In Their Own Words
How did the idea for MK1 come about?
I was learning how to design yoyos for fun, and Jordan Blofeld (Smashing yoyos, OP Yoyos) challenged me to make something that people wanted to buy. That ended up being the Diffraction.
I created the MK1 branding to make it feel more legitimate. It was originally styled as Mk.I – meaning “Mark 1”, or version 1. I only intended to release just the 1 yoyo at first, but I had a lot of fun with the whole process so I kept working on new ideas.
What does a day in the life look like for you running Mk1 YoYo?
I don’t “run” it daily. I have spurts of creative energy where I draft/design/finish a couple yoyo ideas, or I work on logos, packaging, or other bits that go into making a yoyo.
I have a checklist that I work through for preparing a new release, and once everything is ready I place all the orders for things I need. The busiest time is leading up to a release – coordinating retailer orders, social media posts, website setup, and email marketing – and usually a week or so after a release I can get back to the slow cadence of normality.
Walk me through your creative process.
Yoyo concepts can come from a couple places – either a shape I saw or imagined, or an idea one of my team members had, or a market niche that I want to find something for. I do most of my work digitally, first drafting in FreeCAD and then checking visuals in Blender to see if the design has both the numerical and aesthetic features I am looking for.
Recently I am also trying to spend more time linking together the concept/yoyo/colorway/name into something cohesive. This usually means custom packaging, which is a whole separate big design process.
What’s your favorite memory of running Mk1?
Meeting tons of cool people at the US National yoyo contest, and seeing part of my team (and sometimes future team members) in person.
What’s your favorite release to date?
The Ring-Bearer. I got to work on something that I didn’t even realize was possible until I emailed Middle-Earth Enterprises. Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit have been special to me since I was little. The yoyos came out beautifully and I’m excited to work more with this license in the future.
What’s your next release and what makes it so exciting?
The Asterisk, a signature yoyo for EOS44. It’s always really cool working on a signature or collaboration yoyo – a lot of my best work has been with a tight feedback loop with another person. The design for this yoyo is 90% EOS, though.
Feedback on the prototypes has been really positive, and the packaging that me and EOS designed together has a lot of really cool & fun details.
What’s in store for Mk1 in the future?
Probably more Lord of the Rings themed stuff.
Definitely more tug-responsive yoyos.
Plenty of exciting collabs!
If you could go back and do one thing differently what would that be?
Order more of the PK Sliver colorway the first time around.
What sets Mk1 apart from others?
One of my long-term goals is to elevate yoyo-design as a discipline. I’ve done some work with this in the form of tutorial series and freely-available design files, but there’s much more work to do!
Any advice for aspiring companies/creators?
Plan out your costs & sales estimates in a spreadsheet. Use very conservative estimates so that you don’t get surprised.
