What if you used that $20k to put on a yo-yo con… not a contest but a gathering, there could be competitions there I guess but a celebration of yo-yo culture.
I feel like the only national and global gatherings being so competition focused is kind of a negative for the pastime in the broadest sense.
Your idea to get it into the hands of “it” people is nice, but very large influencers charge a staggering amount more than that to even show up to events with a product for… a day… and then never mention it again.
That could be helpful, but without cross-traffic it doesn’t really do anything for the popularity of yoyo. Even the idea to get yoyo into SkillCon in Las Vegas didn’t really help and I can’t think of any group of people with more potential crossover in interests.
I don’t know that any “it” person without a completely genuine, unpaid interest in the hobby would have any effect. If say… Kanye West decided he was now an avid player and continued to yoyo publicly for an extended period of time… sure.
Paid ad spot? No way it helps the hobby as a whole I think.
In my opinion what is being done already is great. Like Recess and Yotricks doing school tours. Thats the most effective way to get kids genuinely interested in yoyoing. Watching a clip online of someone yoyoing is effective but not as effective as that. I would spend that money on expanding those kind of activities.
What really needs to happen for yoyo to become famous is not the patronage of a celebrity, that wouldn’t work at all. Yoyo needs to become a meme. Unfortunately, you can’t predict the internet’s behavior. Something doesn’t need financial support to become famous on the internet. It just needs to be on the right time on the right place.
Look what happened with fidget spinners and bottle flipping. Those became huge memes, attracted an insane quantity of kids, adults and media coverage, and then they faded. But i bet you a small percentage of people kept the hobby (if you can call those a hobby). ANd something similar would happen with yoyo.
Edit: Let’s face reality guys. Yoyo will never become widely popular. Known, yes, but not widely popular. And that’s not a bad thing. Just as things like boomerangs and juggling exist and have existed for ever and keep growing, so will yoyoing.
I believe when speaking of the future, we must involve… the children. Because, apparently, as I’ve been informed in at least one wildly popular pop song, they are the future?
(I’m skeptical, personally. Given the increase in human longevity over the last 50 years and the way power and wealth are so concentrated in the world now, I think old people might in fact be our real future?)
So one thing you could do with that $20k is specifically sponsor young players to travel to nationals or worlds? The idea is their peers would see it and eventually spread the word amongst… you know… the utes.
Another idea is to just buy a lot of starter yo-yos and seed programs that reach younger kids with toys, and some percent of those could go on to retain a longer interest.
The problem with bottle flipping and fidget spinners, is that even the least capable people can do it. You can have amputations, be 80 years old, have only 3 fingers on one hand…you get the point.
Yoyo’s are only fun for so long until you can do more than the utmost basic of tricks, for most people.
For the record, I spent my savings of 10k cash a few weeks ago on an rv for me and my wife, and its a depressingly small amount of paper. You could fit 20k in your pockets without raising much alarm. That said I miss it dearly and wish I could hold it just one more time… *insert smeagol gif.
100%. I started during the 90’s bubble. Stopped when it was too hard to progress on a $30 yoyo because spintime wasnt long enough. When unresponsives came out, a $30 yoyo was able to sleep for 2 minutes. I only just got back into it this year and my mind is blown with what’s been going on and even in my first two weeks could do harder tricks than I did when i was doing it all the time on a TBB im the 90’s
I want to open a yo-yo store in India. because it reduces shipping cost, saves a lot of time.
2.i want to open yoyo making factories in India. everything should be made here strings, pads.
There are dance shows and singing shows what about a yoyo show?
4.i think when you buy the yoyo they should provide the basic resources which can be used for a long time.
5.i think they should increase giving more strings and flowable silicone.everything is important. once you buy a yoyo it should work fine up to one year without any issues.
6.no I also think there should be a place where you go and all types of yoyos are available, and you can play with that and return that after playing once you leave that place. sometimes they should charge money sometimes it should be free.
you can improve something always step by step and nothing is perfect and no one is perfect.