reasons why people throw and stick with it. Consequently each person ends up with slightly different priorities in what they want and expect from yoyoing. Your expectations for yourself are just those—for yourself. Expecting other people to be as loyal as you are or as determined to do or be something as you are is not letting them be themselves. If someone leaves a company to join another company, chances are you don’t know all the details. You don’t know why the yoyoer joined the first company, what kind of relationship the yoyoer had with either company, the conversations that took place, precisely what was offered, or how it lined up with the yoyoer’s priorities at the time.
It seems more and more like yoyoers are turning into celebrities. Not by their own choice, but it’s gotten to where people will hear that someone gasp did something and immediately assume they know everything they need to know. Yoyoers are people. Please treat them like people.
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http://www.yoyoskills.com/?p=329
^theres a nice post
EDIT: Following what you said comparing yoyoers to celebrities:
“OH MY GOD< JENSEN KIMMITT ATE A SANDWICH WITHOUT MAYO? OMGOMGOMG”
^
I wonder when people will start saying that…
that is what i say when people say ‘WHAT $70 dollars for a yoyo?!?! that is WAY to much’. I say 'better than spending money on drugs 
I’m glad 99.9995% of us wont get sponsored.
This is a lot of drama.
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What? Your wife actually doesn’t have a problem with yoyos?
Lucky.
I read this somewhere. Oh yeah, page 2. Great insite that guy.
Good one. -_-
Wait, he did? Let’s get him.
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it’s crazy now to think that some of the players on that top 5 are sponsored now. But all the same they rep the company they are sponsored by well.
Zach smith encourages a lot of people at contests and i mean really i like yoyorecreation the best for 1a and 3a and i like yyf for 5a and 2a and yyj for 4a. There is nothing wrong with liking more than one company. I mean seriously how are you going to play 4a with general yo? Using one yoyo company prohibits you from trying new things. I think there is nothing wrong with being committed either. This thread should not be locked because it has a lot of good details that has even helped me.
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Zach, This post is really inspiring. I think there was a point in all of our yo-yoing journey when all we cared about was being sponsored. Some people want to get sponsored just for Free Swag while others want to be sponsored because they love that company and they want to represent us. I agree that in the end, the yo-yo is a toy and all the toy was meant to do was to give us joy. I agree that team videos like from Duncan or maybe even Yoyojam you can see the joy and happiness in their face; it’s not acting, it’s them wanting to make this video. There’s more creativity compared to (generalizing) YYF and you can feel it.
In the beginning I wanted to be pro for the profit but now seeing the Duncan Crew, I just want a sponsorship so it can give me the opportunity to represent not the just the company but the community itself. The yo-yoing was meant to have fun and it always will be.
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allow me to be the one person who has never wanted to get sponsored to get free yoyos
let me expand
for the first year and a half or so i had almost no idea that one could be sponsored in the yoyo world (coming from diabolos where no one is sponsored and no one has been) then the duncan crew came to town last year for the 80th anniversary and showed me possibly the best weekend of my life i went from having a partially working yoyo to having an amazing playing yoyo and new amazing skills and friends. the whole group on the tour showed me how cool the community is and really from then on I wanted to be sponsored because of the people i get to associate with and hopefully to give another person (even just one) that same experience that I had. anyway i hope someday to be on a team to get to hang out (more often) with really cool people who love to do the same kind of stuff that i do and hopefully learn a thing or 2 from them (maybe even things that don’t have to do with yoyos)
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well if it’s all (and it’s not) about “getting free yoyos”, just work towards getting a regular, paying job, yoyos are cheap enough for people who work to buy what/whenever they want, maybe at the exception of a handful very pricey throws (which you won’t get anyways as they’re not from one only manufacturer).
I don’t really care about sponsorship because, well, I’m far from having what it takes to get sponsored, and eventually, whenever I will, I’ll probably be too old anyways, so sponsorship is out of the question, I’m the typical “I play for fun and sharing with other people” kind of guy, I work so I can just buy whatever yoyo I want to as there are not billions throws out there that I want to buy anyways.
