I use exclusively bulk strings, personally my favorite is kitty normal before the rebrand, but now with the new rebrand I’ve moved to sochi and I’m satisfied with it. Significantly softer, doesn’t seem to last as long but it’s good for the price.
Sadly my main style is 2A and the best string for that is still kitty normal white, the first class rebrand works about the same as the old ones, so I keep a pack of that just for 2A now and the rest of my yoyos get either sochi fat or OT normal, both are good enough for my tastes.
It’s the boutique string thing. For reference: OT fat lasts a 2-3 hours of play for me before being unplayable and going in the trash, a bit longer for Kitty 1st class. Washing does very little. My nylon and nylon/heavy Ziplines last… uh… it’s hard to track but I have yet to trash one. My oldest had…. 40 hours of play on it? Has been washed twice? Barely feels used?
I go go poly for precise performance but it costs more. Nylon boutique stuff is actually actually the bargain here; it feels softer, it lasts longer, but it’s a bit more unpredictable/snaggy/bouncy. I use both but nylon does go forever….
(Note this does not apply to YYSL and Zipline’s pure poly string, which lasts longer than the bulk stuff, but not the crazy durability that nylon and nylon-heavy blends go.)
