Mmmmmmaaaannnnnnnn. This was an interesting read for sure heh. Major major MAJOR props to all the folks that are ready for the Classic; I’m very glad ya’ll are thoroughly excited. GregP - you are one very observant dude : P Honorable mention to the folks that thought it would be a full size Cascade (funny fact - when onedrop first showed me the prototype, I had a sketch matching that yo-yo exactly as a concept for my next signature throw. Suffice to say, they beat me to the punch : )
To those that got ‘bored’ by the bit of teasers and yo-yo stories/influence I posted up, either this yoyo or this concept quite frankly just might not be for you. And I don’t mean that in any type of snarky way, I’m just being as real and honest as I can with you. If you know me or know anything about me, then you’d know that I have a very serious passion for this craft. I have done it for a long time. Along the years there have been a slew of very incredible yo-yos to shape my trick style, my yo-yo preference, and eventually my yo-yo design sensibilities. At least half of the yo-yos I highlighted, a lot of players and throwers hadn’t known about. Or if they did know about them, they didn’t know the back story of why they were as coveted as they were/are. That information was detrimentally important for people to understand.
This yo-yo, this concept, the Markmont.Classic is MUCH more then just the yo-yo. It’s a continuation of steel sharpening steel. A continuation of design progression while celebrating the manufacturers of the past’s accomplishments. The yo-yos from the past are important and I had to show respect to those brands out of respect.
Not as many people these days have as strong an emotive connection to the yo-yos they throw, because there is a serious saturation of products. Many still do, but it’s not as across the board as it was in the early 00s when yo-yo options were far more limited. When I make a yo-yo with onedrop, I try to make a product that can stand next to all the legendary throws of the past. I take the notion of ‘getting it right’ very serious, and that takes time. What also takes time is educating the viewer on the idea and how it pertains to me. If the viewer can understand how it pertains to me, then they can then take that info and compare it to how it pertains to them. In short, it gives them something to think about.
I saw a few jabs that were directly at onedrop about them not being on point with the usual ‘release photos and specs, then release yoyo shortly after’ model. If you have irritation and words to throw, please direct all of that to me. The timeliness in which information is released about the yo-yo is strictly by my choice.
Moving right along, to contrary belief of some, the yo-yo is in fact coming out soon. Very very soon. Someone made mention of the release of this yo-yo so close to the Gradient being probably not a strong likelihood. Kudos to you. Strip away the fact that I had an education and brand props as my reasoning for stretching out the release, the single bullet point of the Gradient having just been released should be enough to deem releasing the yo-yo around the same time or right before, not wise. So if you really could care less about why I stretched out the release of info on the yo-yo, you can at least hang your hat on the one fact that releasing 2 yo-yos closely together just wasn’t a good idea : )
So in an effort to validate the truth that this yo-yo does in fact exist : ) I will be releasing a shot of what the yo-yo looks like tomorrow on my Facebook wall.
DEUCES
Don’t want to invoke Paul’s wrath and list out other guesses for specs, but suffice it to say there’s not much overlap with what’s already in my case.