The yo-yo was first made popular back in the 1920′s however the term “yoyo” is believed to have come from the Philippines. It also believed that the yoyo could have been used as a weapon. The yoyo consists of a length of string tied at one end to a flat spool. There are variations to how the string can be tied, early versions in the Philippines used a piece of string which was doubled up and twisted to provide a loop that went round the yoyo. This twisting method allowed the yoyo to “sleep” or “stall”. Victorian yo yos were just one piece of string that was tied to the spool, however this only allowed the yoyo to go up and down without any variation.
At its most basic level the string is wound round the spool by hand and the thrown downwards, once it reaches the end of the string the yoyo then climbs back up the string. Many modern tricks allow the yoyo to sleep or stall at the bottom of the string which allows the user to have a wide variation of trick and techniques they can perform. The easiest of these tricks is called “walking the dog”, this is where the yoyo is thrown into a strong sleeper and then rolled across the floor and returning once the sleeper has finished.
In 1866 James Haven and Charles Hettrick of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA received the first United States patent on “an improved construction of the toy, commonly called a bandelore” which we now know as the yoyo. It wasn’t till 1928 when a Filipino American by the name of Pedros Flores would open the Yoyo Manufacturing Company in California. The Yoyo company florished and at its peak employed over 600 workers and produced 300 thousand units daily! An entrepreneur named Donald Duncan spotted the potential for the Yoyo and decided to purchase the Yoyo Manufacturing Company for $250,000 which was a significant amount especially as the USA was going through “The Great Depression”. This investment turned out to be a successful one that would make him that amount many times over.
A landmark trademark case in 1965 singified the popularity of the yoyo when a judge ruled in favour of the Royal Tops Company agreeing that the term “yoyo” had become a part of common language and that Duncan could no longer have exclusive rights to the term.
The 1970s and 80s was the era of innovation in yo-yo technology. These invations included the worlds first decontructable yoyo which allowed users to change the axle. And i n 1980 Micheal Caffrey patented an invention which would become the world famous Yomega Brain. The Yomega brain had a revolutionary cetrifugal clutch transaxle that meant “The Brain” could spin for longer than any previous yoyos.
In 1990s companies played around with new materials and designs which allowed many different customizations that could alter performance according to the players preferences. Yoyo customization was all the rage with different and it wasn’t uncommon to see pink, purple, gold or a silver yoyo in playgrounds and classroom accross the world. In this period Yomega continued with world dominance and in the late 1990s the yoyo boom meant it became the brand to own. Donald also recieved an award for industry excellence in 1998 for his visionary designs and engineering in yoyo technology.