So I am going to stick to larger brands or else this becomes almost impossbile.
One Drop. High quality throws at a fantastic price. A solid variety of models across many different shapes and styles. Side effects are a fun customizing option. Oh and they make the Top Deck, a top 5 throw for me.
CLYW. So many fun throws, and a level of quality that I never have to question. Many grail models, and my favorite colorway of all time in Delirium Dive.
Yoyofactory. I go in and out with yoyofactory not all designs really stike a chord with me, but I dont think that is really a negative, more a testament to them for a large and diverese release schedule. Many all time great yoyos, and my favorite loopers hands down.
Honorable mentions:
Turning Point. I love TP, while some of the designs feel copy pasted, the level of quality and performance is hard to beat. They have hit my wallet hard over the years.
Yoyojam. My throwback favorite. In my younger years anything JD was working with was a must own for me, so naturally I gravitated to yoyojam. To this day they get considerable throw time.
One Drop - They are the current standard. There’s no yoyo machine shop currently that matches up to One Drop in terms of quality and precision. People can pretend the Japanese machine shops behind Yoyorecreation are better, but that doesn’t make it true. The yoyos they make are very well balanced and perform extremely well.
YoyoFactory - People love to hate on YYF, but they make extremely high performing yoyos for a good price. They offer a huge variety, and I think they sponsor the most throwers out of any company. They certainly do a lot for the hobby in terms of exposure.
Duncan - Can’t leave the original out. It’s debatable whether YoyoFactory or Duncan has done more to bring people into the yoyoing world. They are currently catching up to the standard for high performing metal throws with @bjardin at the helm, but Duncan plastics IMO have always been great. The new Freehand One released already has a spot in my heart.
I’m more in to the boutique brands because I find they provide more than just a product; there might be videos on updates of what’s coming, life updates and such.
It feels more like you’re supporting the creator directly rather than just a brand.
G2 - high quality high performing yo-yos, great branding, very personable and I like the lotteries, pre-orders, streams, AMAs, etc.
RSO - best titanium in the business, unique designs and incredible packaging and write ups of models
MonkeyfingeR - Ray must have done a deal with the devil to be able to do the colours he does.
I have all 4 Dressel Design releases. They are all different and all incredible performers.
C3 makes some amazing throws.
Reticulated Return Tops remains one of my favorites as well. They aren’t all that well known but the 4 throws I have from them are all beasts in terms of performance.
Really, you will have a hard time finding a bad throw these days. There are so many companies making quality YoYos that if it’s not up to industry standards, they simply won’t last. The smaller “boutique” shops like G Squared, Zero Gravity, One Drop, Mark 1 and Monkey Finger turn out amazing amazing throws with every (limited) release.
It’s a really good time to be in this hobby. So many choices, so many quality throws.
Check out the BST thread here. There are always great throws looking for new homes. Trader feedback tread is awesome to ease any concerns about bad deals.
I recently got back into Yo-Yos. Figured I would make a chart. My collection has a few Yo-yo’s that I have had for years plus some new purchases.
The pie chart on the left are all my throws. Warning many I purchased at an offer I could not refuse price. For example, I don’t throw unresponsive but I bought a new Duncan Racer for $8 at a discount store. I also bought 10 Loop360 for $3 each.
What I throw regularly are the manufacturers on the right pie chart. So My top three are YYF, Duncan and a big tie for third.
I wanted to make a pie chart too. Based on this it’s still Japan Tech and CLYW as the top two, with a three way tie for third. Shoutout to Spinworthy for making my favorite fixies in the game. Although I do need to add Tom Kuhn to this chart eventually. One day I’ll pick up a No-Jive.
So Duncan yoyofactory are the top companies for USA. Gotta love Duncan tho they have really good affordable competitive throws. GTR GRASSHOPPER GTX HAYMAKERX are the best from them
I like the chart idea and I’ve been keeping my collection data base updated, so it was easy to make one, thanks for the idea, Pie Charts are so underrated
