The story of Strand

Strand Specs

The release date of Strand is Feb 20th 8PM EST.
Price: 49USD~54USD

Fingerspin has been wildly popular recently. So for the concept of this project, we want to create a yoyo that can both do fingerspin and perform well at the same time. This concept might sound easy on paper but it is very hard to achieve. We have tried this before with yoyos like the paragraph and a monometal prototype. The paragraph is great at performance, but the locking mechanism and the hub is too shallow for a great fingerspin. The monometal while just ok at fingerspin, the performance is not really great.

We learned that to achieve better fingerspin capabilities we need to either conform to the H shape monometal or go fully plastic. H shaped monometal built for fingerspin takes away the stability, acceleration and the speed of the yoyo. We need to add a massive amount of material and weight outside of the center axis on the hub to make a fingerspin cup. For plastic it would work, however we want something even more performing, something with more aggressive weight distribution. A yoyo you can truly use on the competitive stage while excel at fingerspin. 

Picture of paragraph

Picture of failed fingerspin monometal

Picture of Dove

Picture of AoE

To tackle this idea, we decided to use a hybrid construction. Plastic with Aluminum cap. Plastic body is very light and the denser aluminum cap can shift a massive amount of weight away from the center axis. This drastically increases the rim weight. Bead blasted aluminum is also one of the best surfaces to fingerspin on. Tackling both creatia with this design, we went along with prototype one. Prototype one features a dimension of 47mm width and 55.35mm diameter. The shape of the yoyo is generally V shaped for optimal speed, and a slight hint of H shape at the rim for extra power. We were first OK with the performance of the yoyo and its fingerspin capability. Then players on the team have some interesting feedback. There are 2 ways usually to fingerspin. People with longer fingernails only use the edge of their nail to grind on the hub. This does not require much hub surface area. People with less fingernails grind the hub with their full finger skin, thus requiring a much bigger surface area. The prototype 1 does not Satisfied the second way of fingerspin contact. We however were satified with the performance and the idea so we made a small run of it. This yoyo became our 2023 black friday mystery yoyo.

Picture of prototype 1, Black Friday Strand. 

While not good enough for full production run and having a lot of other projects going on, we have shelved this idea. In mid 2024, we decided to tackle this idea again. This time slightly increasing the fingerspin hub surface area and the aluminum cap weight. We also raised the overall weight by a gram to double down on power. The yoyofriends player team indeed feel a slight performance increase. However the fingerspin surface area is just not enough. 

Picture of prototype 2 

The manufacturing team then decided to ditch the aluminum spacers completely. Freeing up both weight and space in the middle for the fingerspin hub. We also looked at the recent trend of yoyo going wider and increased the plastic body catch zone even more. Raising the total width from 47mm to around 49mm. We also increased the aluminum cap to plastic body weight ratio to a whooping 3 to 1. We also increased the slope of the aluminum wall so it is easier for the finger to lock into the hub even if it did not land accurately. The result is fantastic. The fingespin hub has a large surface area for full finger skin fingerspin. We have finally achieved a yoyo that excels both at fingerspin and performance. 

Picture of prototype 3

Now we have to come up with a name that represents the yoyo. We picked strands. It is very common to correlate the word to DNA and RNA strand, which is one of the reasons why we picked this name. The other reason is that strand is a powerful darkness class in the video game Destiny 2. In the game strand allows one to manipulate the weave, a paracausal matrix of psychic energy that connects all things and minds in the universe. For our interpretation here, the weave for us yoyoers is the string. This yoyo has the performance and technology to fully manipulate the string with ease, just like how strand users in the game manipulate the weave.

Picture of DNA/RNA strand. Destiny 2 strand logo and subclass characters.

We also decided to use a special kind of engraving for this yoyo. The engraving is underneath the plastic body so it gives it a cool strand-like look. 

Picture of production strand

We hope you enjoy strand, whether it's shredding your favorite high scoring combos on stage or doing fancy fingerspin hop tricks and ending with a DNA.