why can other people like c3 and yyf make cheap affordable metals but you can’t ? Settle in, oddly accusatory internet citizen, and let me tell you a story!
Chapter One
One upon a time a kindly young fellow named Chris said “I like return tops!” and set out to find the very best one. He tried this one and that one and found that they all sucked. He was so sad. “I’m so sad, why do these all suck?” cried Chris. Then one day he remembered “Holy crap, I’m a mechanical engineer. Screw this, I’ll make my own return tops with blackjack and hookers!” and so he did, except that he used flannel and syrup and math and love instead of blackjack and hookers and I think we can all agree that was a better idea.
Chapter Two
As the years went on, Chris continued making the very best return tops he could. Eventually he settled on a machine shop in the far away land of The United States, a wild and treacherous place where health care isn’t free and no one understands how good it is to put gravy and cheese curds on your fries. The machine shop was kind of expensive, but it was so much better than the others he had tried to use so he said “These are gonna be a little pricey, you guys” and his fans said “ALL GOOD KEEP 'EM COMING!” and everything was cool. And since Chris was a friggin’ genius, the designs got better and his team of super rad players got bigger and his costs to keep the business going got higher and higher but everyone looooooved his stuff so much that he said “Ok, let’s keep this train rolling!” and so he did.
Chapter Three
More years went by, and his company became more popular because their team is amazing and Chris is, literally, the nicest dude ever. And instead of just being craved by high-end players his products became so popular that even younger, less experienced players wanted them. But they were still made in really small batches, by a talented but expensive machine shop, and occasionally ruined by anodizers (BOOO!) which kept his runs small and his prices high. More people wanted his magical return tops than he could possibly make! Chris got really stressed out so he took a magical nap and pondered his options.
Chapter Four
Chris awoke from his nap and said “I’ll hire a troll!” he said! So he called Steve Brown and said “Come work for me and let’s make art and stuff” and Steve said “Let’s make money too” and Chris said “I’m kinda terrible at that” and Steve said “All good, I’ll worry about the money and you make all the big decisions so that we never lose our way or act like jerks” and Chris said “Perfect!” and so they began doing things just a little bit better and finally Steve said “A lot of people really want to have the CLYW experience but they can’t afford it” and Chris thought long and hard and Steve thought long and hard and they talked to their team and their fans and said “You know what? Let’s start working on some less expensive models and have them made overseas so that even our fans who don’t have much money can be part of the CLYW family” and so they started working on it.
Poor old CLYW, they get flack for everything. For every person moaning that they’re too expensive, there’ll be someone that moans that they’ve “lost the magic” or “not the same” when they do finally turn out budget models. You can guarantee if CLYW released their first budget metal with a little “made in china” engraving on it, people would go berserk.
At any rate, it’s definitely an interesting development. Everything Chris touches turns to syrup, so I’m looking forward to seeing what this turns up. I’m not going to sit here and pretend like being able to get my hands on one of Chris’ designs for less money is in any way a bad thing.
Steve, I know this has been talked about quite a bit the past couple months, but is this happening now? Are there designs made and sent to a shop to start production? Or still not to that point yet.
You can read more from the Reddit forum that this is a real thing that’s happening. It will be interesting to see if it turns out more like the Rebellion line from YoYoRecreation or more like YoYoFactory with a varied roster and diverse pricing. Sure, they don’t want to be YYF, but cheaper models in the future will probably benefit them more than the danger of a tarnished image.
I find GN Yoyo Co and CLYW very common in some ways. Naturally, CLYW is way better. The yoyos are better, they have better communications with people, better team, better social media reviews, better everything. However, both companies seem to take a lot of criticism and both are fighting through it. GN (we) are just two-thousand steps behind in the running.
Oh boy. Well, that’s definitely interesting. Good thing CLYW’s consumer-audience isn’t angry men who spend their time powdercoating yo-yo’s in a CLYW colorway and thinking that they are superior because they have different opinions.
CLYW has consistently different models. The shapes of all Chris’s stuff is trend-setting and definitely unique when compared to the other yo-yo’s on the market; and while some of the yo-yo’s are similar, I think that it would be hard to not take inspiration from some of his more successful or previous models. Not every yo-yo he makes can be a hit, but most of them are; and all of them have been unique.
I typically don’t buy clyws. Nothing against them, I have no problem with the price, they just don’t appeal to me. I think it’s great that they are such a popular company. It really bugs me when people make accusations such as this. They are a business, they need to make money.
see y’all Steve tells people why they need his yoyos… he makes them believe that in order to achieve the highest level of chi flow with the yoyo… they must buy a yoyo called a return top made by abominable snowman in a land called Canada… dipped in a substance called A grade maple syrup… blessed by several animals to include an orca and a penguin addicted to pizza… and then he tells them that it is indeed possible to get such rare and ornate tools of mass entertainment and fluidity and that the price doesn’t matter…
You see its not everyday you can get a hunk of metal with a string and some kind of witching device called a bearing blessed by a penguin… and not just any ordinary penguin… one that partakes of the blessed bread from heaven pizza… which means that it must be really special… (not really its a little known fact that all penguins know how to gain pizza from heaven… its only a matter of time before Antarctica becomes one giant pizza joint… )
In this way he has made the magic letters C… L… Y… W… almost synonymous with these strange devices called spintops… goodness gracious i have tried way too hard for this… i think i need to go to bed before it gets worse…
