Maybe a small marketing move? Bring the yoyos up near the register where all the candy and impulse buy stuff is. I know my kids still beg for junk on the way out the store. Parents may be more inclined to cave to a traditional toy than more junk food.
Or go all Cecil B. Demented and kidnap some beloved celebrity and demand the yoyo be brought back to public acclaim or there will be consequences!
Honestly the more I think about this the more I would want to do a large skill toy expo inviting all the big and boutique brands around yoyo, kendama, begleri, rollers, etc to create a large expo like event and move it around the US to different regions every year.
I’d push for the canopy night yoyo battles from worlds 2024 to become its own yoyo contest series worldwide. i enjoyed it far more than watching standard competition. Players can challenge other random players in the room to battle and you can win 1 on 1 bracket battles based on what the crowd thinks of your overall performance rather than judges clicking points and tallying scores. i like this contest format alot more generally as it requires audience interaction.
I would dilute those $20,000 by buying cheap bundles at all the BST sites, whether here or on Facebook, and resell them at basically the same price I paid in my local community (I already do this with some yo-yos), precisely to encourage/make people who have just entered the sport/hobby stay and have reasons to stay and have cheap opportunities to test yoyos of different shapes and styles.
