What design trends do you see being popular or having emerged 5-10 years from now?
Like we’ve already gone from a really wide yo-yo being like 44mm to 47+. Gap size has increased significantly, catch zones have really widened. That little step off the bearing area has become common. Response size has standardized with some exceptions. Yo-yos are larger diameter on average. Centering bearings are the norm. Bimetals are common.
Where could/can we go from here? Will bimetal design become less popular as 7068 becomes standard for monometals? Or will bimetal design become so refined that competition players start using them more?
Will we get new iterations on shapes, or will something like the hybrid bell/v/w like the Cadence become even more ubiquitous than it already is. (Seriously there are so many yo-yos with this shape)
Also how many of the current brands do you think will still be around? If I had to put money on it I’d only feel comfortable betting on Yoyofactory, Duncan and One Drop tbh.
Oh and the most important question: will One Drops still ship with a flat? (Please don’t actually answer this and turn this thread into a debacle)
Yes and they will all ship with hubstackable side effects. I’m calling it.
More seriously, I could see bimetals and plastic/metal hybrids being joined by composite, maybe carbon fiber of some nature or some of the other more exotic materials floating around out there. These could be used to do even more fine tuning in weight distribution, and allow for more innovation in shapes. There’s still a lot of research in new alloys going on, all kinds of industries would benefit from alloys that have great strength while being light. Who knows what might emerge there, but I’d bet any yoyo in my collection that we’ll see something that improves on 7068 become available.
I don’t think all the possibilities in bimetal construction and design are anywhere close to exhausted, look at some of the new stuff coming out of top yo.
If the yoyo market grew enough, I could see more specialization in yoyo types occurring like looping and offstring yoyos are today. For example, yoyos that are hyper optimized for really dense technical play, and so on. If there was enough market I think we’d see much more specialized approaches to 3A and 5A yoyos.
IMHO you hit the nail on the head here. You almost have to ask yourself what the tricks will look like in 10 years, and how design could be optimized for it.
That would be really interesting. Do you see those materials (either existing mats or newer ones in development) becoming more commercially viable/affordable? Aluminum and plastic are so ubiquitous and enduring because they’re relatively cheap to obtain and machine. I know carbon fiber and others materials are becoming more common in everyday goods but do you foresee any of these materials becoming affordable to the point where a company like Duncan or YYF would invest in it?
I know nothing about materials or machining so I’m genuinely curious about what might make sense from a financial perspective in a few years’ time.
On one hand (serious):
V-shape, carbon fiber body, metal weight rings, frictionless bearing
On the other hand (even more serious):
Yoyos variably made of unique materials such as meteorites, cactus with the spikes, and poison ivy resin-lacquered wood that force you to not make any physical contact with the yoyo.
Things are getting a little out of wack I’m this thread . But I’ve wondered the same thing many times. On of my favorite parts of yo-yo is design and pushing the limits. We have the Edge Beyond with massive rims that extend far out from the body. The Topyo T.S which is full SS. Yoyofactory has been experimenting with hollow rims. Topyo has created something really cool which is the Robusta (double stacked rings) and you can’t forget the BiND which has incased rings. The Ahay index which is a tri-metal yo-yo. All these are designs that have come seemingly out of nowhere these past couple years. I honestly don’t know where to go from here. I think about cool yo-yo concepts all the time but for any of them to take action is unlikely. I’ve though of a yo-yo which was like 4 different metal rings stacked on each other (an extreme robusta lol) but I can kinda go extreme with design lol
I think that’s the most likely thing, at least for the near future. I think the most limiting thing is material and cost. I’m not sure if there’s anything on the horizon to rival the availability and relative ease of manufacturing as aluminum and plastic.
That exists, actually. Dylan Kowalski did a review on it.
I also think new materials like carbon fiber will be big. I can also imagine some collaboration with somewhat well known artistic designers from outside the yo-yo community.
I think that in order to try to answer this question, we need to consider the direction and evolution of the current competition trickset, and let me tell you why.
Probably not completely, but a great part of yoyo design innovation comes from trick innovation. Yoyos becoming wider, more stabler at lower weights via the use of different materials and techniques to appease the newer trick trends that arise in the community.
Trick innovation (imo) comes almost (almost) exclusively from the competition side of the hobby. High class competitors come up with new concepts and popularize them, and usually this new concepts are hard in difficulty and execution. Naturally, new trick trends benefit from wider, lighter (this is debatable but that’s the very general rule) and stabler yoyos.
The way i see it is that yoyo design has already been figured out so much that enhancements in desing are now marginal in relevancy, and the industry is now focusing in specializing defined flavors desired by the various types of players in the community. You have performance-driven yoyos, yoyos that can do both casual and competitive playstyles, comfy organics, resurgence of old-school design principles, etc.
I also think styles such as 2A and 4A atill have a lot of room for innovation. Just look how revolutionary yoyos like the Loop2020 and the JLP LoopUp are. Since 1A is the most played style, is only logical for the advancements in design to be researched more, thus them looking less relevant than other styles.
I really like your take on this. I also think that the room for improvement for 1A/3A/5A design is minimal and will mainly be focused on refining shape and weight distribution with the potential for some changes in material, although I find that possibility to be least likely and will probably just turn out to be 7068 becoming standard with bimetals potentially fading in popularity.
In regards to shape and weight distribution in terms of competitive yoyoing, I think there’s an ideal range of shape/size/weight distribution for the three styles mentioned above that has already started to emerge and will solidify even more. There may not be a perfect yo-yo for these styles due to player preference, but there are definitely limits to how much that preference varies on average.
Definitely excited to see what happens with 2A and 4A design.
. But I’ve wondered the same thing many times. On of my favorite parts of yo-yo is design and pushing the limits. We have the Edge Beyond with massive rims that extend far out from the body. The Topyo T.S which is full SS. Yoyofactory has been experimenting with hollow rims. Topyo has created something really cool which is the Robusta (double stacked rings) and you can’t forget the BiND which has incased rings. The Ahay index which is a tri-metal yo-yo. All these are designs that have come seemingly out of nowhere these past couple years. I honestly don’t know where to go from here. I think about cool yo-yo concepts all the time but for any of them to take action is unlikely. I’ve though of a yo-yo which was like 4 different metal rings stacked on each other (an extreme robusta lol) but I can kinda go extreme with design lol
