Flores Yo-Yo Company

The Flores Yo-Yo Company was founded in Santa Barbara, California in 1928 by Pedro Edralin Flores (1896–1964), a Filipino-American businessman credited with introducing the yo-yo to the United States market under that name. Flores’s key innovation was looping the string around the axle rather than tying it, enabling the yo-yo to sleep freely and perform tricks — a departure from earlier fixed-string bandalores. At its peak in 1929, the enterprise operated three factories in Santa Barbara, Hollywood, and Los Angeles, employed 600 workers, and produced over 300,000 yo-yos daily before being acquired by Donald F. Duncan Sr. in 1932. Pedro Flores briefly revived the brand in 1954 under the Flores Corporation of America, but the original company name and trademark remained with Duncan.