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I recently had the pleasure of interviewing David, 1/2 of One Drop Designs. This interview was conducted over the course of several emails, and has been reviewed by David before being published. My questions are in bold, while David’s answers are italicized.
One Drop is myself (David) and Shawn. I’ll try and answer as a company rather than as an individual if possible.
Please tell our readers a bit about who you are, and what you do.
We are One Drop Yo-Yos. We have been making yo-yos in-house, in our factory in Eugene, Oregon, USA since 2007. Having our own factory and making as much as possible in-house is our core idea and it really sets us apart. We will never pivot from this and we will be here doing this as long there is support for it.
How did you get to where you are today?
Being small business owners means that every day we have to get up and fight to be here. Nothing is taken for granted and nothing is given to us – we have to earn it all. When this works, it’s very satisfying and we have been doing this with yo-yos for 17 years to arrive at this day still here. It’s the people who support us who should get all the credit for keeping us here and we can’t thank them enough.
What is your favorite throw of all time? What is your favorite throw One Drop has made?
Shawn and I agree that probably the Citizen is our favorite yo-yo of all time.
What’s a typical day like at One Drop?
Besides anodizing we (Shawn and I) do everything in house. There is some overlap but generally Shawn does R&D, Engineering, Design, Programming, Machining. I do Assembly, Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Order Processing, Shipping, Accounting.
If you could go back and do anything differently, what would it be?
I have never thought about this question and don’t tend to look back like that because running a business like this is a daily fight. We like to say “you never arrive” and what we mean is there is no point where the business just runs smoothly with no problems. There are new problems and challenges every day and we are always trying to improve. It’s a long continuum of improvement so there really isn’t anything to regret. I think that if we didn’t have the courage to start our business, I might regret that.
I love this mentality. As far as improvements go, what would you say is One Drop’s biggest accomplishment?
Thanks 🙂 I think that when the history of yo-yo tech is written, we’ll be remembered for Side Effects. We are really proud of that invention and they have stood the test of time as the only reliable modding system on a yoyo.
What’s your dream collaboration?
We have regularly done collaborations over the last 16 years. I’m not sure any particular one is the best. They are amazing and different. The cool thing is that our industry has people in it who want to collaborate instead of just seeing each other as competitors. We all benefit when the yoyo world does well. It’s good to have friends.
Any interesting collabs coming up that you’re willing to share?
I prefer not to announce things that might not happen so at this point all future collabs are in early phases.
One Drop has a history of interesting aspects. Recently there was the Perspective, but throws like the Fat Tire, Cabal, 1to1, 54, and more all seem to push some sort of boundary. What’s your process when trying to come up with a new design, and how much risk are you willing to take with your designs?
We love to try different and interesting things and to take risks. We’re kind of in a unique position to be able to take these kind of risks because we have our own factory. Usually these kinds of things stem from one idea. For example on the Fat Tire it was “what if we try and make really extreme fat flat rims”. The Perspective was “what if we did different halves but designed it so it still plays well”. The 1 to 1 was literally “what if the diameter and the width were the same”. I think the Perspective has been the most risky thing we’ve done and the reception to it has been mixed. For some people, it really really doesn’t work for them.
Speaking of the Perspective, an important part of the Perspective’s design was that both halves shared similar dimensions and weight in order to stay properly balanced. How difficult was this to do?
That’s true. Shawn specifically set the MOI to be in the center which was the most important part. Of course, he thought of doing that so it was possible because of his expertise.
There’s been a handful of people out there half-swapping their Perspectives to match sides. Was this taken into account when designing the yo-yo?
Nothing in the design was done taking into account how the matched halves would play. We knew people would do it, but the goal was that it played well and was balanced as different halves.
What are some of the most influential yo-yos throughout history in your opinions?
The important inflection points are more how we think about (modern) yoyo history. Bearing and then the organic development of unresponsive play. After that the various companies including us figured out collectively the best way to make modern yoyos. I do think Side Effects are an important contribution, but not nearly as important as the bearing and unresponsive because those fundamentally changed yoyo play.
Do you see the Side Effect system evolving over time? Any ideas for new types of Side Effects in the future?
