Since yoyo competitions has become more and more relevant, the designs of yoyos has followed. More and more yoyos are made specially for competition, both in the form for all around good competition throws (like the Hummingbird and Draupnir) and signature yoyos made for specific players (like your Edge or Gentry’s Shutter etc.). To me, this is quite interesting since yoyos are still a toy, and not a decidedly a sport. Do you feel like yoyoing has become too competitive? Has the contest aspect of the hobby devalued the toy aspect? Since a big part (certainly not all, but definitely a majority) of yoyos are made with competition in mind, while yoyos made for fun, casual throwing are often being marked as a “gimmick”.
I’m not trying to say that I don’t enjoy the competition aspect, in fact I love it. But if you compare yoyos to, let’s say, Pokémon (a bit different, but hear me out), where the core aspect of Pokémon is the games and toys themselves, while competing is a very small niche in the franchise. Compare this to yoyos, which has evolved into a big part of yoyos being made with competition in mind, and with most yoyo manufacturers owning a team of competitors.
TLDR: Do you feel like the competition aspect of the hobby, has devalued the toy/causal fun aspect?
Long answer: I feel that yoyoing can be enjoyed in any facet you wish to enjoy it in. It’s the reason we have so many brands such as art, g2, smashing yoyos, etc… The way I like to look at it is with the example of basketball. I love basketball. Within it, I enjoy to make new moves, and get creative with my ball handling. I enjoy to do it just to do it, not just to use it to win me games while playing the sport. Basketball is mainly a sport, but that doesn’t mean that it’s caused the community of creative ball handlers to feel unseen or made that aspect of creative/artistic basketball less interesting. In fact, I’d argue that since the sport of basketball got so big, the art of basketball grew with it. For example, check out this amazing video of a girl with extremely creative handles who probably started out watching the sport of basketball on TV. Imagine if dribbling a basketball was only an art form. How many people do you think would be into it without first getting to know basketball through the sport?` I hope my long answer thoroughly explains the thought process behind my short answer, that I don’t feel competitive yoyoing has in any way ruined the casual/creative aspect of yoyoing. I still love to yoyo casually and create interesting new tricks everyday.
I doubt that casual yoyo players are concerned much by the emphasis that manufacturers place on chasing ever-more competitive designs. Casual players will never outgrow their first (and perhaps only) unresponsive metal yoyo (assuming they’ve even graduated beyond their “high end” $20 responsive plastic yoyo), so what do they care if the industry comes out with ten new models every year trying to appeal to the collectors and the hardcore competitors? They have no need for those new designs, so why would they worry about being ignored?
And newcomers have no shortage of excellent yoyos in every price range to choose from, largely due to the obsessive pursuit of design innovation that has exploded in the last decade or so. Improvements always trickle down to the “lower” tiers of yoyo products. So in my view, the fact that manufacturers are mostly driven by the needs and desires of experts and competitors has proven to be more of an all-around benefit to every yoyo player.