I’ve always been a dreamer.
From my earliest memories through my time as a yoyo player, there was always a “big dream”. For some, it’s getting sponsored and traveling the world to share their craft, for others it’s working their way up the contest rankings into the world stage to achieve victory. And while I also had my time of sharing those same big ambitions, there was one goal that always sat in the back of my mind that I knew was something I wanted to make a reality. That goal was to create my own signature yoyo.
The Realization.
Toward the end of 2017, I had just come off from my US Nationals 5A championship win, and I had a lot of emotions flowing through me. I had won the US National Yoyo Contest with a 14 dollar bootleg of a Yoyorecreation Sleipnir. At the time, this was truly one of the only yoyos I could afford that was competition worthy for me. Coming off a major injury that left me unemployed and disabled, I had already sold most of my yoyo collection, so these random bootlegs I would find on taobao were lifesavers for me. Once I had recovered enough to start making an income again, my wife (At the time my girlfriend) had a question for me as she was someone with a 3D design background.
“You want to try to design a yoyo?”
I’ll always remember the realization that this could be a dream come true for me and that it would be very doable. While both of us had no yoyo design knowledge, I knew what sort of attributes I wanted in yoyo, and Mei knew how to do 3D modeling with the input of shapes and edges I would give. This started the process of brainstorming what I wanted in a yoyo, and thus the concept of our very first yoyo was born, that we decided to title “Shibari”.
The Shibari.
The Shibari was everything I wanted in a yoyo. I wanted something that had contest oriented edges but maintained a rounded shape that would feel good in the hand. I wanted something slightly undersized but with a wide diameter for ease of intricate tricks but keeping bigger catch tricks in mind. And I wanted something with a lot of power in the rims to keep things stable and strong. While 1A play was a big focus, It was extremely important for me to keep 5A in mind as I am largely a 5A player, and there are certain attributes I like yoyos I use for 5A to have. There were 3 yoyos that I had really vibed with at the time which served as big influences during the design process: The Yoyorecreation E=MC2, the Yoyorecreation Messiah, and the Yomerica Spindustries Planet 9. All 3 of those yoyos had certain attributes that I wanted to be in my own yoyo. We released the Shibari in 2018 with a very small run size of only 50 units, it was controversial, it stirred up some feelings from the community, but at the end of the day, it was MINE, and everything I aimed to accomplish. And with lots of trial and error as we were very new to everything. From the yoyo design, opening an online store, making a business, creating a social media presence, advertising, promoting, EVERYTHING was brand new, but it started something that we never could have imagined would grow into what it eventually became.
The Growth.
Years went by, and we released more yoyos. Our understanding of yoyo design and manufacturing grew more and more with each release, and we found ourselves existing as a fully fledged company. New yoyos, sponsoring players, sponsoring contests, collaborative projects with other companies, making video content, all things we would have never dreamed we would be doing when we started out with nothing but a “what if?” We then found ourselves approaching 2024, our company now about to be 6 years old, and we found ourselves asking ourselves:
“What if we took everything we are now, and applied it to where it all started?
The Shibari Reborn.
Yoyo design can be tricky, There’s a lot of little nuances that go into every little aspect of your yoyo design shape, and its a balancing act of angles, edges, shapes and sizes that you work around to ensure that you get a yoyo that actually functions as a yoyo, and isn’t a clunky wobbly piece of metal on a string. We knew we wanted to make a yoyo that in every way was still a “Shibari” but at the same time pushed us further to show how far we’ve come with our new skills and experiences to create something better than before. We started with a new material, 7075 aluminum. The original yoyo was made in a 6061 aluminum alloy, which while there is nothing wrong with 6061 yoyos, we felt we wanted to try an alloy that allows for higher tolerances, and contribute to a much higher quality feeling yoyo than the original. Switching materials is not as simple as throwing your same cad file and re-rendering it as the same though. We went back to the drawing board with a focus on how we could utilize 7075 and truly take advantage of its capabilities.
With 7075 being a stronger material, it means you can go thinner in certain areas of your design. We decided to remove the density of the inner walls of the yoyo and push more material towards the outside edge. In doing this, it allows the yoyo to become more stable and have an increased power behind its spin. We bumped up the diameter and width just a bit to give the yoyo a bit more control during play, as well as adjusted the gap to allow for a better bind feel in conjunction with the newer string types of the modern era.
While these new attributes were coming forth, we still kept the essence of everything that made the original shibari, a “shibari”. We kept the same shape and rim design, kept the same inner spike cone hub, and kept the same shiny finish that made the original so iconic to look at. In the end, the S2 was born, and anyone that got a chance to throw the original will definitely get the same feelings, but with a very modern upgrade that is sure to impress! The S2 upon first throw will scream “power” as its aggressive rim weight drives the yoyo forward through long trick combos. The S2 proves to be extremely balanced as it maintains its plane very well for horizontal tricks, but can be pushed into plane direction changes with ease. The way a yoyo feels in the hand is very important to me as I feel if you’re catching the yoyo comfortably, you’ll be throwing the yoyo comfortably, and anything that increases the comfort of a yoyo, means that you’re going to want to use that yoyo even more so.
In the end, the S2 is our master thesis, and the results of years of experience and passion all wrapped up together. We wanted to make sure the S2 was also super accessible to all who wanted to try it, which is why we aimed to price it at an amount that most 7075 yoyos rarely are released at. We hope this gives all an opportunity to try our work for themselves.
- Width: 45.5 mm
- Diameter: 53 mm
- Weight: 66.5 Grams
- C Bearing
- 7075 Aluminum
If you’ve made it this far, thank you sincerely for the support, and we hope you enjoy the S2!
S2 Releases in the shop April 5th at 5pm PST!
_Josh and Mei.
Photos by Kaylee and Josh <3
