Yoyo Boom: Are we there yet?!

General Yo-Yo
1

Hello ppl, (yey! for my first post)

A week ago I sent Dr.Yo-yo an e-mail explaining my point of view regarding a possible Yoyo Boom and hoping for having some experienced feedback about the subject. For some reason, maybe because he’s to busy, the Doc didn’t replyed my e-mail. Either way, here you have it, my point of view on boom :). Don’t forget that I am not from the US, so here we only got one yoyo craze :wink: .

Well, since the beginning of the practice of this hobby of mine that I started to make some questions around it and talked/showed to friends the new-school yo-yoing. Everyone I talk to remembers the Coca-Cola yoyo craze that got us in the 90s, everyone says that they can do hop-the-fence, walk the dog and all; but when they see this new way of yo-yoing they get really amazed, and even for some of my friends I was able to have them to buy some yoyos and, unfortunately for a little time, they experienced, or try to experience, the fun of yo-yoing. What led to me to question myself: “Would this kind of ‘drop of the hobby’ happen if, in some way, a craze was installed?”.

Based on that question, a lot more questions followed: “Where it’s going to be the next Boom?”, “Am I going to be ready for it?”, “Do we need a Boom?”, “Do we want a Boom?” and of course “Will the Boom going to ever happen?”. I’ll talk about some of them in as I write it down for you, but for now let’s stick with the first one that maybe is the most important. Since I’ve began yo-yoing that I tried to find the answers for this question, even when I find some information regarding the yoyo craze pointing that “it” comes in intervals of 21 years (don’t remember where I found this information) which in fact hits the mark for me on right now and maybe the next 3 years or so. I noticed some other factors that may be implying that a boom is coming, and I’ll try to explain my point of you about them to you:
. Financial Crisis: There are some people that defend that with the crisis that we are facing the parents have to turn to less expensive toys to give to their children. Since the videogames are a “little” more expensive and get dull after a few days, the yoyo can be of “infinite” fun for years and by that a good buy from the parents/relatives to their kids.
. Jensen Kimmit’s World Win went viral: This one took me by surprise. How could a Yoyo world freestyle went viral on the Internet? It never happened before, why now? It was the first time for me that this occurred, I never saw a yoyo video like this before I got into yo-yoing, still there it was: Jensen showing his skills on loads and loads of blogs and websites.
. First National Spanish Championship: For the first time in history it’s going to be held a National Yoyo Championship in Spain. That means a lot, it means that in Europe the community is evolving and growing.
. More shops of yo-yoing: Yeah! They’re popping up all right!
. A comedy sketch involving yo-yoing: Strasser showed all the yoyo community that it doesn’t take that much to popularize the skill-toy, you just need to knock on the right doors;
. Yomega entering the Portugal market this year: I know it’s strange for me to point this out, but I’ve never seen a yoyo commercial before in my life; for the first time some networks of national TV played Yomega commercials between kid’s shows. Even more weird was seeing them available at the local hypermarket.
I let my conclusion on this one when I try to answer to the last question.

As for the next question “Am I going to be ready for it?”, I guess the answer is simple: “I will be ready as I am now”, just keeping playing my yoyo and showing, and maybe teaching, this art to other people that might be interested in it.

“Do we need a Boom?” - “Yes.” and “No.”
Yes, because it will create more competition between players, it will get more diversity in products available to the consumer and it will require more innovation in the industry, which in general it sounds pretty ok for all of us, right? Yes, but no; when we get something that exposed where everyone wants to make part of it, there will be others that just want to make some profit around it and then you’ll get some “noise” around the answer.

“Yes, but…”: there will be more players and users of this skill-toy and for that you’ll get a lot of people that don’t understand the pre-established community and may be disrespectful in a lot of different ways to the fellow yoyoers; more diversity of products may inject some lower-quality products in the market making it more easy for new comers to ditch the hobby if they have a bad first experience with them. In the end you may get a lot of innovation, but in the worst-case scenario I fear for a Patents War. I know I am being a little dramatic on the last one but just take a moment to think about the Patent Wars that go today between Google, Apple, Microsoft, Motorola and so on; now you just need to imagine that context in another successful industry and you get the picture. Oh, We already got on bit of the picture not too long ago, didn’t we?

And we ask very proudly: “Do we want a Boom?”, and some will say “No” and the rest will raise their eyebrows. Let me explain, for some, and unfortunately this included me for a while, they think that what they do is uncommon, special and different and if the industry would get popular then what they’ll do would be less cool and distinguished as it is today; so for some, the part that the yo-yoing is treated from the eyes of outsiders as something as a gift and something that lets you shine in the middle of the crowd is what really matters.

So for the last and maybe important one “Will the Boom going to ever happen?” my answer for this one is “Yes, but we are already in it”. No, I am not saying that every kid is throwing a Coca-Cola yoyo outside; I am saying that we are going to stay as we are today, with some highs and lows but most of the time the community will be well defined as it is today. What I am trying to say is that we evolved so much and we are so good and so many right now that I think we may compare to one of the early stages of the Skate and Surf community; you know that they are there and what they do, but you know that there is no craze. I guess that by saying this I gave my answer to the first question as well.

