If you are looking for industry insight, much of what Steve Brown has said both speaks to his experience; as well as the reality of the yo-yo business.
Some brands, however, do not choose to be part of a commoditized yo-yo market. Sengoku, for instance, makes fantastically innovative yo-yo’s. There is nothing like them out there. Their unique play characteristics and innovative designs practically sell themselves.
So, if you have something innovative and unique that you wish to bring to the market, then go for it. If you plan on competing with China, or OneDrop, I might think twice.
Keeping in mind that experience does not include starting or owning a yoyo company. He could be talking to the next Chris Mikulin and therefore maybe discouraging his next employer from ever starting and thus screwing himself out of his next job. So I’d take his comments about starting a yoyo company with a grain of salt. Good thing he didn’t give this bad advice to the young Chris way back when because maybe we wouldn’t have had a CLYW and that would be a sad thing (CLYW has been an amazing part of this community). It’s pretty business 101 for the establishment to discourage new competitors so I’m not surprised he pulled this out of the playbook.
The hardest part about starting a new company is getting buy in from the community.
The second hardest part is coming up with something interesting to offer to the community that hasn’t been done before.
The third hardest part is figuring out how to make the damn thing and where.
I’ve cried over bad runs of yoyos, I’ve cashed out RRSPs to pay my mortgage, borrowed money from my parents, recently used our family CC to afford worlds this year.
Starting a company is not for the faint of heart. You never know what’s around the corner. There is a lot of risk involved.
My recommendation to anyone who wants to start a yoyo company is to buy two things: a machinist handbook and good set of digital calipers.
Learn about what makes your favourite designs tick and re-engineer it in CAD. Learn about what a M4x10mm thread, what a tangent radius is … I’ve been asked so many times what the dimensions are for our bearing seat, plus other measurements of our yoyos. I would be doing a disservice to people by giving that stuff away. You wouldn’t learn a thing and wouldn’t help anyone grow in the long run.
Buying designs off of people I guess can work too I guess. Just don’t do a royalty program if you do. That’s messy. Not very sustainable.
Uhmmmm …
Right now is probably the toughest time ever in the yoyo industry to start a company. The industry is flooded. The prices are dropping. Everything plays fantastic. So if you want to start a company, start thinking about ways that you can stand out. What makes your idea special. What value can you add. Once you figure that out then start at it. Find a good graphic designer. Find a mentor willing to help you out, but won’t give away the farm.
The first run is the most expensive … because you’re paying for a lot of extra stuff to get your idea off the ground.
Always happy to help people out with getting going, but I won’t make it easy on you.
I’ve worked in the Music Industry for 15 years, this is my first year out of it, but the best advice I’ve ever received as far as making an album was before making an album ask yourself “Why does this album need to come out now? What is it I’m offering with it?”
That saying came to mind with what Chris just said, and I think it applies a lot to yoyos as well. It’s something I think more companies should ask themselves: “Why does this yoyo need to come out now? What is it adding to the community/sport/technology/etc?”
That’s why you sound so knowledgeable about music quality! I saw you posting stuff about it one time and was like woah, I don’t have a clue what those words are.
That comment wasn’t an “lol they were all wrong!!!” type comment… if it read that way it wasn’t intentional. Just retrospective. It’s probably funnier that everything said was correct, really… just daunting. Valuable insight though.
It was 1. Not that easy and 2. More work, especially doing most things internally rather than buying help. The 10x as much as you expect figure may be spot on.
It is from the show Future Man on Hulu which I highly recommend. You gotta stick with it for a few episodes before it gets really good though. It is one of those shows that will take a joke to increasingly absurd lengths over the season, e.g. the Corey Hart thing which was epic.
