The following story was taken from ILYY’s website.
After exploring performance-oriented design aspects with the Numen we took a step back and thought about what we love most about yoyos and which elements capture the essence of fun.
Out came the Alpha.
Slightly undersized at 53mm, it is a quick and snappy player. The smaller diameter combined with the massive outer stainless steel rings enables Alpha to perform like a full size yoyo without the compromise of kickback during throws and binds. It is an agile player with higher RPM while still retaining powerful spin. We carefully tweaked inertia to land in this goldy-locks zone.
The overall shape inherits the best elements of other ILYYs:
The Numen’s gap profile unlocks monstrous fingergrinds and gets out of the way during horizontal tricks. At a modern 45 mm width paired with its wide catch-zone, Alpha takes care of those difficult to hit (horizontal) tricks. The 4.5 mm gap takes in all string layers tech tricks bring to the table.
In addition, it allows for Numen’s fingerspin-hungy convex inner cup design guaranteeing flawless fingerspins at any time. The beautiful rounded-off central spike adds crucial milimeters to the overall axle length yet does not pose any danger of hurting the player.
Structural integrity was also considered and the upped AL-wall thickness of the Numen was incorporated into the design. Deformation from floor-hits is reduced, Alpha will retain its smoothness longer.
Alpha features blasted and electroplated stainless steel rims for great spintimes and grinds. The slick surface effectively works against spin loss during accidental touches.
The ring-body-intersection again features our rounded-off design for a more aesthetic impression.
We modified the profile to improve on rejection tricks giving the string a distinct edge segment to snap over.
The inner cup extends beneath the entire ring and finds its conclusion in an IRG lip allowing for amazing thumbgrinds. The steel ring sits on a wide base further strengthening the overall integrity.
The Alpha is our take on a Jaqueline-of-all-trades yoyo. It can do it all, but in a fun and motivating way.
Initial Run
The initial run of the Alpha came out in October of 2025 and was 25 pieces in the Inferno colorway with a Soda Blast finish.
Shinnosuke has been a valuable part of our team for years, and embodies the style, creativity, and uniqueness that we put into our brand and our yoyos. It was obvious he was the perfect team member archetype and super deserving of a signature.
Nimbus has a nostalgic feel in the hand and during play that’s reminiscent of higher-end models from 2009-2011, offering a nimble, soft handling that feels both easy-going and controllable.. this combined with its modern performance lends itself to effortless movement during your tricks. Nimbus encourages a relaxed approach to yoyo play, allowing for a more enjoyable experience. The bimetal rings and weight distribution lends itself to Shinnosuke’s swift changes in direction and speed during his combos.
To foster even more creativity, four stickers are being included with each design to make each yoyo unique in its own right. Unfortunately these do cause vibe when applied, so use at your own risk.
This is also our first throw featuring our new ‘Cloud Blast’; a new lower grit, fluffy blast that will be featured on our main line throws from now on.
We hope that this yoyo brings you peace and joy whenever you throw it!”
“Back in March of 2022 following the success of the Emotion, Max over at @editionyoyo and @avery.gingie 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.
Eventually, I thought about creating the stepped rim aesthetic by using a different material. Thus Connection proto 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.
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.
How were we able to get more weight balanced across the rim to potentially fix this issue? With a lighter overall weight and an increase in diameter, but the real magic was from replacing the previously outer ring design with a more midship SS 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.
This new prototype would eventually become the production model with the following specs:
55.8mm Diameter 46mm Width 64.8g Weight 4.5mm Gap 7075 AL + PC + SS
Lastly shout-out to @aapenn1 for our airplay engraving and Patreon member Brian Corliss for the clever name idea!”
“Initially devised as our entry into full-size yoyos with highter RPMs we decided to combine the inner ring design with an outer stainless steel ring. The result is a fun and chill yoyo with loads of spintime. We added our signature rounded hub to the design as well.
The outer dimensions are the same as the original, while the overall weight is reduced by around 2 grams.”
First Batch
The first batch of Nile2 yo-yos was released in February of 2025. Only 25 units released, all in a Purple/Violet colorway with a Soda Blast finish.
