At first I thought they meant thinner as in the response area was getting reduced to fit a 19mm pad. It’s not, since they say it still fits snow tires, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Edit: looks like @EOS44 makes a guest appearance in my picture.
I love snow tires, wish that was the standard in response in all yoyos.
I have two issues with them. They are overly grippy and make for a less than pleasant experience until they’ve been heavily broken in. And that’s wasted space/less efficient design. Other 19mm response yo-yos can start using some of the area snow tires cover as part of the actual yo-yo shape and not the response area. It’s like a very tiny inner highwall.
My take might be largely ignorant, but this seems kind of… weird? Won’t this make the pads last less? Also, wouldn’t this be completely solved by implementing the 19mm pads that literally everyone else is using, thus making their yoyos more compatible with other pad brands, thus making them universally more appealing?
Edit: And yeah, i get why they don’t do it. Just remember the insane backlash they got when they switched their production to China. IMAGINE the massive sandstorm that would unleash from they going to 19mm pads.
Never had an issue with the grip 
I really hope CLYW never goes to a 19mm pad.
That would be optimal. I just view this as CLYW recognizing that snow tires aren’t optimal, which is something.
They were experimenting with switching pad sizes at one point I think. I have a prototype Compass I got from Petr that has 19mm pads.
Welp, guess I’m never buying a CLYW again.
Awesome!
Hi AaronW,
I’ve only owned one throw that used Snow Tires. I’m not trying to stir the pot, but, genuinely interested in why you hope CLYW never switches to a 19mm response pad. To me, it didn’t feel like the Snow Tires were significantly different than other response pads in performance…they just worked.
I wonder to what extent is this technically, objectively true.
I’ve never owned a CLYW (again, this take might be largely ignorant, so take it for what it is), and I bet Snow Tires feel different (enough for them to produce a different pad). It’s just hard for me to imagine how reducing the size of the response pads could throw off the entire feel of a brand, which is based in way more design aspects than just the response, even more when 95% of the rest of the yoyo market has proven already that 19mm pads work just as fine (?).
This could become in another dumb, circular debate like the OD flat bearings one (of course I’m not inciting it). I just would like to have an objective way to compare it, like the way it can be done with bearings.
For some reason CLYW designs never appealed to me, and this is just another reason for me to avoid them.
I like the feel of Snowtires. The A-RT releases also use the same size pads. Regens and binds are a little snappier.
Similar to what Exmime said below. 19mm, depending on the design are always a little “slippy” to me. I like Snow Tires because of the extra surface space they have. I know when I bind on a CLYW that it’s going to respond. You can see this in a lot of trick videos, people go to bind (on 19mm pad yoyos) and they miss the bind. Also, because 19mm don’t have a lot of surface space to them they wear out quicker. I rarely change SnowTires, but a number of my 19mm yoyos have been changed quite a bit.
It doesn’t, but if they used a standard size pad, you won’t have to buy THEIR pad$.
But even that argument doesn’t make sense. I bet CLYW makes like 1% of their sales by selling their pads.
I love the snowtire pad size, but hate snowtires. I think their response area is great for flowable though.
I agree with CLYW that to switch to 19mm pads would alter the feel of their yoyos. That recess is pretty deep and wider than usual. It would add a significant amount of weight back to the yoyo by switching to 19mm pads.
I think it’d go in hand with lowering the wall height and pulling in the cup (depending on the design), so the weight would be close to the same.
Yeah that high wall on the bearing and response area is rough.
