Some more info on Sagane's pre-order that will run until April 1st.
When designing yo-yos, I've always focused on designing them for "imaginary" characters that I've made up. I target a specific playstyle and player that I imagine in my head and start to develop a character. These characters eventually make up for a story, which is a whole other blog post entirely, but in general this helps me have a very direct path of designing yo-yo's.
Sagane is designed for the "nerd" of the group who I imagine having smaller hands, and being smaller in stature because it's funny to think about a smaller person throwing a heavier yo-yo. She throws dense, technical formations and is more into exploring new mounts and unique tricks. Having a heavier yo-yo helps with these longer combos by increasing it's power and spin time. A slightly smaller than average width helps the yoyo feel tight and maneuverer through the dense formations.
I imagine the playstyle of a few players thrown together and imagine designing a yo-yo for that person; Asora was no different. I said it previously, but my favorite throws more often then not are usually Signatures for pro players. I think that having a very distinctive and clear goal on what you want to achieve with the design is important. For me, and my design theory, a lot of it relies on my own feel and observations of designs. Trying to understand what makes certain designs "fun" or addictive. Performance is important, but it falls second to how the yoyo feels, and makes you as a player feel. What separates the yo-yo you play on a daily or weekly basis to the throw you haven't played with in a year or two is something I'm always thinking about. Signatures are usually designs that are meant for the player it was designed for to always want to pick it up and play it. There's a longevity to the design that feels like it transcends time. Pick up a MMC and tell me it doesn't feel just as fresh as it did in 2013~
My goal with every design is to have that same quality and lasting power. I really want to hone in on a singular design and make the best version of it possible. You can see this mindset with Asora. I don't care how many prototypes and test types I go through, I want to perfect my designs.
For me, there's many things to consider when designing, but in general I really care about how "balanced" the yo-yo feels. Shape, Size, Weight, Bearing Size, Response size, those are all important, but it's the culmination of ALL of these things together that defines the yoyo. If one part of that equation is off, then the balance is off. Being that designing yo-yo's is a lot of give and take, finding that perfect point of balance seems like an unusually tough cookie to crack.
This is why Sagane is at 72g. I am ignoring the "standards" of current yoyo design theory and designing for the material to create a throw that I think is balanced. If I reduce the weight, then it becomes more of a floaty design and I think that in general, there's plenty of those types of yo-yo's out there, if anything, that's what's popular. It's just also not what the player I'm designing it for wants.
The main reason for choosing steel is because I think it's a superior material for yo-yo designs. The "geek" of the group would likely "geek out" over steel, just like I did. I truly am enamored by how this material plays and performs. However, there's really not that many options out there for people to choose from to get an understanding of how a full size steel plays.
Geisha 1, 2, 3, Thorest, TopSteel, Lisianthus, Bowl 303, a lot of these full size steel yo-yos aren't even something you can acquire with ease. I think it's unfortunate because as a material for yo-yo, I think that Steel could possibly be the best. I've played a handful of Titaniums and I could name one or two that I actually liked. I have absolutely loved every single full-size steel design I've played so far. It's just acquiring them that becomes an issue.
A big goal for me is to become well versed in the materials that I think are the best for designing yo-yos. 7068 is the superior AL and Asora is proof - having a good understanding of how this material feels and plays is important when designing in the future. The same can be said for steel, you're not going to design a steel yoyo like you do a 6061 yo-yo. The material changes, so your mindset towards design has to change. I need to dive into designing for steel if it's going to be one of the primary material choices for me going forward.
I've said it once before, but weight is relative (up to a point) and I truly still believe this. Where you put the weight is more important than how much the yo-yo weighs in the end. Having two yoyos of the same dimension and same weight, but weight placed in different areas of the yoyo would create for a completely different design in play and feel. Conversely, a yoyo of different sizes, but the same weight would also be completely different - it's all relative.
I personally do not want to lock myself into a specific weight or size when designing throws. I'm open to the concept and idea of exploring heavier throws if they're appropriate for the material. I would NOT design a 72g 54x43 plastic yoyo. Just like I wouldn't design a plastic yoyo to be performance oriented.
Steel's density and ability to reduce the walls to 0.6mm is what really stands out to me. The "Hidden Power" of steel is something I am deeply interested in, it's almost like it WANTS to be heavy. The reason Steel would be more open to heavier designs is simply because of this density. If you try to keep steel in a lower weight in a larger size design then you're just restricting the ability of steel in my opinion. Again, it's all dependant on your goal. The Bowl 303 is the best version of the "Grail" sort of design I've played. Conversely, I can not get the Geisha out of my head either, all of these full-size steel yoyos have a trait unlike any other material I've played before.
I know some might be intimidated by the 72g listed weight of the yoyo, but as someone who plays a Collapsar, Kiwi, and a modified heavyweight version of Asora, I feel like 72g is perfectly fine, if anything on the lighter side of things imo.
This design also utilizes 21mm response size, as I felt it was better than 19mm after testing out Asora. We're going to start a movement, and it's called Flowable Silicone is Superior.
Gap width at 4.5mm is relatively standard and feels good on Asora. I've played Asora with Normal to ultra thick home made string and think that a slightly recessed 21mm response ultimately feels and performs the best. I want to add that the differences between these two response sizes in play is very minor. Again, there's always give in take in design; If you're pushing for performance, 19mm would be optimal based on it being a lower wall.
In the end, I'm getting ghosted by other companies trying to get a response to make a Side-Effect Steel yoyo. For the first prototype, I really want to test side affect viability within a steel design.
After this prototype run, there will likely not be another order related to Sagane for a while. I'm into quality, not quantity and really want to let my designs cook before I sell them in mass.
This design is something I've been extremely excited to start and have been waiting since last year to finally get it started. Thank you for the support.
Pre-Order is going on til the end of the month and ends on 1.4.24.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the design feel free to message us.
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