Bulk may indeed be a part if the game. The boutique companies are probably commissioning their yoyos from the bigger companies. They dont necessarily make their own yoyos. But they do get better oricing if they manufacture a lot mire, but that means more upfront costs and they have to sell much more to break eve.
One Drop is probably one of the newest in the game that I can think of that manufactures their own (and that of other companies, although they are very selective). They just did that new SpinGear yoyo, and SpinGear is a pretty big brand. There are definitely others I just dont oay attention enough to know.
OneDrop is at least fairly unique because they focus entirely on yoyos. I honestly dont know enough to tell you who. But it is possible some of those big companies may be manufacturing other things too.
As far as quality, you can kind of tell when you grab ahold of their yoyos or some you know were made by them. Like look at yoyofriends, their machining company offers probably all the material options. They are even coming up with a really sick looking Damascus yoyo. That is probably a wonderful yoyo made with a great piece of metal.
It is definitely less expensive for the companies that make the yoyos in-house to mass produce, but they still have a bunch of costs.
In the end those costs are passed down to us, the consumers.
One Drop has been machining their own yoyos since 2007 and for other companies since 2011 or earlier so I’m not sure in what world they are new to the game
That’s fair but I meant new in relative terms, not like happened yesterday terms.
My main point was that they solely focus on yoyos, which a lot of other companies dont necessarily do. Plus i was the one saying you have to account fir them too when discussing market share, theyre a pretty big deal here in the U.S.
Well global toy market was worth about 305 Billilion. US toy sales last year was 28 billion.
YoYo’s are categorized under multiple categories but usually outdoor and sports toys which was 4.5 billion in sale in the US.
So YoYo is a niche within that market category it’s a fraction somewhere in that 4.5 billion along side all kinds of bigger sellers.
I didn’t find global toy sales broken down further. I imagine there’s a report that can show most of that junk for an absurd amount of money though.
These are the kind of VC bro numbers thrown around when a product is super niche to try and distract from the fact the market cap for the product is a percentage or less of that sub market
I think my mini Q&A w/ Steve in my reply above might be as close as you get, not many people are willing to volunteer financial information about their small private companies, as interesting as it is to know. I own my own business & my fiancée works as a financial analyst so the topic definitely fascinates me, especially being in the hobby since I was a kid and not much information or discussion on the topic has ever really come up. The business side of a hobby we all love and care about deeply would be super cool to hear about. Perhaps certain boutique manufacturers are willing to offer nuggets of info (even though they are a small piece of the overall pie)? @da5id@Mazdarx7FD would be good resources for their respective companies. And possibly @bjardin might have some insight on Duncan? Literally info relating to the business aspect of yoyoing would be awesome to know.
Awhile back I remember reading articles about YoYoNation in their hayday - they were grossing over $1m a year, but that also could also be Pat just yappin & cappin to make his company look better (wouldn’t put it past him lol). And Steve pointed out a good point, that’s ~$1m in gross sales, not net - their profits were pretty bad apparently, prolly around 25%. But yeah, here’s an article from 2007 saying they were on track for $1.1m in sales that year, and here’s one from 2010 when apparently they were on track for $1.6m that year.
This is not up to date yo-yo sales I for… but I found an article I had never read before, that at least gave me a better view from back then, what ‘is possible’ nowadays.
In 1998, people bought $35 million worth? That’s a whole lot bandalores🙀
I mean, it shows that ‘somebody’ around the World is buying yo-yos.
Thanks for tagging me! I can’t disclose any Duncan financials, but as far as paid market research, 43% of the market share in Yo-Yo category belongs to Duncan. This does not include any retail stores. Just brand by brand comparison.
Judging how people get their knickers bunched about taxes from the BST market, all Politicians need to do is turn their gaze this way to pull their country’s out of debt.
Since just about every yo-yo not made in Eugene Oregon is is made in China; I would imagine that the Chinese Commerce officials probably have good insight into the size of the yo-yo market. Maybe not in Dollar terms; but at least in volume.
I’m willing to bet Duncan outdoor toys category sells significantly more than the yoyos do but maybe im off base on that assumption. Like I imagine the pop in hit bat probably beats the rest of the yoyo lineup on its own. maybe im really off base on my assumptions though.
At least in this conversation, I think most people are talking about revenue, not income or profitability. So, it really is as simple as: 10 $100 yo-yos = $1000.
Do you know what the difference in high quality aluminum and low quality aluminum is, like, if both are 6061, what makes the good stuff feel premium and the cheap stuff feel less premium? I’ve wondered, your products feel different in a good way and I’m not trying to be all “USA USA”, I support the human race, I’m asking about the material itself
