At ILYY, we do not necessarily follow the path of ever improving performance. Instead, our goal has always been to explore niches we haven’t touched before, regardless of performance. This led us to create yoyos like the Krapfen or the PYBIT, both by no means competition-oriented designs. Some of these considerations even became our standard at ILYY like the 4 mm gap width.
Keeping true to this design philosophy of seeking untouched ground regardless of the outcome, there is one design niche we have not covered: a modern competition yoyo
Being a competition-oriented design, it should reside above all other ILYYs in terms of raw capability, the usual limits and ideas left far behind, a true testament to power, stability and maneuverability.
This is the Numen.
All bi-metal ILYYs to this point featured an inner ring keeping the outer appearance of the yoyo undisturbed. While offering very slick and pleasing aesthetics, this is a compromise in terms of rim weight capabilities, as the ring cannot be placed in the outermost region of the body. The Numen’s performance-oriented concept clearly needed outer rings to benefit the most from the bi-metal construction.
In order to stay true to our slick and understatement design philosophy we gave the intersection area small radii to comfort the profile lines to a haptically and optically pleasing conjunction. Furthermore, we went with blasted and electroplated rings to take on the matte aesthetics of the blasted 7068 aluminum body resulting in a beautiful laid-back overall look.
On the inside, Numen also features a carefully designed transition between ring and cup. Aluminum and steel meet in the same beautiful way as on the outer profile rounding off the harmony-driven design concept.
7068 aluminum alloy allows for very thin material thickness down to (or even below) one millimeter. However, the Numen does not go that route. We purposely left the cup walls well beyond this thickness to further strengthen the overall construction and make the Numen more resistant to drops and undesired hits. The massive rims still provide a lot of inertia and give the Numen its immense power and stability.
Aside from the crazy PYBIT, Numen is our widest yoyo to date. It offers the widest catch-zone of all ILYYs. Its concave gap profile is derived from the Golden Abyss and expanded even more to enable fingergrinds like never before. Hitting even the most daring tricks is made possible thanks to the forgiving shape. The rims flatten out to allow for a nice hand feel.
Most of our line-up featured a 4 millimeter gap. We consider this gap width enough for most tricks and situations. This gap width also allows for snappy and tight binds of the entire lifetime of the response pads.
For the Numen we increased to gap to 4.5 millimeters for maximum string layer capability. The Numen’s flush pad design retains tight binds and overall reliable response of smaller gap width yoyos.
The Numen features shorter bearing seats to allow for tool-less bearing swaps and maintenance. This yoyo is supposed to be played, bearing maintenance should not take away more time than necessary from play. Numen will not require any tools or pliers to access the bearing.
With the Abyss line we delved into the word of fingerspin yoyos using concave cup design. Even though perfect centering is possible with this construction it comes with a few drawbacks. Concave cup designs do not force the finger into the cup center, only really steep shapes may do so which come with other compromises in terms of mass placement. In addition (depending on the center of the cup) concave profiles are less stable to disturbances while fingerspinning.
The Numen solves theses drawbacks by introducing a convex cup design that mimics the concave outer profile. This pushes the finger right into the center area and keeps it there all the time. This strong push to the center allows the Numen to have a more traditional central hub without any dimples, anti-cones etc. Perfect centering is simply not needed with the Numen thanks to its convex inner cup design.
To further increase stability during fingerspins, the central cup features a small step as the transition from the concave profile to the center. These features make the Numen the best fingerspinning yoyo we ever made. Hitting the cup will ensure fingerspins no matter what. The traditional central cup design allows the Numen to use longer axles resulting in longer threads improving their durability. In combination with the shorter seats, risk of stripped threads is reduced to a minimum.
The Numen is without a doubt the best yoyo we ever made. It does everything any ILYY can but it does it a lot better. Longest spins, highest stability, widest catch-zone, best fingerspins, strongest (finger)grinds, easiest maintenance. If you want ‘maximum everything’ from ILYY, the Numen is for you.
Specs:
Diameter: 56 mm
Width: 47 mm
Gap: 4.5 mm
Weight: 65.5 g
Bearing: C-Size
Response: 19 mm pad
Alloy: AL 7068-T6 cup & SS ring
Limitation: 42
Price: 120€
If you want one, let me know via PM! 