Whoops didn’t mean to delete that post. I said:
This is true for most people outside the yoyo community. To the average person yoyoing is still walk the dog, rock the baby, loops, and picture tricks.
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That’s very true. And to the few who don’t see it that way, it’s influenced by something they’ve seen on TV. For example, that guy (I think his name is Black?) with the crazy 2A TED Talk presentation, or that Vsauce video about 4A. Most people wouldn’t have any idea the variety of different styles and skills that are possible in modern yoyo.
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What pushed me farther into yoyoing was when in 2018 my old boss was always seeing me with yoyos. He asked me to do rock the baby (I never really bothered with that much) so I did it for him and he was impressed but I knew it was not that great and it frustrated me. I had a Duncan trick book with Brain Twister illustrations. I studied those 2 pages and watched videos and a few weeks later I learned Brain Twister. I was so proud to show it to my boss. When he saw me do it he was impressed and immediately asked me to do walk the dog. The classic tricks are what people know and are easy to understand. I lost my train of thought…
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The most likely people to not enjoy easy tricks are yoyoers themselves. We take ourselves way to seriously and lose the enjoyment of the simplistic in the race to grasp the complex. We learn a trick, move forward, and forget the work and joy those simple tricks awarded us. We look down our noses at those inferior tricks. What’s worse, we sometimes talk about non yoyoers that have knowledge of a few tricks, even if they can’t do them, with a bit of frustration and sometimes comtempt.
That’s my rant, I’m done.
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Well said! I don’t consider any trick “simple” because I will always remember how difficult they were for me at one time and I love to revisit them every day.
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I get the same from my father (good naturedly).
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nailed it! this attitude also keeps novices and amateurs not only from wanting to demonstrate their (sometimes meager) skills, but can get them into a rut of ‘trick envy’ (similar to collection envy i would imagine)…
some of the best videos i’ve been seeing lately are folks just grinding through, keeping the camera going through mess-ups, etc…
yeah, always clean, pro trick videos are great… you can fInd millions of them anywhere… they get generic to a point… i like seeing a missed bind, a simple trick, etc… those cats are human, like me 
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At the end of the day, I don’t care nor need to be the best yoyoer in the room, just the one that’s had the most fun. I’m always disappointed by a performance, regardless of the activity, that lacks joy and enthusiasm.
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It was BLACK!
His performance as part of Cirque du Soleil in Kurios led me to yoyo.
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If companies like Kitty String and Monkey Finger Designs only sold strings in packs of 5 would those strings be considered “boutique” strings? People seem to always refer to strings by those companies as “bulk” because they offer string in boxes of 100. You know, like in reviews a person will say Monkey Finger is my favorite BULK string…” What gives? Just askin’!
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i personally have bought “boutique” strings and they’ve sucked… won’t name any brands, but i think a lot of it try to capture hype, bulk strings get a bad name but they do the work
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Personally, I think of it in terms of production. So “bulk” means they’re made in bulk, in a factory churning out hundreds or thousands of strings all the time. Whereas I’m just a dude making them ten at a time on a jig I made on my pool table. Bulk doesn’t mean bad, if it did they wouldn’t exist. And boutique doesn’t mean good, it just means small business hand-making them. If you prefer kitty or MFD or any other bulk string, then that’s what you like and it’s not wrong. I think people associate “boutique = quality” but that’s not always true. When I first started making strings for myself, they sucked lol.
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There are 5 packs out there that aren’t boutique prices. However I wish the so called “Boutique Brands” would sell some bulk at a price per unit discount.
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Just to pick nits, here is my two cents. I think there are two ideas here:
- Mass Produced vs. “Artisanal” (maybe “handmade”?) - Here Kitty is clearly mass produced, and @BadWolfeCo artisanal.
- small package (~5) vs. bulk (>=25?) - This could be independent of how they are made.
I usually think of bulk as being packaging, but it could also mean produced in bulk. So while bulk packages are usually mass produced, they don’t have to be. And mass produced are sold in small packages.
All of this is independent of “good v. bad”.
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That’s some “bad” logic, which might mean “good” or simply might mean “bad.” There ya go that’s all the clarity I’ll offer! 
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Yeah. I can’t say I’ve ever had any “bad” strings, just strings I did not prefer. It’s a lot of pairing the right string with the right yoyo. A good string on one yoyo will not feel good on another yoyo.
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glossy yoyos are ugly. Matte finishes are the only way to go.
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I think heavy yoyos play best…
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Fwiw I don’t think Vines are a good example here since afaik MfD makes them in-house; there’s pictures on their Instagram of them buying thread to spin new strings, I think there’s even pictures of their spinning setup.
Other than that I agree with you what you’ve said on how it’s all preference and people like what they like. Personally I cannot stand Airetic (and similar) strings but I know lots of people love them and my unpopular opinion for the thread is that I really like Kitty Fat while most people consider it on the “blah” end of the “bulk” strings, favoring Sochi and OT. Vines are also a personal favorite but I know some people find them too rough.
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