Three questions for Brandon Vu

Hey nonja121,

Thank you for the questions!

1. Awesome question! In terms of how designing yoyos have changed my reviews. I’d say my expectations are now tempered with a more in-depth understanding of what goes into making a Yoyo, and why features were not added. To give you an example, I used to judge every yoyo if it could finger spin or not, however as a designer I know adding this feature alters the weight distribution and may make the Yoyo play less desirable in some way. I’m more a lot more understanding of that and try to reduce my focus on those aspects. In terms of design deal breakers… Hmmm, as long as the design doesn’t cut strings and is relatively comfortable in the hand. I would say everyone’s optimal design should be up to them.

2. Good question! The Variant and Outlier were two completely different beasts. However, If I were to speak about something that ties the two together it would be a vision. What made the Outlier super hard to make was I didn’t have a clear vision of what I wanted. Therefore every prototype, (Which there were 5), was never “good enough”. But, making a Yoyo good enough is impossible when you can’t define that for yourself. The Outlier was an iterative journey, and the more mistakes I made, the more I realized what I actually wanted. However, had I started with the Vision I probably could have gotten there faster. With the Variant, I was more clear on the Vision. I wanted a V-shaped plastic Yoyo, that was stable and cheap. However, plastic is a completely different material. Bringing Jeff on board and communicating to him my vision was a little tricky at first, but Jeff Pang is an absolute pro so in no time he designed it to reflect my preferences. What I found surprising was this. Before you draw a single line in CAD, before you invest any money in a prototype before you even consider making a Yoyo. Sit down and ask yourself, If I could have the perfect Yoyo. What would it look like? What would it feel like? What would it be made from? Then reverse engineer that. Doing it the other way around is really not optimal… Haha.

3. Another good question! And to be honest, I don’t think I’m the best person to answer this. I haven’t spent a whole lot of time in the US. I went to BAC & MA states but that was in 2015, so 4 years ago. If I say anything I’ll say this. In recent years, there has been a convergence of a global style. Back in say 2009, US players were a bit more reluctant to try the fast-paced speed combos that were ubiquitous in the East, and some Eastern players may have been a bit apprehensive to play a bit more technical like those in the West. There are exceptions to this, of course, however an observation I’ve made is now players, grab what works. In the quest for trick variation, players now grab the best from all over the world, creating a more unified competitive Yoyoing style.

1. I’m so glad you enjoy the podcast! Thank you for expressing that! I seriously enjoy making it. I definitely do want to go past the first 6 episodes, but we shall see