Why are you trying so hard to invalidate the feelings of those who were actually present at the time? If you weren’t there, you don’t have any right to be calling the shots about holding grudges or anything of that matter.
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I hate how my generation gets overly offended by minor issues, and this is one example of hyperbolic hate I felt the need to defend. It is a pet peeve of mine. Im entitled to my opinion and this is the forum to discuss it, so I did. I may not know all of the nuances of the issue, which is why I am currently backing off from the discussion, but the man paid back what was owed, apologized, and took a long leave of absence from a community he clearly respects and wishes didnt hate him for his past transgression.
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I asked Heath about this directly today in a PM, and here’s what he told me:
The amount was supposed to be paid back by my machine shop before anyone even knew I ever borrowed it. They had botched nearly an entire full run of yo-yos, and I was on the winning side of that argument to getting my money back (almost exactly the amount I borrowed from the charity funds). Plan B was to sell personal possessions until i had the money to pay it back should that money not get to me in time.
At this point, it’s obvious that I lost that battle with Southern Precision, and things escalated long before I could make that money back,
In the end I never got that money back.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because “an entire run of yo-yos got messed up” is pretty common. Heath ended up eating costs on that. Don’t believe me? Take it from Steve Brown:
Whether you want to believe him or not is a judgment call, but this kind of story is 100% consistent with what we know happens when you run a yo-yo company.
Should Heath have been way more up front and honest about what was actually happening? Heck yes! Obviously! I’d say half of this is miscommunication because when people don’t hear what’s happening they start playing a game of “telephone” and what comes out on the other end is inevitably dark and unrecognizable and scary. But when you’re in a position where you run a popular yo-yo company, you sponsor a whole yo-yo team, your yo-yos are the toast of the forums … people look up to you and you don’t want to let anyone down…
… do you?
That is my guess as well. Yo-yo community people aren’t exactly known for their… let’s say… business acumen? And honestly, if you want to be successful in the business world, I think a yo-yo company might be the very last business in the world you would ever choose to start. Good lord. Yo-yo is a lot of 
and fun things, but a path to fame and riches … it definitely ain’t.
(looks around) would you honestly call this, what we’re doing right now … a celebration of Heath? Because I don’t see any celebration of Heath. At any rate, to me, it’s about the yo-yos first and foremost, more than any individual person. And the goal is to put what is widely considered to be a classic (and virtually unobtainable) yo-yo in the hands of a huge number of players, at a heretofore unseen low cost… for charity.
That said, I completely agree with some of the other arguments that it’s better to ease our way in here, and I already made the following changes to the Ti-Vayder project as a result of this specific discussion:
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It’s formally marked as a collaboration, not a VsN release – which, again, is the truth on the ground. At the end of the day, I did and paid for 97% of what is going on here.
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We won’t include any kind of note from Heath in the box.
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Quite frankly, quoting Steve Brown here in defense is rather disingenuous.
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I think Steve knows how the yo-yo industry works, and the scrap rates, and the odds and risk of losing an entire run of yo-yos. He has plenty of experience.
So if someone was gonna say “oh, that thing about losing a run of yo-yos and having to eat the entire cost, and arguing with the machine shop over who bears those costs… Heath made that up”… maybe?
But it’s also totally consistent with what many people know to be true in the yo-yo industry.
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Good choice; goodbye Nathan
You and these other geniuses that want to throw a rope around Heaths’ neck; just because he SCREWED UP; have blown this whole thing waaaay out of proportion.
Yes; I was around back then with the rest of you clowns. You guys overdramatized the situation then and here you are; doing it all over again.
Listen closely… There are 2 valid things we know about Heath: He screwed up and he didn’t know how to unwind his mess in a timely manner.
Neither one; a hanging offense.
Who handed you the Royal powers to dictate forgiveness or redemption? And then we have a few quotes from the Bible; even?
Ok; here is another one from the Bible. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
And that crock about this is not the World. This is the yoyo community? Put down the violin crybaby.
