Gauging interest...

Hello everyone, I am looking to gauge interest in an upcoming project. I imagine there’s always demand for another v-shape bi-metal blah or something like that, but that’s not what I’m looking to make.

I have always been a fan of mid-2000s organic shape throws. They’re actually my favorite type of throw, I don’t even really buy anything new to be completely honest. For the longest time, I’ve wanted to make my own yoyo, and it is finally going to happen this summer.

I have no problem only making a few, but I was wondering if there’s community interest in an old school organic, as I’d love to make a run to sell. There are so few on the market, so I feel like I wouldn’t have a problem moving a small run.

Any input is welcomed!

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Have any ideas of general specs? Who is going to machine them?

I don’t personally feel like I will get in on buying one but I do want to hear about it :slight_smile:

That I’d like to keep quiet… just looking for some general opinions. Sorry!

I only throw organic shapez I’d love to see some new onez

If you actually want some possibly useful input; you are going to have to provide some better information about what you are trying to achieve.

I’ve been cutting up yoyos since 1998. I have seen and/or been ‘aware’ of just about every size, shape, weight, etc. of most every yoyo in the time period you mentioned… in the several years before and in the years after.

You have provided me with no useful information.

Organic shape; OK. What about approx. : diameter, width, weight, material/materials?

Responsive or non responsive? Fixed or bearing? Price-point? Small quantity? Limited, numbered batch?

Type of finish?

Based on your provided Info; it seems like you just want to hear if there are enough adventurous people to encourage you to make some yoyos.

…kinda like saying, 'Hey guys; I’m thinking about making my own Ice Cream. Most likely a flavor that was popular in the mid-2000’s. Would you guys be Interested? I’d rather keep the flavor a secret for now.

Vague information illicits vague responses.

Since you seem to have no problem just making a small batch; then that is just what you should do. Just do a small run and field test them. If they go over even better than you expected; make more🤓

I think you should go ahead and make several. You have to be able to impress yourself before you impress anybody else🤔

I’d be interested in buying one.

As long as you keep it pretty old school faithful with a diameter of less than 55mm. Inexpensive would be great too.

Oh, and avoid splashes, acidwash etc ;).

Doc’s got a point here. We really do need more details to give you an accurate gauge of interest.

Very fair point. Tentatively looking at 53 mm in diameter and 38 mm wide. Target weight is 62-63 grams, but where the number falls is dependent upon whether I not I opt for 7075 to pay homage to a few of my favorite throws.

I’d really rather just keep my mouth shut haha, but I don’t want to make something that nobody wants!

Very decent specs indeed! I’d like one of those.

That sounds like a good yoyo. Do you envision this as a responsive or unresponsive yoyo? I’m interested either way.

Unresponsive. It wasn’t influenced by a few old designs.

Yoyo Doc is right.

You should make what you want.
If you really want to bring a yoyo to market, then you are going to have to be very aware of said market, and that might get in the way of your fun.

What you are envisioning sounds a lot like one of the new Smashing Yoyos.
I’m mentioning that, because it would presumably be your competition.

Your Penchant for an O shape is interesting, but is there a reason that most yoyos are not O shape now a days? Seems like there would be some sort of performance variable there other than simple aesthetics.

So, the first thing you need to do is decide if you want to make a yoyo for you’re own personal fun, or make a yoyo to sell. That decision will drive all your others.

I’m not trying to rain on your parade. Do what you want and have fun with it.

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I love O shaped yoyos. One of my fav yoyos is the OD 2014 O benchmark. I totally wish there were more modern o shaped yoyos on the market. Just keep the price reasonable and I might have to get a few…

I’d like to keep the price at $65, but production number is the biggest determinant.

this sounds fun, i do love the 54-53mm diameter. super fun imo, and with an organic shape it would be really comfortable. i would think a 64-66 gram yoyo would be a little bit better for many peoples personal tastes. i would most likely be interested. i’d review it if you needed too. hit my line up!

This is a pretty good idea but “old-school” narrower yoyos seem to be getting more common as interest grows for newer members of the community who never got to use some of those narrower, high-walled yoyos. You may want to add something to your design (that you’ve probably already finished) that makes it stand out rather than just being another older-styled throw with modern response and bearing. Don’t get me wrong- I love these throwback designs and think they’re super fun but I think you should try to make something really unique with this opportunity. If you have questions about designing lmk I have some experience drawing yoyos in CAD. ;D

Small lightweight organic sounds great to me, but final decision depends on how it looks. When it comes to buying I’m more of a ‘ill know it when I see it’ kind of guy.

I mean, if people have seen any of his posts at all, mrciurleo saying he wants to produce a mid-2000’s style organic design should paint a fairly clear picture of what kind of design he’s generally talking about…lol.

I know I’ll likely be interested. I’m currently selling off everything but my Sovereign and Markmont. Next. While those were from 2010, they’re still in line with the mid-2000’s organics, apart from having “standard” modern guts. Like mrciurleo said, nothing that’s new on the market really fits that category, so I’d be excited to see something fresh in the mid/under-sized pure organic niche.

Yes, there is a reason why most yoyos arent O shaped these days. It’s because they do not provide peak performance, which basically only means that horizontal tricks are diffficult to perform with them. There really isn’t any other design deficit with organic shapes.

The reason why people don’t really make them now is because the market is dominated by a minset of peak performance. This is very sad. It means that almost every new yoyo is going to be a wide V ‘ish’ shape.

The majority of players have a peak performance minset as well as companies , which also fuels the continual production of peak performance yoyos and having the vast share because it makes manufacturers feel they can’t deviate too much from these kinds of models.

There’s a kind of vicious cycle going on here. Companies bring out yoyos with peak performance design so players who desire peak performance (often because they think they need to) buy them. But then they are waiting for the next peak performance design so companies feel they need to deliver that and so players buy that too, and on and on.

What is wrong with peak performance design? Nothing! However, when the market is over 90% peak performance design, we have a problem. We need a bit of ‘soul’ back; yoyos that although aren’t peak performers, are very comfortable, feel great to use and provide a good challenge on account of their design. Players need to desire a bit of soul back so that we can see a greater variety of yoyos being produced.

Now, heres here’s the difficulty with starting a new yoyo company; you feel you need to release a V ‘ish’ shaped, 56mm diameter, 65-67g, 44mm width yoyo probably with fancy splashes for under $100. The customer sees your fancy new yoyo and unless it’s somehow immediately very impressive or cheap, will think, ‘Meh, I’ll go buy a (so and so yoyo from blah blah) instead.’

So bringing out a peak performance yoyo from the outset may actually quickly sink a new company simply because there are hundreds of very similar options avaliable.

Maybe, just maybe, a small, strictly organic yoyo that is fun to use may be something that sells in this performance fixated market for those that are feeling their peak performance collection is getting a little stale.

Who knows. Just maybe.

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So I haven’t played “older” yoyos.
I had an 08 888. Would this be similar? Would the shape be something like a speed dial and have an A sized bearing? Many of us on here have never really had the chance to experience these types of yoyos so we don’t know what to expect. At least I don’t.