ELYSIUM

When setting out to create our idea of a quality, organic yoyo, Patrick and I went through many variations of Elysium. Patrick developed several mock ups and variations of Elysium, until we decided on this version which was less rounded at the rims and flared out a bit. My ultimate goal from the beginning was to make an organic yoyo that was smooth, floaty, yet powerful and stable and make it as unique and original as possible.

Once we figured out what we wanted and Patrick did the renders, we moved onto contacting different machinists and ultimately decided on making the yoyo out of 7068 Aluminum. The 7068 Aluminum is considered to be one of the best materials, if not the best material, to make a yoyo out of other than titanium (and some say that it still competes with titanium). We wanted this yoyo to be full-sized and for it to fit comfortably in the hand. Considering this, we decided on the diameter being 57 mm and the width being 47.1 mm. A wider catch zone was definitely something that we wanted, therefore we made the gap 4.5 mm wide so that you could land as many tricks as possible without missing the string. The weight of the yoyo, we believe is right in the “sweet spot”. It is not too light, but it is also not too heavy. Next, we wanted to focus on how the yoyo felt in the hand. We wanted the feel/texture to be a matte beadblast so that you could do any kind of grind with it, finger, thumb, arm, and even hand grinds.

Once my wife and I had decided on what we wanted Elysium to look like, feel like, and play like, we began brainstorming ideas of what theme we wanted for the yoyo. We must have spent days thinking about what we could do. One night we were sitting outside looking at the stars and talking about how infinitely vast the universe is and how we are just a small speck in it. When we immediately looked at each other and as if we had read each other’s mind we decided on making Elysium based on space and planets. It is something that really interests us and we began to look up planets to decide which colors to use. We ultimately decided on Earth, Mars, and Neptune. We loved the colors of each planet and the unique characteristics each one possesses.

After we had figured the theme out, the renders were sent to the machinist and the prototyping began. We then contacted and partnered with Chris Francz and Airetic Strings. Chris did an amazing job with the artwork and fully captured our vision and what we wanted the artwork to look like for Elysium. Once we had the artwork, we then moved onto contacting Airetic Strings because we had heard such great things about their string quality. Once we spoke to them and gave them our idea and vision, they were able to make the three beautiful string colors to match the colors of the yoyos. They even added white “speckles” in the string to resemble the stars and keep the theme of the yoyo consistent throughout. Both Chris and Airetic went above and beyond our expectations and we are beyond grateful to have been able to work with such talented members in the community.

Our ultimate goal when making Elysium was to not only provide a quality yoyo that plays well, but an experience when unboxing it, which is why we have several surprises in store for each planet. We have included special tokens to accompany each yoyo so each box will have different characteristics. We wanted to create a quality yoyo out of the best material with the best custom artwork and custom string to go with it. We also wanted to include other surprises in the box it comes in. Our goal is to offer everyone buying our yoyo an experience.

We hope that you give us a chance to gain your trust and attention!