Canopy Fora Design Notes
We kicked off the first year of Canopy with a design study in materials — how aluminum, titanium, stainless steel and polycarbonate can embody a single form factor, and what they feel like in the real world as a result.
Our direction this year leans in more heavily to the idea of community. We're inspired by how design, play style and philosophy emerges from each region — how priorities, values and approaches in yoyo are shaped by the culture one comes from.
varies
54.66 mm
48.55 mm
Our first regional edition is the Fora — an iteration of the Canopy designed by one of Europe's foremost designers, Martin Koprna of Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The Fora comes with tri-material construction, modern dimensions, and a "battle yoyo" design approach, reflecting the cultural backdrop of one of yoyo's most exciting and inspiring scenes.
We're in love with the Fora, and we can't wait to share this with you.
– Reuben
How did you first get into yo-yoing?
I first got into yo-yos back in my early teens when a friend approached me about accompanying him to a local magic supplies store. He was getting a yo-yo, which I was familiar with as a toy, but the one he got was special, because it had a bearing, and was about $15, which was a lot back then.
Somehow he already knew a few tricks, and I was super into it right away. Few days later I came back to the store and got the same yo-yo - Henrys Lizard. I started practicing immediately, and even though the yo-yo was better than classic ones, it was quite a miracle to hit a trapeze on it more than twice a day haha.
Coincidentally, a Czechoslovakia Got Talent aired on TV around that time, and in an episode trailer I saw Sleeperz - two guys from Prague, Zdeněk Hýbl and Robert Kučera - doing mad stuff with yo-yos. It felt unreal given i've just discovered bearing yo-yos, so I immediately looked them up online. I kept re-watching every single one of Zdeněk's YouTube videos about dozen times a week.
This also led me to discover that there are better yo-yos available online, but they were even pricier and back then ordering things online wasn't perceived as legit, especially given my age. Coincidentally, 2 months after buying my first yo-yo, I met a random guy on a bus stop, rocking a Yuuki spencer style tech on one of the metal yo-yos. Could not help but approach him. Thanks to that I found out there's a guy in my city running a local online yo-yo shop with an option of personal pickup. The next day I got my first good yo-yo, the Duncan Freehand 0, which helped me advance at much better rate, and the rest is history.
What inspired you to start designing yo-yos?
After about a year into my yo-yo journey I started drafting an idea of a perfect yo-yo on a piece of paper. The final draft looked almost exactly like yoyorecreation Sleipnir, probably because back then a $150 yo-yo was an unattainable dream for me. Another local player mentioned that he knows a guy who could try to to machine it. We also provided a sample YoyoFactory Starlite so he has an idea on how to make the guts, which lead to a confusion, and we ended up getting a 100g+ full metal Starlite.
Fast-forward 9 years, in the early months of the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown, I saw a UK designer Jordan Blofeld posting an ad for custom yo-yo design and prototyping. Luckily I had my first job around that time, and not many opportunities to spend money, so I pulled the trigger and we made it happen.
I knew I wanted to try an upscaled monometal Recess Vacation for ages, as that was my main competition driver before, but ended up spontaneously adding some elements to it. I was happy with the result, but my inner perfectionism led me to wanting to try different things. Jamie Larkins of Throw Spiral found out that I am looking to update the design, and approached me about it. I knew exactly what I wanted to change, and he helped me make it happen. This time I was beyond satisfied. But it wasn't enough. I was hungry to explore more. Ended up learning CAD for myself and I started prototyping few weeks later.
There is nothing quite as tingling than seeing a thing, changing a minute detail, followed by observation of the effects, over and over again.
What do you think sets a great yo-yo apart from a good one?
I am not sure there is such a thing as a good or great yo-yo. There are bad yo-yos, that make me want to play with them more than the ones that are objectively better. There are yo-yos that look great, are objectively totally dialed in, be it stability or float, spin time or regens, or have the fun element to it, but I still don't come back to them.
A great yo-yo can be the one that compliments wide variety of movements. It can be the one that makes you change your style and feel your hands going for something they don't usually do. A great yo-yo can be the one that reminds you of that legendary player, freestyle or a video. But even if it does, what does it matter if you don't pick it up time and time again?
When designing a yo-yo, what qualities are most important to you?
I always design aesthetics first, then tweak for performance but still prioritize visual feel. I don't know how would i put it more specifically haha.
What's your typical process for creating a new yo-yo design?
First step would be inspiration which can originate from a home appliance, a freestyle, any random everyday object, or generally anything. When working with clients, they usually have a pretty good idea of what they want, so i just collect the specifications and start brainstorming. The initial drawing can take as little as 10 minutes.
Afterwards I refine the base drawing, which can take from 1 to 5 hours. Then there's the brewing phase, where i like to take at least couple of weeks to let it sit. Finally, I try to do necessary revisions, visualizations and then move to prototyping.
What was the initial inspiration behind this design?
I knew I wanted something bulkier and caribou lodgey, but with different shape than the previous line-up. At one point in the early discussions, Reuben mentioned Chopsticks Gorilla, which is one of my all time favorites. Then I remembered my buddy Tomáš Vyletěl of Caribou Lodge liked Chopsticks Gorilla to the point where he sketched up a Carbibou Lodge version of it. So I went for that concept.
Were there specific design elements or influences that guided you?
There were multiple design elements i was holding onto → soft and full slightly rounded rims inspired by the classics such as Avalanche and Sasquatch, Chopsticks Gorilla H-like profile, and the Canopy AL-styled hub.
What drew you to work on this particular model?
The process was something absolutely new as I had a totally blank canvas to work with for the first time.
How many iterations did you go through, from initial concepts to prototypes?
The initial design started as a bimetal, which came from the first look at a canopy lineup. As the draft came together, the result was an undersized wide bimetal meant for competition-level performance. While I was super happy with the design, there wasn't anything quite unique about it. Hence I decided to design a 55.5mm full-sized, slightly less serious hybrid counterpart, which exchanged the stainless steel for plastic.
When I first presented the designs, the hybrid variant met with most success, but Harrison pointed out that the plastic could wrap around the entire rim. He also pointed out that even though it's plastic, it could be interesting to keep it on the lower end of the diameter. The next version was made with more prominent rims and the diameter was lowered to 54.5mm.
There were some challenges with this. In order to retain the shape of the original bimetal design, the plastic rim had to take away large chunk of a rim weight, potentially introducing weaker spin. Even then, the plastic couldn't wrap the entire rim in a way i wanted it to. As a result I went for something new and tried designing a double plastic rim, which would allow to maximize rim weight with aluminium, while retaining the intended aesthetics, and fully wrapping the rim.
How would you describe the performance and feel of the final yo-yo?
The Fora feels light and fast, yet has enough power to do any trick. Its wide rim design completely fills your hand, and the plastic rims make sure every single catch is soft and comfy.
How do you think yo-yoing in Central and Eastern Europe differs from other parts of the world? What do you think makes players in this region stand out? How did you bring this into the yo-yo design?
Coming up in the CZ/SK scene, there were many yoyos that were popular locally and in a way shaped preferences of local players. For one, many players who started around the time I did had Henry's yoyos which utilized hybrid body structure. Once I started visiting events and getting better, so did the yoyos that had my interest; many of the Caribou Lodge older models, Werrd's Decision series, to name a few. I feel like these got communicated in the end design pretty clearly haha.
Now you can walk the dog with your $85 yoyo for strangers guilt-free.