Hi everyone! Ross here. You may know me as the guy who does big flowy tricks on Instagram, or have seen my products around, most notably ‘mouse pads’ the most affordable premium 19mm yoyo response pads on the market, the melatonin: a pocketable throw that plays big and the Kill Your Yoyo podcast where I interview the best yoyoers of our time about yoyo theory and performance.
Well, recently a lot changed in my life. I graduated college, promptly moved to Hollywood for a new job that I love, and I was finally in a place to really start pumping money into my yoyo business. Once I started looking at the financials and really considering potential risks I came to the conclusion that the name 'ilinx" was going to hold me back in the long run. I want to be one of the large brands that can make an impact on growing the community, not a little hobby operation. Maybe it’s a delusion, but that’s where I’m aiming. Anyway, I would constantly hear people mispronouncing ilinx and I’ve never seen anyone spell it correctly. It doesn’t matter how much I like a name, if I want to make a company that people are going to love, I need to have a name that they can actually spell.
So I made the decision to adopt a new name “helix throws”. Helix was a great name because it would allow me to keep the “ix” that had been my Instagram profile picture for so long, plus the helix/DNA tie-in held all kinds of great branding opportunities (or so I thought). I went on to incorporate and started buying new stock of pads and bearings to put together the best offer in yoyo hardware history.
Then it all fell apart before it started. 3 days before launching my new website and buying ads to push traffic, I got approached by a company that I look up to and was essentially told that my new branding was stepping on their toes. They asked me to stop using my logo. I was upset, but knew I could recover. Then the next day they clarified what they meant and asked me to stop using my name. The cornerstone of the whole operation was pulled out by a single email.
Well, that completely took the wind out of my sails. I’d just spent 6 months rebranding, building an awesome team, and creating a new website. Not to mention the incredible sum of money I’d put in thus far. It’s hard to put into words how this affected me. I spent the next week deeply depressed. I felt like I’d lost everything I’d been working on. My mom told me she’d never seen me that sad and yesterday she told me that ever since that event I haven’t acted the same.
I need to make clear that I hold no resentment towards the company that approached me, they did what they needed to protect themselves. I wish I would have reached out to them before I’d put so much work into the first rebrand.
After that terrible news came through, I searched and searched and found that modernyoyos.com was available. So I bought it. I’ve spent the months since then rebuilding again. I added Hollywood to the name to avoid confusion while allowing me to use modernyoyos.com (for SEO reasons) I had to choose to see this as an opportunity. I changed the confusingly named “mouse pads” to Hollywood Pads. Hollywood pads are just like mouse pads, only even higher quality and even more affordable. Team member Alex created a brand new beautiful logo for the podcast. I got new logos and photos and videos and branding ideas. It’s not just that I had to create new logos, I needed to create a whole new brand identity.
This isn’t a hobby. This is a part-time job that I do on top of my full-time job. I can’t wait to show you what I’ve been working on. Expect posts soon about tutorials, new releases, merch, and breakthrough products that will make you a better yoyoer. Welcome to Hollywood Modern Yoyos.
PS I did a whole podcast episode about this topic which you can listen to here.
) in a good few of my throws!! Highly recommended.
