Player profile

Pedro Flores

Sponsor: Flores Yo-Yo Company

Pedro Flores

Pedro Edralin Flores was born on 26 April 1896 in Vintar, Ilocos Norte, Philippines, and emigrated to the United States in 1915. He studied in San Francisco and later settled in Santa Barbara, California, where he worked odd jobs before founding a yo-yo manufacturing company in 1928. He began by making yo-yos by hand, then bought machinery, and by 1929 his operation included a Hollywood factory and Flores and Stone in Los Angeles. Flores did not invent the yo-yo and never claimed to; he is credited with popularizing it in the United States, and his design used a looped string rather than a knotted one at the axle, allowing the yo-yo to sleep. He ran trick contests and sold his business to Donald F. Duncan Sr. in the early 1930s. Duncan acquired initial rights around 1930 and the remaining assets, including the trademark, by October 1932, according to the Smithsonian. Reported sale prices differ by source, from more than $250,000 to $750,000. Flores later founded the Flores Corporation of America in 1954. He died in Coshocton, Ohio; Wikipedia gives the date as 3 January 1964, while one local history gives December 1963.

§ Career

1915 — Emigrates from the Philippines to the United States
1928 — Founds a yo-yo manufacturing company in Santa Barbara, California; begins by making yo-yos by hand before buying machinery
1929 — Flores Yo-Yo Corporation operates in Hollywood; Flores and Stone in Los Angeles
1930 — Duncan acquires initial rights to the Flores business; Flores later helps Duncan with contest promotion (c. 1931–32)
1932 — Remaining Flores assets, including the name, pass to Duncan by October (per Smithsonian)
1954 — Founds Flores Corporation of America