Well this went from a post to a full article now. Hope to have some feedback from all of you, took me a while to start to write this but I needed to share this with the community. Oh… and for the record, no, I am no philosopher or some crazy sociologist, I am just an average working guy that usually like to question the stuff that happens in his life.

Thanks for reading this :slight_smile:
-Joel Oliveira

2

very interesting read

we’ll see about that boom but it depends on who and how people are going to talk about it.

but I can definately see a fit for the yoyo in the current world, give it some more time tho, it’ll take some time to take off and we’re not quite there yet

I for one will communicate about yoyo, because that is what I do, communicate and share my fun with others

I was a hardcore gamer, long time (25 years of console gaming under my belt, started around 7, 32yo now), and it’s been 2 weeks I didn’t touch a joypad, thinking about selling the console to buy more yoyos…

Something is happening, but not quite yet

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A large part of what started the last one is the Coca-Cola boom, as you stated. If something like that does happen again, which depends largely upon the advertising departments of retailers with a large visibility; such as sodas or fast foods, I can see it happening again. I know that I added yoyos to the stock of the trading post I managed at a local Boy Scout camp this summer and sold insanely large amounts. The interest is their, the global community just doesn’t realize that we’re here.

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I’m not sure will see a boom soon, becuse there is one big factor holding people back from throwing yoyo’s. Intimidation. I’m not talking about the boogie man threatening to eat you if you buy a yoyo, but most people think they’ll never be able to do what we do with yoyo’s. For every amazing yoyo story out their, there’s a “I bought one of those and it didn’t work” or “I baught one and practiced forever and never learned walk the dog” story. Most people don’t think they’ll be able to do cool stuff with them unless they put it a lot of time into it. And while you do have to put time into it, it’s often overestimated. Another things is, many people, even understanding the time it takes to learn yoyoing, simplly don’t want too. I think we often look at yoyoing as “the” sport/hobby. But there are many other hobbies in the same boat as yoyoing. I think we’ve built up a pretty good yoyoing community as it is. I’m saying we shouldn’t show yoyoing to other people. But it often seems like were trying to force it on them. No were not sticking a yoyo into someones hands and glue the string to the finger. Moreso, we complainan and wonder every other person doesn’t yoyo.

5

man I have 2 left hands and 10 thumbs, but after 15 or so days of practice, I’m pretty much able to land a plastic whip or a double or nothing. I agree it’s really not that much, but it’s enough to keep me motivated and happy

it doesn’t really seem THAT hard when I see people doing it for 1 or 2 years already landing impressive tricks

when you compare to other hobbies like music or photography or track driving it’s

  • way cheaper
  • waaaay faster to learn
  • way more practical
  • low consequences if you fail (broken furniture or eyebrow, worst case scenario)

but yes, people do lack balls these days, just the courage and the right amount of dedication, everyone wants everything, and they want it for yesterday

all in all, no one’s doing anything, living by procuration watching TV

sorry I got carried on

but I will talk about yoyos all around me

1 Like
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i got five of my friends into yoyoing and lots of other people are interested, the boom is starting at my school here in australia

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This is exactly what I think. My school is getting into yoyos. I gave some of the younger grades some yoyos that I don’t use anymore. Not many of them are that serious about it though. I have 3 friends who have actually stepped forward and gotten some plastic YYJs. One of them is learning split the attom, etc. I am friends with alot of student council and they appointed me head of the yoyo club. There is probably gonna be like 15 kids in it. :slight_smile:

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im ready for it and it excites me! but no we really “Need” a boom, no. we do get by with a great selection of throws, companys, online stores and blogs. we , the community as a whole, i feel are self sufficant/sustaining and quite happy with the way things are in the yoyo world. so am i afraid of a boom, no, well keep doing what we do!

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Its here. The single thing that will be responsible for this boom what we look back on it: Zombie.
Thank you Joey. Seriously, thank you.

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working on it on my end, but I sense it’s on it’s way

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I dont think there is need for a boom. If non throwers want to start throwing, then let them and try to help. But there is this whole other problem with “stereotypes”. In my opinion, I think that whenever someone sees you throwing, and they have no idea what your doing, then they always think that your using a responsive yoyo. Oh, and most of the time, that “stereotype” of people, usually just think of 2 popular tricks- walk the dog, or rock the baby. If theres going to be a “boom” The first thing we should teach people is unresponsiveness, and explaining tricks.
-Renzo

P.s-sorry if the post doesnt make too much sense. I was trying to say something but I am not very sure how to explain what I am trying to say.

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Sorry I haven’t gotten back to you yet. Still playing catchup on alot of different things.

The boom is right around the corner. US trends tend to follow japan, and the yoyo craze is booming there. It seems that what it will take is a big buisness to take the risk on the American markets.

It does not really matter if you want it to happen or not. It will happen, so decide now what roll if any you intend to play when yoyoing reaches the tipping point here in the us.

