Freshly dirty, recess, Jake bullock, Mk1, DD, Motion, knot creators , G2 and more recently feather spin.
@AudreySickburn with return bottoms is also on my list but very much a brand trying very hard not to be main stream lol but the charity aspect is above and beyond.
Freshly dirty I’m biased because I get the pleasure of interacting with the owner often at club and Arthur is just a good guy doing the hobby for the love of it.
I’m totally missing some brands but these are the brands I’ve gravitated toward most recently. These are also brands that support the community with very little push.
I think the Copper Acorn Mini with the revisions will put them on the map. And if the Plumpy ends up being the next after that, it will definitely be one that people are blown away by with the full size performance for those more into performance
Featherspin has the best motif of current manufacturers, in my opinion. Every model is based on a bird and is shipped in unique packaging representative of the species it is named after. The attention detail in the presentation makes the experience even more fun. I can only speak on the Vogelkop, but it has been getting almost all my attention recently.
I haven’t played any of their throws but I appreciate their unique and old school inspired shapes. Lot of the competition oriented stuff is starting to feel same-y to me.
For us old heads/those looking for something of the 90/00s:
Tom Kuhn/BC
SPYY
SuperYo
Spintastics
Honestly I got a pretty diverse collection of throws from many manufacturers. Most are great though some I question why I gave them my money. These days, it’s hard to find a bad yoyo unless you are buying something from the dollar store. Heck, I even got a pretty decent yoyo as a xmas gift a couple years ago that came from Temu…I was pretty surprised how well it handled for its price point. If a manufacturer’s making something unique that’s going to spark my interest, I’m likely going to go after it.
Thank you all for the recommendations. I’ve been wanting to ask because I’ve just got back into throwing a few months ago and it’s overwhelming how I’m just geared towards those few brands afraid to get out of my comfort zone.
YYF, One Drop, CLYW. Yes. The canonical three. Every recommendation thread eventually collapses into those names like a string going taut. It is not the community’s fault. It is pattern recognition. It is also a little boring.
Here is where to look instead.
Dreamcraft. Start there. The Asora is not a compromise. It is a considered object. The people making it understand weight distribution in a way that does not get discussed enough because the brand does not have a marketing department; it has a guy who cares excessively about throws
Motion. If you want to feel genuinely confused about why you have been playing other things, pick up a Motion.
Turning Point and C3yoyodesign if you want to go Japanese or Hong Kong and immediately feel like your entire yoyo budget has been misallocated for years.
Boise Woodworks for fixed axle. Handmade, intentional, the kind of object that makes you reconsider what fixed axle is supposed to feel like.
MOWL for when you want something that plays expensive and looks like it was designed by someone who thinks about geometry more than you do.
The market is not small. The recommended section of any forum thread is small. Those are different things.
Berv throws Dreamcraft, Turner Return Tops, and Return Bottoms on the regular. He is bad with all of them. This is not an equipment problem. This has been established.
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(I hope by YYF you meant Yoyofriends. YoYoFactory is a separate conversation. A shorter one. I have opinions about YoYoFactory that I will not be elaborating on here because this thread is about brands worth discovering, and that is a different category.)
Don’t leave yourself out @MaximShoots Edition YoYo has made some amazing products with really original designs. Don’t overlook their products. Dressel designs, MK1, One Drop, G2, Featherspin, Turner Return Tops, True Arc, so many good brands out there I am sure I left many out that are great. As always as the owner of Motion - we think our products rock!
I remember one of my colleagues wrote a substack and I was like am I just too dumb to understand the point he is trying to make or what. Checked and yeah. 90% AI.