There are always ideas for new Side Effects. Recently we two new shapes in Titanium (Kiss and Globe)
Who are some of your favorite players, past and present?
We are partial to our team. We love Mark Montgomery. Guy Wright and Sebby Brock are amongst my favorites.
What’s the sickest trick each of you can personally land?
We can’t keep up with this players 🙂
You and me, both! With all the work you do, do you at least still find time to enjoy a good throw session?
For sure! We get a lot of tours and guests so that helps get me away from work and throwing. I was just throwing in the sun with a local yoyoer who dropped by.
Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know before we wrap up?
We appreciate all the love and support we have received over the years. People choosing to support us helps keep us here and we are deeply grateful.
Thank you so much to David and One Drop Designs for taking the time to answer my questions!
Our team member and former European 1A Champion Carlos Braun played around with our ANTARCTiCA at German YoYo Masters and said to Dave that he’d love to see a mono-metal or Bi-Metal version of that as a competition-friendly version that doesn’t break your bank.
We went on and re-designed the shape of it for a high-performance-7075-aluminium design that would allow for a nice and stable touch, yet dynamic and quickly moving feeling. We sent a few samples around the globe and after the feedback of our testers was spot on, we knew we nailed it.
The name – obviously – origins from one of Germany’s renowned physicists Werner Heisenberg – as well as the character from one of Dave’s favorite series of all time 😉
Shape: H-Shape Weight: 66.4g Width: 46.0mm Diameter: 57.0mm Bearing: Pixel Bearing – by CLYW x iYoYo Response: iRings (19mm slim)
The HEiSENBERG is available direct through iYoyo’s shop, or wherever iYoyo throws are sold.
“Back in March of 2022 following the success of the Emotion, @MaximShoots over at EditionYoyo and some random yoyo reviewer you may know as @KirbyRobot were begging for a bimetal version and I got to work.
I quickly realized through many attempts at a bimetal CAD that it would be near impossible to create without an odd aesthetic with the weight rings, major changes to specs, or a ridiculously heavy weight. The main concern here was losing that stepped lower rim in the cup of the design, which was a huge part of the Emotion’s overall aesthetic.
After taking a break and coming back to the design a few weeks later, I thought about creating the stepped rim aesthetic by using a different material. Thus Connection prototype 1 was born. We created a sandwich between the Aluminum and Steel with a large plastic piece which simulated the stepped rim aesthetic in the cup of the Emotion, but allowed us to pack a lot of extra weight to the SS rim. The result was an aesthetically striking and classy design with a very unique complexity to it. This design had the same specs as the original Emotion, but was about 1 gram lighter.
Unfortunately this design did have some issues, specifically in playfeel and performance that ultimately outweighed how much we loved the aesthetic. Removing all of that inner rim/mid weight from replacing the aluminum with polycarbonate and placing it in the SS ring caused a huge amount of sluggishness or lag to the design during play. It moved well enough but felt like it needed a ton of input for it to move, so back to the drawing board I went with a new obstacle to tackle on a design with a ton of potential.
How were we able to get more weight balanced across the rim to potentially fix this issue? My proposed changes started with a lighter overall weight and an increase in diameter, but the real magic was in the overhaul of the rim design. By replacing the previously outer ring design with a more midship stainless steel ring, this allowed us to spread the weight out more evenly across the rim, which effectively removes the sluggishness we felt in our first prototype. Additionally, it still kept its insane power due to an increase in diameter and having the weight still concentrated at the points furthest from the center of the yoyo.
This new prototype would eventually become the production model you see before you, and features the following specs:
55.8mm Diameter 46mm Width 64.8g Weight 4.5mm Gap 7075 AL + PC + SS“
Popular online yo-yo reviewer, Gingie, has released a video documentary about the CLYW Chief.
“Super proud to finally be able to say this
The Chief Documentary is done, at long last! After nearly two years of work, it’s my magnum opus and the single longest video on my channel.
This video explores the lead up to the Chief, organizes all the Chiefs into their runs with their weights (to the best of my ability), and explores the design legacy of the Chief. I hope you guys enjoy.“