Oh, and go read the book The Tipping Point. It will clue you in to how the system operates. It us a great read. Probably get you an A in economics.

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Coming I know 5 stores that sell high quality yyf and yyj

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You mentioned in your post that some yoyoers like that they stand out because not many people do it anymore. Which is what makes yoyoing my new favorite thing to do. I’m 33 and just started throwing about 7 months ago.

I agree the boom is at our heals but, will it take off? I kinda doubt it will get much bigger than it is. I played with a yoyo sure when I was a kid but, never got into it. never realized the string wore out and needed replacement. so after a day of throwing that cheap cotton string broke and well back to the bottom of the toy chest it went. Until I found another one with a new string or was given one as a present in my stocking or such. I could walk the dog. and rock the baby but not much after that.

I got back into throwing that 7 months ago when my daughter came home from a bday party and was given a cheapy yoyo in her little baggy. She was so excited about it and begged me to show her how to do it. SO remembering my childhood I slip it on my finger and did walk the dog and rock the baby and she was amazed. and then the good went bad. string snapped yoyo went flying and broke.

So the next day i went to Toys-R-Us and bought her a new one. A really good one(So I thought) hoping it wouldn’t break in 5 minutes. ANd needless to say I bought myself one as well.

After 20 minutes of messing with it not for the life of me able to remember how to do the Effiel Tower. I popped up You TUbe to get some dirrection… Well after gettign that down and sparking my interest like a was a 5 year old kid again. I started thumbing throught videos on you tube to learn some new stuff. I then was introduced to modern Yoyoing. I seen Yuuki SPencer,John Ando, Augie Fash and a few others. and was just absolutely amazed.

Getting quite discouraged that I couldn’t do any of what I saw I spent 2 weeks searching ther internet to find tutorials and such and other yoyos that I never heard of b4. That’s how I found these forums and well I’m still here. Just takes something to spark your childhood.

Anyway back to my original comment. I find that yoyoing is a Joy for me because I know aboslutely noone that does it. but a few of my friends that I met here. I play Pool regularly and that was my Main Hobby of my Adulthood and still is for the most part but unlike yoyoing Its a little more expensive and requires much more to be able to go play. as I don’t own my own table. But. yoyoing I just keep one in my pocket and every free moment I get I pull that bad boy out.

When I’m at the pool hall or at the Bar and Whip out my Throw people are amazed but, all they say is DO WALK THE DOG or ROCK THE BABY. as that is all most people know about Yoyoing. THen When I bust out Skin the Gerbil, or SOme more elaborate stuff like Rancid Milk or whatever they are just stunned. Then see the yoyo and ask how do you get it sleep for so long and then becomes a 2 hour conversation. The Interest is there and then they find out how difficult it is to Do a Bind Return and that the yoyo was $100 or more is some of my cases they get overwlemed and loose interest.

What I find is that people don’t like change of what they knew as a kid. and they loose interest real fast and the price factor from $5 to $50 and Up drives most of them away from even trying to relearn the Skill.

Kids todays would have a much easier time learning the skill since they don’t have the knowledge of the old to discourage them. But, I found that they find it difficult and wont spend more then 10 minutes. can’t get it to return lose interest and go back to the Video games. I tried to get my Nephew into it and same thing tried for all of about 10 mintues said this is to crazy and gave up and right back to the computer he goes. but then I see a kid like 8 or 9 that gave it the time it deserves and is quite Impressive. the speed they learn new tricks makes me jealous.

Anyway sorry for the long winded post. But, I find that yoyoing is a Special talent and that it is sort of a lost art. But everyone knows what it is. just not what it has become. The fact that I’m the only one in my area that Throws makes it a lot more intriging to me and I think that is a lot of what keeps me striving to learn more and more. If everyone did it I think that Novalty would wear thin fast. But since it’s not there it keeps us dedicated throwers throwing.

Keep Throwing,
Rob

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Does Duncan or Yomega have a ticker on the stock market?

New info

After about 15 mins of research I couldn’t find a yomega or duncan ticker on the market, but I did learn that Duncan is a child company of Flambeau who owns about a dozen other plastic companies from fishing tackle to automotive stuff. Flambeau did not have a spot in the stock market that I could find either.

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Oah! A lot of people commented on this, thanks! I agree with some of the comments above and thanks for replying on this thread Doc, I didn’t know about the Japan-US trend and that it was already a yoyo craze there.

As many of you have said, we get signals and patterns in real life that may lead us to believe that the Boom is coming and if it is we’ll be wainting for it. If possible I would like to know what stores and yoyo companies are sensing some differences right now. Are more yoyos being produced/selled? If so, where and what’s the percentage of difference between years? Anyone know some official values on this?

@mls5stokes: Are you going to play on the stock know? Nice :slight_smile:

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Well, its worth looking into. But I don’t know of any yo yo companies that are publicly traded.

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Blazing Teens is doing very well.
http://news.qq.com/a/20101018/001557.htm

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