From CLYW: Our latest return top is a love-letter to the early days of CLYW. A reminder to ourselves that sometimes it’s ok to take that weird, hilarious idea and just run with it.
During a brainstorming session in December 2018, we started talking about classic CLYW designs that we still loved and what ideas and features we wanted to bring back and update. As always, our conversation turned to the Chief. What could we do to update the Chief and make it new again? How could we take that same unique look and feel and mix in some more modern and unique design elements….Chris was on a mission.
We started with what we knew and loved. The classic Chief profile is ever so present in this new design. We knew we wanted to make this play faster and zip in and out of tight tricks with ease. By reducing the diameter just a little and slightly narrowing the rims a hair everything we loved is intact but just more nimble. Then we started talking about weight distribution. What would that classic CLYW double-rim design look like nearly 10 years later? And that was the magical moment Chris did what Chris does, and it was simply brilliant.
As you will see the ‘soul’ of the Chief special rim design is still there but just hidden ever slightly out of reach and just on the inside. A true inverted Chief.
One look at the finished CAD and we were so excited that we couldn’t wait to get these made. We talked about names and immediately the unique quality of the Bear Trap prototypes popped into mind. Two pieces of CLYW history realized in design form together in one magical update, and here we are.
We are beyond proud of what this new return top has achieved and cannot wait to get it into your hands. It’s weird, fun, and it’s forward thinking while giving a solid high-five to the past.
Closer look at the colors. I honestly think gold might be my favorite, which has never happened before in a yo-yo release lol. Such a good looking gold!
It’s not quite as vibrant, here’s a low light/unedited picture:
EDIT: Now that I look at this, the color isn’t quite accurate here (all the aquas/teals kind of change in lighting). It’s good for comparison, but I’d say the color in the edited picture I posted is more accurate than this one.
Yeah there’s not really a visible seam in the picture for some reason, but they’re definitely press fit, not one piece design.
1000% getting one of these as a CLYW fanboy. No shame in my game, but I’m stuck between the red, purple, or gold.
Red is generally my least favorite color, but that red looks interesting. Almost salmon fadeish but a little dark?
Purple. I love purple. But I’ve got a ton of purple yoyos. Like a lot of them.
Gold. I’ve got one or two gold yoyos, and I kind of just get tired of looking at them after a while. But everyone keeps saying how awesome this gold looks - do the pictures just not do it any justice because it looks like a standard gold fare to me.
I’d still really love to see the production process on this one. I have no idea how press fitting works but that cross-section sure does look like one solid piece. Would be interesting to see.
I imagine they cradle the main half of the yo-yo and then using a hydraulic press to push the ring into the bowl. Basically they would put the pieces in there places and the machine would press them together with a specific amount of force.
So, how are people liking this throw?
Only 2 greens left in stock. Will this be one I regret passing up? Will it go down as a classic like some of the other CLYWs?
