IMO, YYF is checking every box they need to check as far as designing yo-yos. I just don’t see what is obviously missing from their lineup. If they make a lot of lower end stuff that doesn’t appeal to me, that is also true of the few comparable brands.
That $250 MgSS seems like a legit effort:
Despite over 25 years of people making yo-yos from magnesium Yo-YoFactory had never crafted in the material. We have however done some design in the material. We overcame the string cutting issue for a client, which was imitated by other designs, but on a recent trip to China we found a new appreciation for the material. The uniqueability to create a precision metal bodies with almost zero weight was a blindspot, and we wanted to try it out. The next aspect was to create something unique. If we are coming in late we need to come in with the best. We settles on an internal captured weight rin. Not innner nor outer weight ring, but precision located IN the rim. Steel was selected as the weighting material and the result was nothing short of a masterpiece.
The lessons learnt in this process will offer a new perspective in designing competitive Yo-Yos for Mir and Miri in 2026.
There was another strange result. Our total costs on this masterpiece were much lower than anticipated, which strangely allows our no limits go wild creative experience to come in at a price MUCH lower than other similar designs.
I have limited YYF purchases to signatures and a couple of genuine classics, but that is not because they aren’t producing plenty of compelling designs.
YYF is a great brand. I have the impression that bashing YYF often isn’t about the yoyos themselves—it’s more about elitism and giving off the impression of being an insider. YYF dominance in competitions demonstrates the technical superiority of their designs. You can´t win so many world championships with bad yoyos. Unlike many niche yoyo brands that focus exclusively on high-end products, YYF produces a wide range of yoyos, from beginner-friendly to professional-grade competition yoyos. This inclusive product strategy makes them accessible to newcomers and helps spreading yoyo. YYF has played a central role in spreading yoyo culture worldwide. Their sponsorship of global tours, participation in international contests, and collaborations with players from diverse countries demonstrate a strong commitment to the global yoyo community. They are great. They are the best brand in the business by far.
it’s mainly about one of the owners being a racist.
Also before anyone comes at me and says it was a misunderstanding and/or whatever else you want to say, I don’t care. Nothing you say will change my mind.
I understand the thoughts….but there’s ONE part of what you said that I strongly disagree with.
YYF dominance in competitions demonstrates the technical superiority of their designs.
Are we really going to pretend that their players would not be able to win with something from C3 or W1ld or one of the other competition oriented brands?
I kept seeing the same argument about the Yoyofactory Replay Pro. “Gentry won Nationals with it so it’s got to be an amazing yoyo”.
No, Gentry is just THAT good. The yoyo is sufficient but the player’s skill makes up for it.
Yoyofactory is a big brand in the yoyo world. I suspect being one of their highly sponsored players like Mir, Gentry, Hunter etc is a good deal sponsor wise.
THAT is why they attract the best players. Their yoyos are good enough to compete with, but they’re just nice to work with if you’re one of the top players.
I’m not saying their gear isn’t good. Some of their designs are true classics and others are highly underrated performers. But saying “they have great players…so their yoyos are the best” is not quite the truth.
Sure, they’d like you to think that…but that’s the reason they sponsor players in the first place. It helps with sales.
competition are won with yyf because they can actually afford to sponsor and give good deals to top player on earth. their design are no better than any other top company. Mir Kim could win worlds with any above average bi metal. c3,yyr,anything
Mir Kim would make pocket change like $1500 a year sponsored by G2 via signature model royalty. they do not sell enough yoyo. Even CLYW have gone from selling 150+ yoyo in a day on a drop to like 20-35 maybe. Imagine be the greatest level at anything on earth to make $1500 a year from your skill you put 10,000 hour into.
Gentry Stein have make well over $100k in the yyf sponsorship via yoyo sale. every top world champion by yyf have made lots and lots and lots of money via a signature model. evan nagao, jk, ando.. YYF Northstar or Edge sales alone probably more than all of G2 and CLYW yearly sale combine now.
