I really like yoyo design, I suppose thats no secret.
Yoyo designers, I’m interested to here what you design criteria is for a new yoyo. Do you stick to specific ideas and criteria as a framework for your yoyos, or do you simply make whatever takes your fancy?
This is a question for people who design AND have their yoyos produced; not every Tom, ■■■■, or Harry that has access to a CAD program.
Whenever I design and make a yoyo, there must be some justification for its existence other than fun. They must fill a gap I feel is neglected in design, innovate or improve upon some standard in some way. This can be seen in any of my models.
I have been designing yoyos around the freshly dirty stem system and trying to create a weighted and balanced yoyo that people can produce at home that performs well and reliably. This has been great fun testing various infill patterns, amounts, and weight distribution internally and has led me to messing with different density materials as well. For me, I have been going function over form but designing what I like the look of.
But this has led me to designing my first yoyo that might one day be properly produced, and it’s been a fun and exciting process having an idea and building off of it.
For most of my yoyos, the criteria is something that hasn’t been done before, or something that has been done once or twice that I know I can do better.. all without sacrificing performance. If you look at our catalog, you’ll see a lot of this.
5050 - First 1:1 organic yoyo and one of the first string trick yoyos under 60g
Assassin - one of the first fully SS yoyos
Kanto - specs add up to 151
Fusion - unique bimetal weight ring design
Monarch - first modern machined plastic + AL hybrid that set the trend for others the following year.
Mystery Gift - titanium ringed yoyo for extremely low price point
Hybrid 5050 - first size D bearing hybrid yoyo and 1:1 hybrid.
Aspen - first titanium cap that’s set the trend for other ti cap designs
Connection - unique tribrid construction
Nimbus - cap sandwiched between steel and AL
6060 - first 1:1:1 monometal (thought it was the first ever but someone showed me a small run mini bimetal that hasn’t been fully released yet.)
Our other releases like oasis and emotion are a little more generic in terms of construction, but offer a really unique play feel. Oasis id even argue stands out with a unique rim construction designed for comfort.
Yo, the 5050 is such a great yoyo. Objectively, and you should add this to your record of accomplishments, it is one of the cutest yoyos of the modern era. However, to say a yoyo released in October of 2021 is “one of the first <60g string trick yoyos” is wild! Are there a lot? No, it’s still nowhere close to being one of the first. There have been unresponsive yoyos that light since at least ~2013 up to 2021 from Ace Yo, YYF, G2, Smashing/OPYOYOS, RCS and of course Strum Panzer. Also see Strum Panzer re: a hybrid d bearing and a machined plastic/Al hybrid. I think you’ve made, contributed to and influenced some great yoyos and deserve the hype but some of these are disingenuous at best, diminishing/disrespectful of other designers accomplishments at worst.
I try not to chase trends or gimmicks. I focus on creating things I would genuinely want to play, letting the design process flow naturally from that mindset. If others connect with what I’ve made, that’s an amazing bonus.
When I start a new project, I usually have a clear vision in mind and a few self-imposed constraints to guide the process. Those boundaries help spark creativity, not limit it. For me, it’s about balancing thoughtful design with instinct, and making something that feels authentic from start to finish.
Realizing that constraints more often serve as design inspiration than a hindrance was quite a revelation for me. The really complicated and highly constrained engineering design projects for my job are always my favorite for that reason, and they usually end up being the ones I’m most proud of.
I steal ideas from Australian woodworkers and make synthetic versions of them.
The real answer is that a yoyo release needs to solve some sort of problem that a customer has. Even if the problem is something made up like “I like Lord of the Rings and want that to be a yoyo”. Yoyos don’t really need to do something new to be good, or worth buying, or worth producing. But they need SOMETHING about them to make that process worthwhile.
The larger and more real the “problem” the yoyo is solving is, the bigger of an effort you can put into it and the more you can make. For the RBC, of course, the shape was a catalyst, but everything else about it was pushing towards having smaller diameter bearings for modern metal responsive yoyos, to get a better, quicker response, to feel a bit more like how wood yoyos feel when they are dialed in. Harbinger and Plasm are iterations on that, with different constraints and construction styles. The application there is narrower, but it builds out our catalog with more options, both in terms of play and aesthetics.
So, for one of my releases it could be as shallow as… “I think I can do a good job on this yoyo and my lineup doesn’t have it yet” or as deep as wanting to make something to shake up a particular playstyle.
