It is easy to see how yoyos have changed over time (bearings, unresponsive, size, shape, so on…); however, I never hear much about string. For those who have been in the hobby for an extensive period of time, can you enlighten me on how sting has evolved? I know it went from primarily cotton to polyester. We are seeing more movement to nylon now. But what about in between those steps? Let’s hear about the fossil records of the yoyo string evolution 
As far as I know…
cotton >> 50/50 cotton/poly >> 100% poly
|
>> 100% nylon
I wouldn’t say sting has evolved much at all really - I think his best years where with the Police.
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This is about right as far as material. String use to be branded as “Egyptian Cotton”. Somewhere in the 50’s through the 60’s some packages called them “Cords” for some reason.
I’ll try to get some photos of some of the strings I have, although probably wont be until Monday.
But here is some info I can think of off the top of my head:
Some 1930/1940’s yoyos I have with original strings: very thin string, Type 4 thin! Cheerio branded some as “7 Strand string”, never taken one apart, but it’s still pretty thin. Gaps in most of these yoyos were very small. From my experience they stayed this way through the 60’s. In the 70’s The strings became thicker, probably what we’d call a Type 6 or 8. Again I’ve never taken any of them apart to count.
One of the biggest things I think that happened with strings is the consistency. Strings were wound very loose (again, I’ll get some photos when I get time). But sometimes in a pack you’d get some that were a little tighter. You’d also get varying lengths in a pack
In the 90’s when I started it was still primarily cotton string. Type 6 and 8 is what I remember being available at our local YoYo Mall Cart. Very consistent! I still own a lot from that cart. When they went out of business I bought a few thousand from them. That type 8 is so much better than todays type 8!
Around the mid 90’s Playmaxx/ProYo started to make the “Bumble Bee” string, black and yellow Cotton, not sure on the size of them. YYF Ben, or Steve may know 100% but this may have been the first string that wasn’t white. After that BC started making their multi colored string packs, again still cotton.
Then, again mid 90’s but after the bumble bee string (from my memory), there was this new string called Slick 6. This is when the transaxles started becoming more available and popular. 50/50 Cotton/Poly. Kind of neon green, and yellow were what was available at our local mall cart. This string lasted a lot longer and you didn’t get string burns as easy.
That’s about where my info stops. From about 2000-2013 I still played but, didn’t keep up with what was going on. So around 2013 is when I found out about poly string.
I have yoyo’s from the 40’s and early 50’s with a very thin string wedged in at the axle. As far as modern string goes, I have tried several and for the most part I do nor find much difference. I do prefer cotton for my wood axle throws and polyester on all my others.
I’ve always found that dyed cotton string wore out/broke quicker than the plain white. The dye seems to affect the stiffness a bit (to it’s detriment). I primarily use white cotton on my fixed axle yoyos, though I do use slick 8 on loopers as it lasts longer.
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I have to say that I’ve tried nylon and nylon blend strings a few times and I can’t warm up to them. Something about the soapy / plastic feel of it is just off to me.
So I don’t know that the future evolution of strings is from poly → nylon necessarily?
I remember when I first started throwing in like 2007, everyone had already switched to poly completely. Some people still used cotton/poly 50/50, but I don’t remember ever seeing any poly/nylon blend strings. There were a couple of strings I got to try, like Angel Hair, or Alchemy strings, that seemed like wire. I swear Angel Hairs were just nylon wires.
Alchemy strings were by far my favorite string back then.
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Have you tried Nylon/Poly blends?
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Yes I tried the kitty 1.5 type and did not care for them.
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i just bought a good handful of String Lab strings; Plutonium, Ammo, and Venom.
They are all really good, and really durable! Venom is almost identical to old Alchemy strings, but slightly softer. Ammo and Plutonium are both even softer. Ammo is really thick, feels like incredibly durable cotton.
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I’ve only been at this for just under 2 years, and I make my own. A 50/50 blend of trilibal poly and textured nylon is my go to formula. It’s almost unfair how well they power through slacks and whips, I cannot enjoy 100% poly playing unresponsive anymore. They just don’t have any… punch. I really have to push poly strings in order to get anywhere near the same performance as this blend. And poly gets soggy so fast.
It’s not the softest string on the planet, but man do they last forever and outperform just about anything else I’ve tried.
Yeah - YoYoStringLab is one of my favorites. Really digging Evan’s new Plutonium. A little more of a luxury string but its the only one that doesn’t burn holes through my fingers after endless hours of play. 
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I agree, really liking the Plutonium string. YYSL needs to start making long strings though, they always come slightly too short 
Interesting - they actually increased their lengths quite a bit awhile back. How ‘short’ are you finding them?
Still about 3-4". I’ll have to measure them later and let you know to be exact.
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I think the reason string evolution has kind of stopped compared to yoyos and even bearings and pads is because most people just don’t think it’s necessary to spend more than $20 on strings.
Kitty has controlled the string market for years, string is such a minor thing that people just stick with what they know. Many don’t really care what string they use so just stick with kitty and many have just gotten so used to kitty that any other string just doesn’t feel quite right to them.
However, I do think that wooly nylon(not the stuff kitty makes) is far better than poly in pretty much every way, softness, tension, whips, slacks, durability but many people just aren’t willing to drop 5-10x more money for them.
I think there is a small market for these strings seeing as how all of the small boutique brands that sell that stuff always sell out so quickly(spool thread, Airetic, zipline skylines) but none of those companies are capable of putting out strings like the bulk string companies or even YYSL.
Hopefully one day it’ll happen and we’ll be able to buy 10,25,50 packs to make costs a little cheaper so that it can gain a little more popularity but I don’t see that happening in the near future.
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funny cuz they last 50x longer. or more.
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I personally don’t consider lasting for months and months a feature though? The string gets so nasty and dirty. I think strings should be changed pretty regularly!
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@codinghorror Yea, but some of us throw upwards of 2 or 3 hours a day. It’s nice to not have to change a string but maybe once a week or so. A typical 100%poly string gets soggy after 30 minutes of solid play.
Shameless plug for my personal home brew strings (which aren’t for sale btw): I like them lasting long because that means I don’t have to spin as often. I can make a batch of 6 or so and be set for about a month.