But I’d really like to make/design a yoyo later on (much later)
This discussion brings good points, but all in all, the end game is that everyone enjoys yoyos his/hers own way, and there’s nothing no one can do about it, there’s no “wrong” or “right” way per se.
Although, I once had the chance to make a living out of something I really enjoyed doing (music), I rapidly quit, because once it becomes a job, I find that it takes the whole fun out of it, it’s not the same if you’re required to do it on demand, it’s so much better if you do it just when/however you want.
Reality is, out of all the kids who want to get sponsored, only a very few ones will actually get there, and now I don’t really know, so correct me if I’m wrong, but you don’t get sponsored suddenly, it takes time, there probably are discussions, just to make sure what you’re getting yourself into.
it’ll suit some people, some other people won’t like it, but really, how many people who talk about being sponsored really do get sponsored in the end ? I say the sponsors do their job by also picking up mature and/or well balanced people, I don’t see YYF settling for a hysterical 12yo kid.
So all in all, the discussion is good, it would be if it was actually up to the players and not the company, but as it was mentioned earlier, yoyo is not a billion dollars industry, so I take it the companies chose their players carefully, which help sorting everything/one out.
my point is, sponsorship is probably not ONLY about skill, but also attitude and maturity, which would, by itself, rule out any player who’s not really standing out, and not only by his skills.
now if I’m wrong, please do correct
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hadoq, I like the way you type 
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You know the way I orignally felt about this post was you were 100% percent right. Spot on and such. But then I looked into it. And you know, I though hard about this; and I know many people might have said this but…
You can’t deprive someone of their own dreams. They can want a sponsorship all they want, that’s not a problem. But you can’t say that wanting a sponsorship is wrong. That’s truely opinionated, and as much as I agree with you, I also disagree.
I look at this and wonder where the world would be with out dreaming, would it still be were it is as of know, or would we all be stuck in a Dark Age. And thats the point tyou really have to take into consideration thatdreaming is something you can’t take away. So move on, and let them keep dreaming.
-Gizzyo
This is basically exactly what I’ve said word for word when people ask me why I don’t go out and so birthday parties and events and stuff to try and pocket some extra cash - and it’s also the same reason why I personally choose to stay completely out of competing and the like.
While there have been a whole lot of truths unearthed in these 6 pages of heated discussion, I feel like the more and more it goes on, aside from the occasional glimmer of hope, Zach’s original idea gets more and more lost and obscured.
Guys, he never said that no one should pursue sponsorship, that no one should compete, and he most certainly never “told” anyone how or why they should yo-yo. Like myself, he has probably noticed an increasing trend of a sort of “elitist” attitude on the boards (which I personally think is the root of the problem), and more importantly that people seem to have lost track of the fact that yo-yoing is supposed to be an outlet to provide each and every one of us fun and enjoyment. That could be fun in the form of preparing awesome new tricks for a competition, de-stressing, staying off drugs, or just plain old fun for the sake of having fun - as many others have said, there are as many unique reasons for yo-yoing as there are people on this forum, and that’s OK.
The moral of the story is, we shouldn’t loose sight of the fact that we’re supposed to be enjoying ourselves in this hobby. It’s easy to lose sight of that when you’re trying to pull an ace out of your sleeve to top the next dude on the boards. I joined this forum originally because I liked the fact that everyone was so supportive and it seemed to me like people were actually working together to progress in each member’s respective yo-yoing journey. That really inspired me and I ultimately attribute that to my continuance of my personal yo-yoing journey to this day. And best of all, all the drama I saw on other forums at the time was nowhere to be seen around YYE. Not to diminish the importance of the contributions of long-standing members and some notable new members which I hold in very high regards, but now I feel like it’s all drama, no progress. And I think that was the original idea of the thread. Correct me if I’m wrong.
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