You know, honestly, I feel like this is true for a lot of people who make yoyos.
I mean of course companies that have been in the game a long time like clyw and Yoyofactory are going to know a great deal about making a yo-yo play exactly how they want. But sometimes when I see someone who looks like they’ve been throwing for about 6 months come out with their own new yo-yo, I wonder if they have the experience to know what tweaks to make to really get some good performance.
A lot of the best yoyos are created by people that aren’t competition players, and don’t possess extreme skill, but in those cases it seems like one of two things is happening:
1.) They have a team of players that are very skilled that they can get feedback from
2.) They have designed enough yoyos over many years that they have a good sense of how to get the play they want, even if they can’t throw many tricks themselves.
A lot of these new boutique companies started by relative beginner throwers have neither. But their products are often hailed as some of the best playing yoyos out there. And on the forums, they’re almost always compared favorably to companies like Yoyofactory!
I think that this is because most of the yoyos made in this way are organic, or at least non competition. And this makes assessing their play tricky, because you can’t talk about it as objectively. If the yoyo’s competition performance is irrelevant, who’s to say whether it’s good or bad?
Here’s my point. I don’t think it’s fair to say that companies like Beeboo and Magicyoyo aren’t any good because their design process consists of putting some rim weight on a neat profile, getting some cool aesthetics, and calling it a day, without any real expertise on how it’s going to play. Because again, many boutique manufacturers don’t have that expertise, so they will be going through a very similar process. And their products are loved by the very people who hate Beeboo the most!
Now, if Beeboo consistently made yoyos that broke, then obviously that would be a serious mark against them. But they don’t. In fact, the two Beeboo’s I’ve thrown and the three magic yoyos I’ve owned were both $12 or so, and are some of the smoothest yoyo’s out there. They’re probably made on the same lathes as some boutique yoyos too, haha.
I just want to finish up here by saying, I don’t hate boutique yoyos. In fact, many, I quite like! Even if they are mostly a cool profile, and an eyeballed amount of rim/center weight, and premium anodizing.
Because often, thats really all you need to have a fun time.
