I really like what I arranged with Steve where I took an idea and turned it into a yoyo and the profits will be going to a charity of his choosing.
So I decided to do that with every yoyo. All of them! Each yoyo release will be “retail - (my cost + fees + taxes) = donation value”. I will not be retaining extra funds for designer fees or anything. After a run is finished I will publish the 3d models and engineering documents under the MIT open source license so that future runs will be an option even in the event of my untimely demise or shop closure. Just hand the plans to a competent machine shop.
Since the Caramel is still being reworked the first release will be a preorder that will be open for a month and at the end of 30 days I will put an order in with the shop, keep enough to cover taxes and fees and donate the rest. Preorder start date TBD. There will be a minimum order quantity set, probably 10 units to make sure I don’t go negative on it. There may also be a maximum unit cap set so that I don’t overwork my disabled bottom.
The first release profits will be donated to The Trevor Project. Each release will have a different charity. The Acorn will go to Steve’s choice the Salem VA hospital. Other releases will go to thematically similar charities when possible. The G - No kill animal shelter. Titanium Waffle Stomper (did I not post that one here yet whoops) will go to colon cancer etc.
I’m forming a Profesional Volunteer Yo-Yo team where I will be periodically selecting some folks within the community and offering them a chance to join.
Unlike the fancy pro teams, members will not be flown to competitions, they won’t have a cut of profits, and we probably won’t have matching jackets.
What team members will have is an opportunity to design their own signature yo-yo and select the charity that will receive the profits.
Please welcome our very own @Son-of-Morris to the Volunteer Yo-Yo team. Collin has selected Dogs for Better Lives (DBL) for his charity and will be collaborating on a big, chunky, plumpalishious throw.
Would folks prefer to see first. 1)The Tardy (7075 aluminum). 2) Demons Fun (blasted titanium). Or 3) The Pocket Watch (miniature brass). I don’t have prices on production yet but will be trying to straddle the line between affordable and accessible prices and funds for charity.
What does the texture of the blasted to feel like? I generally like blasted finishes.
Side note: One yo-yo I couldn’t stand the texture of was the RSO End pt2 finale. It felt weird and chalky and was a sensory Oh-no-no for me. It literally made my skin crawl to touch it. Sadly I had to trade it… it was the DocPop ed one too… luckily I got 4 SWs and 2 TMBRs for it though.
The blasted ti is matte but very smooth. It’s 220 grit blasted which is the finest option they have. One of the protos cut a couple strings before the blast smoothed out a little which, as far as I understand it is kind of common for raw blasted ti and why I’m thinking of putting blue anodized on top of it, to smooth out the roughest edges. The other two protos didn’t cut any strings
The tardy has the same 220 blast but is anodized and nobody has reported a cut string on those.
I do love that I couldn’t decide which of those three to run first and the community poll is almost a dead 3 way tie the community is as torn as I am haha.
