Hi Evan,
there are several characteristics in a yoyo: material, shape, weight distribution, finger spin cups, etc and different combinations of these characteristics make a yoyo more adapt to different styles or tricks. I always had the feeling that you cannot design the perfect yoyo, the one good for every possible style, because to enhance a yoyo quality, I guess, you must sacrifice another. My question is: how do you design a yoyo? Do you start with something like “I want the yoyo to be able to do that” or “to be better than this model in doing this”? How do you “balance” the different yoyo characteristics? Do you first think about the shape? Is it the yoyo manufacturer “commissioning” you a certain kind of yoyo? And finally, do you feel the pressure of making something new in a market with thousands of yoyos? I am really curious to know all the steps in the process, maybe you can tell us your personal experience?
Cheers
Thanks for the well thought out question. For me, designing edge was exactly what you said; figuring out which tricks I wanted it to perform at the highest levels and designing around that. When we designed the yoyo in 2015/16, I was doing all sorts of tricks, from tech to horizontal to behind the back to speed combos to regens. I had a really diverse trick set, and I needed to create a yoyo that could handle all these things. I liked the idea of a wider yoyo because I wanted it to be able to consistently hit the big bangers that I do such as “Seismic bind” and my crazy whip combos. With that came a few stability issues because wider yoyos are generally harder to balance. This is why we put the steel rings where we did at the time. There were so many variables taken into account with edge, which is why it actually took about 7 prototypes and a year of testing to get it right. Eventually, after many trials and errors, and a PNWR 2016 victory, we decided that the yoyo was ready. In reality, it was all about the testing that made the yoyo what it is today.
Designing a you is a true art form. Something you must learn and master. And making a yoyo by yourself is very hard to master. Knowing the design software is one thing, but there is mostly knowing what to change for a desired feel. You may prototype many times just to develop knowlage of this element. The journey will be long, hard and expensive. With all of the experimentation and different runs of prototypes, machining it is going to cost a lot of money.
Thanks Evan, so in short the yoyo was designed around your needs, and that’s the definition of a true signature model I guess. I am also curious how the companies think about new designs for every year, it would be really nice if one of the producer could make a short documentary about all the process, from design to manufacturing. Until then, thanks!
Yeah, I actually thought about making a documentary while designing edge. I do have some footage, but we were so focused on getting the yoyo right that the documentary eventually fell to the backburner. Perhaps we might do something like that in the future!
I use onshape. It’s an incredibly powerful web based cad software that is free as long as all of your projects are public. There is a bit of a learning curve if you’ve never used cad before