PUNK:
From Rain City: Jeff Anderson has been the dude behind Rain City’s dyed delrin yoyos for a few years now. He’s also a 5a madman. So it made sense to partner up and make a 5a yoyo together! Here are his thoughts on the Punk!
It’s been awesome working with Rain City Skills over the years, dyeing their numerous Delrin yo-yos. When the time came to design my own Delrin Yoyo, I knew Rain City was who I wanted to collaborate with. On top of being very cool guys, they have created the most unique delrin yo-yos to date! I was pretty confident when I approached Justin Scott Larson with an idea and a couple rough drawings.
My intent was to create a delrin yo-yo with an open, flared design that is easy apply masking for dyeing. Add some sharp spikes for doing matador style tricks, and of course it had to be good for 5A! We worked out a a wide scalloped V profile with no hard edges for a nice catch and easy glue application for masking.
The wide V Shape is very accommodating for counterweight play. As a bonus, the delrin plastic means you can practice your 5A tricks without your neighbors wondering why it sounds a sword fight every night.
When Jeremy said he had the perfect counterweight to match it - a dyeable ball with spikes. I was all aboard. Its one of those things that only Rain City Skills would do, being the maniacs they are. The first prototype weights were so rediculously sharp they would make you bleed. The final design is much more tame, and won’t stick into you.
The name stems from Punk rock being very much about independence and creativity. Dye is one of the easiest DIY mods to do to make a yoyo truely yours. I hope that this yoyo inspires you to try something new and different just as the old dye-jobs of the 00’s had inspired me.
Releasing Thursday, 5/12 @ 8PM EDT.
Rebrand:
From Rain City: We regularily get requests for a beginner plastic yoyo. People who love Rain City Skills want a beginner yoyo to suggest to people.
The challenge?
$10k and 2000 minimum order. You have to pay for a mold, then make a minimum of 2000 yoyos, 500 per colour. We aren’t that big yet.
So I went with an option that had been done by many yoyoers and companies over the years - licensing (rebranding) someone else’s design. Specifically the Magic Yoyo One Third. The one third is the yoyo I’ve been using to reach school kids for a few years now. So I got 500 made in rain city Blue!
But I really wanted to avoid people who don’t read descriptions saying “hey, that guy ripped off magic yoyo!” Hence the name Rebrand! I put Waylon on creating a logo. His partner Mandy actually came up with the idea of a design that looked like we took the original yoyo and just stamped “rebrand” on it!
To give it that rain city flare, Mrs Yoyothrower took photos or graphics of each player on the team and created logos. We then printed sets of pogs! Each Rebrand will come with 3 random sets of pogs so you can support your favourite team member. The pogs are a touch smaller than our last batch, but if you have them, you can squeeze them in!
They come with a slim beginner bearing installed. You can toss in a full size bearing for unresponsive play, but you will get some vibe.