The 888, Superstar, Northstar, Shutter, Shutter Wide Angle, Edge/Beyond, and Miracle, all were outstanding in their time. And let´s not forget that YYF’s unresponsive designs in the early 2000s (around 2003–2005) as the first widely available, mass-produced unresponsive yoyos suitable for competitive play, and the hubstack yoyos invented by Ben McPhee and Hans “YoHans” Van Dan Elzen of YYF in the early 2000s. Duncan often gets most of the credit in yo-yo history (and rightfully so for the early 20th century), but YYF has arguably contributed just as much—if not more—in the modern era of yoyo.
I´m a marketing researcher and I have studied this same phenomenon in other industries. In consumer culture, rejecting the most dominant or popular brand can serve as a marker of subcultural capital, signaling expertise and distinction within a community (e.g. Thornton, 1995; Bourdieu, 1984). Within this framework, disparaging YYF—the most recognizable and globally visible brand in the field—may function as an act of differentiation, positioning the critic as an insider who resists mainstream preferences rather than as a neutral evaluator of quality.
Elite players like Mir Kim, Gentry Stein, or Evan Nagao could likely perform well with many high-end yoyos — but “winning” at the World Yo-Yo Contest is not only about skill. Equipment affects outcomes even at the highest levels — e.g., in swimming (full-body suits), cycling (aero bikes), or pole vaulting (carbon poles). The same logic applies here. YYF worked closely with its players (e.g., John Ando on the Superstar, Gentry Stein on the Shutter, Mir Kim on the Miracle). These models were literally designed to support their style of play. The fact that multiple YYF models have been used in world-winning performances over two decades suggests it isn’t just coincidence. If “any” competition yoyo were interchangeable, we’d expect a more even distribution across brands — yet specific models (YYF Shutter, C3 Radius, YYR Draupnir, etc.) dominate certain eras.
There’s more depth to why people hate on yyf than this now. Maybe it was like that in the past idk bc I haven’t been playing yoyo forever but yeah…more to it than that now
you are wrong, and relating single piece of 2 metal spinning to some complicated machine with many piece like a high level $20,000 USD aero bike or 200 million dollar F1 race car with thousands of parts and piece that effect variables of performance or outcome
Michael Jordan could wear any high level shoes at time and still win. mir kim could yoyo any high level yoyo and still win the same.
Michael Phelp is winning 28 olympic gold medal regardless of full or partial body suit.
It’s funny you’re trying to make this argument when YYF have had multiple marketing pushes where they argued the exact opposite of this and their competitive players won big contests with demonstrably worse yo-yos then standard competitive designs of the time (Jensen with the North Star/Protostar in 2010, Gentry with the Replay Pro). Top players also still regularly perform with monometals even today despite the objective performance benefits of bimetals for contests.
Your argument wouldn’t hold water with anyone who’s yo-yo’d at even semi-competitive level. The performance difference between top level designs is negligible in its effect on the outcome of contests and suggesting otherwise I think is rather insulting to the players themselves and undermines their efforts and achievements.
YYF players dominate competitions because YYF has the sponsorship money and regional scouting framework to sponsor the best players. There’s something to be said as well for the internal competition team training framework their team has as well I’m sure. The actual yo-yos are good enough to serve their purpose. But those yo-yos aren’t why their players dominate and saying otherwise is being blinded by marketing (ironic given your field of study).
Also, people dislike YYF for the reasons Fradiger pointed out along with a laundry list of other infractions like threatening small brands with spurious cease and desists, strong-arming local contests because Ben is overly sensitive and throws tantrums at being (validly) criticised, etc.
tfw hajime won the majority of his world medals with a Something yoyo that wasnt even his signature, and when he migrated to YYR, he continued winning just the same with completely different yoyos.
Also, not to give this dumbos any more spotlight, but theres a video of evan nailing almost the entirety of his 2022 nats winning routine on an edge fs
Skill reigns supreme and at that high of a level, yoyo really becomes just a tool.
Completely agree which is why I called that out at the end of my post. By “always” I was referring to YYF from like 2010-2014, and obviously I don’t condone the multiple incidents of racism that have transpired in recent years and that is not what I was referring to.
At this point the thread has run its course so we are going to lock it. It is fine to disagree about things but please remember to keep things respectful and constructive.
As a reminder, these forums are here to share our love of yo-yos, help each other learn, and have fun. Keeping discussion on-topic and positive makes this a place everyone can enjoy.
YoyoFactory.