As I have mentioned a few times in posts over the years, ‘The only real difference between us and the rest of the World; is that we put strings around our fingers’.
We are not a special group. We have no etched in stone guidelines about holding others in the community to Olympic level status.
I remember back when this all went down; one of the guys actually stated that there were children counting on the money. A crushing blow to humanity.
I think the Cancer angle helped turn a molehill into a mountain. And if that may be true; you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to do a little internet research to recognize that Worldwide; of all monies raised for Cancer research; only 20 percent is actually effectively directed to cancer research. Over 54 percent is paid to professional services that solicit donations. And the other 20 something percent is used for ‘administrative purposes’. <> And I have no doubt in concluding that not one other person in the history of this Forum has Ever bothered to check that out.
There is a human crime wave going on 24/7 and Heath is small potatoes on a scale of mistake makers.
Talk about holding a grudge. You guys are the closest thing to a Lynch mob than I can remember.
Heath is no Hero to me. But for you guys to crucify this guy; like you all have some superior levels of integrity is truly unsettling.
You guys should be ashamed.
Who are you to decide length of sentence? To decide gravity of an offense? To dictate how miserable you can make a person for the rest of their life; because what he did you took so personal?
You make me sick.
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This topic has about run it’s course, donja think…
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Hello. I wanted to address this in the Vs. Newton Charity issues 2019 topic, but it appears this topic has been closed, so I am doing so here. I am absolutely not trying to start trouble for Heath and especially Jeff (with whom I’ve never spoken or even met.) I am Heath’s mom. If you went to world’s during the three years that Vs. Newton was in existence, then you likely met me. I LOVED BEING A PART OF THE YOYO COMMUNITY!!! Furthermore, I HAVE MISSED BEING A PART OF THE YOYO COMMUNITY!!! I HAVE LITERALLY MOURNED AND EXPERIENCED HEARTACHE BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN AWAY FROM THE YOYO COMMUNITY. I understand the hurt and disappointment that everyone felt when the charity issues came down. I understand better than anyone on this forum. I understand because no one was more hurt and more disappointed than me over what happened. I did not raise my children to do the things that Heath did over the entire charity fiasco. When Vs. Newton came crashing down in the pyrotechnic blaze that it did, it was the hardest thing I had ever had to contend with in my life at that point. I had been through two divorces by then, and for me, dealing with the loss of Vs. Newton, the strain this loss placed on the relationship with my son, and my loss of involvement with the yoyo community felt as though I was traveling through a winding maze of emotional roadblocks. It was worse, by far, than either divorce. I personally don’t want to go through that again. Know what else? I personally don’t think Heath wants to put me or our relationship through that again. It has been less than 48 hours since Heath told me about this thing happening with Jeff, and the mix of emotions that I have experienced are all jumbled. I am personally excited at the idea that maybe, just maybe, I can again be part of the yoyo community (though I had always been more on the fringes of the community rather than an actual member.) I am scared that there will always be hate spewed at Heath and even me no matter what Heath ever does where this community is concerned. I am worried that even with Jeff’s financial backing that this whole undertaking could be a financial failure. I guess what I am getting at is that for most of you, Heath’s life only exists in the yoyo community, but that is not really the case for anyone. Everyone has a personal life. When Vs. Newton came crashing down, Heath did more than just hurt people that knew him in a yoyo forum. HE HURT PEOPLE THAT LOVED HIM, CARED FOR HIM, AND HAD A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM. I understand the hesitancy people might feel to let Heath back in to the community, but I WANT BACK IN!!! And I really can’t go back in without him. For many of you, Heath will never make up what he did to the community, but if I am able to again enjoy being part of this community, then the one little last bit of healing for my relationship with Heath can happen. I will close by restating that I don’t want to cause any trouble for anyone. I am just a mom who was caught in the collateral damage of Vs. Newton, and with the reboot of this design, I felt I had to have my say. Additionally, I want to say that absolutely no one knew that I was going to post my thoughts regarding this matter on this forum. This is an unsolicited post.
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