Our partnership with Terraria helped exposed yoyoing to at least 10 million people square in the demographic (all credit and thanks to Re-Logic).
While it’s true that the Terrarian is our best selling model, that isn’t saying much in terms of growing yoyoing. You’d think that kind of exposure would have done more.
Something to think about.
$20,000 is a quick fix. “Here’s a stack of money, go do a thing with it right now that will grow our community.” I think that If you want durable results you need to put in durable effort, over the long haul. I’m sure there is some parable about growing crops from seeds or some such.
I think the truth of the matter is you can’t force things and it’s had to be organic. Right place, right time. But I do feel that if there was an effort to get shows at schools in coordination with yoyo clubs you’d see an increase. Would it be anything big? doubt it. I mean what sparked the industry to life in the 90s? I know that companies sending teams out to demo was a big factor. But if you look at the history of yoyos it has it’s own boom bust cycle anyways just like most things. looking at the timeline we are kinda due for a resurgence. The quality of yoyos you can get now compared to 96-2000ish is just phenomenally better even dollar for dollar you get so much more now. The is imo more depth to thee hobby at this time too.
This is interesting. For some reason it didn’t manage to spark that “gadget” thing (the need some of us have for gadgets, trinkets, gizmos and shiny things) in players. Having never played the game was it’s use well executed?
It did attract a lot of new players - probably more than any other promotion I’ve seen. I’m just saying it didn’t “explode this thing”. I’ve met tons of people who got into yoyoing because of the game. Yoyos are very well executed in the game.
I’m going to say this with all due respect to all of the people that I highly respect in this industry, what I’m about to say isn’t intended as an insult to them in any way. But if this was to happen to me I’d probably turn and give it to Tyler Severance, because as of right now he, with Recess, is doing the most that I’ve seen. He’s going into schools (every week? Multiple times a week?) and directly teaching people to yoyo. On top of all the stuff that every yoyo company normally does. So with an extra $20k in Recess’ pocket he may be able to expand that program he has to more areas.
I think this is an important observation. Yo-yos are actively part of the game in Terraria (I think they are a primary weapon?).
Even if we get a yo-yo emote added to Fortnite (still hoping this happens, they have hula hoop, juggling, and maracas already) … that does not make Yo-Yo a primary weapon in Fortnite or part of the core gameplay in the same way it is for Terraria. It’s just one quirky emote amongst many quirky emotes.
There would need to be a fund that sponsored folks to do this. There is the NED program… The NED Show. We could use that canvas bag full of $20k to sponsor them to do more shows. Per their about page, it is $1,200 per show so $20k is ~16 extra shows.
That is why Tyler would be the best to do this. I can’t see it costing him anywhere near that much, although I could be wrong.
Putting it all on the shoulders of “that one guy” isn’t a wise plan in my experience. You need a group.
True, but Tyler has the most experience, and could lead it better than any group available at the moment. Just the facts 
Maybe he could be interested in training up people to do what he does. BRING BACK YOYO MASTERS!
The Ned program fails the “long term” test. It has zero connection to the larger yoyo community and exists solely as a money-making venture. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but more Ned shows just mean more boom/bust cycles. Not long term growth.
Tyler/recess are far more connected. If a kid asks the recess crew where he can learn more online or connect with other throwers, he’ll get a good answer.
Maybe, but I’ve heard from quite a few kids who got into yo-yo through NED. If the goal is, as stated in my earlier post, to expose more kids to more yo-yo for long term growth I still think it’s a good idea.
I’m still unsure about putting everything on one person versus an organization, so I am personally not super comfortable with that plan. Will leave it at that. Maybe someone who knows Tyler could point him at this topic and he could comment if he thinks it’s even viable.
I’m here because of NED, got me started. Then I learned about everything and it’s all history from there
when i read this topic, i started thinking about how yoyos got into the hands of people; how did i get started? how did others get started? how did yoyos evolve and become what they are today?
yoyoing is among one of those “near useless but mesmerizing” skills. pen spinning, balisongs, begleri, etc. if anything, most of those skills just make you look cool to other people who dont understand it.
all of these hobbies arent anything to marvel about, unless you are part of the community of one of these things. they arent much talent, mostly skill. show up to a big talent show with yoyoing, and youll probably not get much out of it. its not dangerous or that interesting enough to watch, but not very practical either.
i got into yoyoing because it seemed fun. near two years later, it has not improved much of my life, but it gives me something to do. something tactile. i have always been fidgety, so i need something for my hands to do when i cant stand still. its something to actually be able to do something about; maybe get sponsored, create a company, or, as this thread says, promote it.
so, if i had $20,000 to spend on promoting yoyos, i would most likely not do much at all. i would probably get companies like [insert other yoyo trick tutorial site], yyf, recess, and one drop to keep advertising the yoyo as much as they could. show them what the unresponsive yoyo could do, the other yoyo styles, and do something different. dont pander to the “walk the dog” types; dont make a show using only picture tricks (exactly what the NED show is), and sell unresponsives, offstrings, freehands, and fixies as part of their campaign to promote the entirety of the yoyo community.
it will expose the community to a large amount of people, and most likely, very little of them will get as invested as we are from that exposure. but, hey, its worth a try.
i like this.
This is what I was talking about in my original post. Using a plan like @YoYoExpert @AndreBoulay does at A2Z. Each instructor meets requirements and demonstration skills. Then host yoyo school several days a week.
Something homegrown with yoyoers all over holding classes and clubs to help everyone grow and continue. Obviously alot to refine but it helps address the continued support for new yoyoers.
Any sport that has suffered decline or needs numbers from the beginning knows it’s because the young’lings (aka kids, aka droplings[infinity baby]) weren’t interested or taught the sport/toy.
So I would form a yoyo mafia! Force children of any age under 10 (I mean I’m not set on the age, but young?) to play yoyo to a particular level of competence or they are executed publicly. Like this Maze Runner movie trilogy I saw, but with yoyo tricks on a stage instead of mazes. Tell em the future of humanity is at stake to bring out maximum effort to maximum overdrive (Steven Kings self professed movie). You could even take ‘The Wizard of Gore’ stage performances which came long before Maze runners. Blood, gore, and yoyo! Bruce Campell designs the kill stage, Bist designs the 80’s spikes contest yoyo’s, and Gwar would be the musical score!
Of course I am probably completely wrong. I’m only here because I thought Jensen Kimmit looked like he was having fun and loving what he did in 2010 on stage with a yoyo.
Did things even truly exist way back in 2010 though? Not really, if you think about it.