About Mark Montgomery
Mark Montgomery — known across the yo-yo community as MarkMont. — is an American 1A player who began yo-yoing in 1996 and started competing around 2000. He rose through Team Yomega and Team Buzz-On Industries before joining One Drop YoYos, for whom he produced four signature yo-yos between 2008 and 2014. In 2003 he won the World Yo-Yo Contest in the Artistic Performance division with a freestyle that blended 1A string play with live rap and beatboxing. He placed 4th in the 1A division at the 2005 World Yo-Yo Contest, 4th at the 2009 International Yo-Yo Open, and 7th at the 2012 Bay Area Classic.
Outside competition, Montgomery studied graphic design and animation at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and worked as an animator at Adult Swim. He is a multi-discipline performer across juggling, diabolo, breakdancing, popping, trumpet, music production, and freestyle rap. He is credited with innovating “slave” tricks — a technique involving a stringless yo-yo placed onto the string of a spinning yo-yo mid-freestyle.
Montgomery later established the independent Markmont. brand, through which he designs yo-yos, produces the Markmont Formulas handmade string line in dozens of tested formulas, and curates small-batch coffee under the Markmont. Joe label. His designs consistently favor organic butterfly shapes and prioritize a balance of stability and lively play response, a philosophy he developed openly through the yo-yo community over many years.