I’m in the process of working with a local Australian machine shop to get some yoyos made here. They are designed by myself (also in Aus).
After working closely with the machine shop and anodiser, they will be excellent quality yoyos. The thing is, they will not come cheap. They would likely need to retail for around $150 each for them to be viable.
I do realise it is subject to the design of the yoyo itself. If its not your kind of yoyo, you wouldn’t buy it regardless.
I have made this poll to get a bit of a feel for whether an Aussie designed and made yoyo at these prices is at all desirable. Please cast your vote if you are interested.
Here’s the one I plan on prototyping. This is not necessarily the model that will be released though. The prototyping at this stage is to make sure the machining and ano tolerances are all on point before I consider making runs.
As clean (perhaps plain) as this yoyo looks, it will be a real performer.
I think offering locally made goods is a great idea, however I also think it’s a hard sell market wise. One Drop gets away with it due to those prices being in the sub $100 range, paired with the fact that they have been around since forever & machine in house. If you want to do it, I say go for it, and hopefully you get the fans you need to make it happen.
Me personally as a consumer, I don’t care where it was machined in terms of country of origin, but I do care a lot about what shop actually machined the yoyo.
Side note I dig that profile a lot! Reminds me of the cascade profile and the cup echo’s back to the Nir by YYR
As cool as it looks, at that price I doubt I’d be an early adopter. If I lived on Australia I would likely be more tempted. It does look great and I wish you the best! 7068 is also a plus!
I think it could pan out in the market we all buy some cool stuff snd high price points but it’s entering the “I question if it’s worth it price range for me.” Area Which often keeps me from throwing money at a cool project even if I really want to unless there’s a specific niche it fills that I’m itching at.
This is definitely an advantage. I can work directly with the machine shop in person and discuss in detail each itineration. The end result should be excellent.
Aparently Hydrangea yoyos sell their models for $150+. I just saw one over $600 and most of their models are sold out. Looks like people are still willing to buy $150+ monometals.
Mmmm I really like this. Cascade with slammed rim weight and an IGR is the first thing that comes to mind. Is this another full weight model like the Steadfast?
