Canopy Ti Design Notes
Shortly after we got the Canopy train going, our conversations quickly turned to defining the scope of the project. We were committed to the “Canopy” form factor, which was fundamentally a blend of the Polaris / Weatherman profile with the Otter’s iconic hub design.
In one conversation, the notion of a material study surfaced, and it gave us a unique framing for our design approach. What would the Canopy form factor look like – designed, crafted, and optimized in different materials?
Reincarnating a design in a different material isn’t as straightforward as shoehorning the same blueprint and adjusting it for weight and size, and then slapping a material label on – it’s having to reconstruct the essence of something that exists from the ground up with entirely new parameters, being sensitive to the way different materials transform a user’s physical experience, while prioritizing faithfulness to what has come before.
66.6 g
53.9 mm
46.0 mm
The Canopy Ti was actually designed alongside the Al – we started sketching them up side-by-side, and the original intention was to prototype and test them together. While the AL sat at 54.9mm in diameter, its titanium brother was scoped at 53.9mm in diameter, by personal request of Harrison – a step closer to the undersized genre, and more akin to the Otter’s profile. The smaller, unassuming footprint was an important requirement – to keep faithful to the ethos of the “everydayness” of Canopy, it had to be something that slipped easily into somebody’s carry.
Welcome to our first prototype – Canopy Ti 1.0.
The result of an early design sprint was the decision to include polycarbonate caps, which could be removed and swapped out for different variations of weight.
This was entirely a moonshot design, influenced by the modularity and utilitarianism of modern outdoor gear, and the intention was to also manufacture compatible caps out of various materials at later stages – even ones made out of oak and maple. The concentric cap design was also influenced by existing Caribou and Atmos designs, in the Beartrap and Fruitloop, but adapted for an industrial, minimalist look. We were excited about how it looked, but as a more complex composite design with a myriad of unknowns, the eventual verdict of the design depended on how it felt in play.
The 1.0 Prototype arrived in my hands, as well as Coleman and Harrison’s, just in time for their West Coast Road Trip (again, not without the requisite drama that seems to follow our adventures with shipping across continents). Fairly quickly, with some testing, we realized 1.0 needed more development. It was too heavy and too clunky in play. The 1.0 has a slight old-school charm that would appeal to players who lean towards undersized, heavy yoyos. We canvassed a list of tweaks we knew would set the design straight, but after some consideration, we eventually agreed we would be perfecting a design that would ultimately be too niche and specific for general release. We needed the Canopy Ti to be universally familiar, comfortable and fitting in any hands.
For what it’s worth – this might not be the end of the 1.0. It’s temporarily shelved, but if inspiration strikes, we just might pull it out of the design archives to get it right for a small-batch release.
Starting with a moonshot design is always fun, and brings with it a ton of learning. Still, our primary course of correction was in aligning more faithfully to the original Canopy form factor, which sadly meant doing away with the caps – at least for our first production version.
We went back to the design table, and sketched up Prototype 2.0. In replacement of the cap-system, Prototype 2.0 featured a similar rim design that makes an appearance on both the Canopy AL and Polaris. Without caps and the seat that enclosed it, the base structure of the Canopy Ti was significantly lighter. While we reapportioned most of that mass in its angled, dipped rim, we ultimately reduced its overall mass, with the prototype eventually weighing north of 64g.
A month or so later, the 2.0 prototype arrived in our hands. It was a marked difference from 1.0 – it felt significantly more agile and maneuverable, but ultimately it still felt shy of what we had imagined. It was a touch too light – but not the desirable sort of litheness that good featherweight designs have. It gave us the same feeling we had with the first Canopy AL prototype – it just didn’t feel full and whole.
From Switzerland, where he was at the time, Harrison wrote in with his thoughts,
We were learning a ton about the Canopy AL together in real time. Feedback clustered around the consensus that the first prototype was enormous fun. The key attributes that most players loved about the prototype were its agility, stability and a floaty touch. Steve wrote in saying he found the prototype delightful and a joy to play; zippy, but not uncontrollably so, and felt lovely in the hand.
We quickly adjusted the design file for a third prototype that had more weight in the midzone and rims, and sent it for yet another round of proofing. Unfortunately, while those changes fixed the issue of playfeel, we ran into more technical issues on the machining front, which made it difficult to machine a large batch of smooth Canopy Tis.
By this time, it had been months since we first sketched up prototype 1.0 – and it had already undergone a transformation so significant, they were night-and-day from the first sketch. We were close – but we needed one final go to get it just right.
We took another few weeks of close study, comparing the CAD files of previous designs and tapping on to learnings and technical notes from years past – and finally submitted a blueprint for Prototype 4.0 – our fourth, and final iteration of the Canopy Ti.
It sported major adjustments in the weight distribution and material reinforcements in crucial areas – tweaks that drew heavily from experimentation that we did with the Polaris. The Polaris was a natural reference here, since the Canopy draws from it as a design inspiration. This version clocked in at 66.6g – but in motion it feels a lot lighter than that. In play it feels closer to a 65g yoyo.
It’s fluid, incredibly agile, and paces very well. It’s comfortable in the hand, plays easy, but its minimalist looks hide an incredibly functional and utilitarian design.
On the production version, Harrison wrote,
The Canopy Ti doesn’t take itself too seriously, but excels when you need it to.
We’re very proud to bring you the Canopy Ti – a design we’ve worked incredibly hard to perfect, and one that belongs in every player’s rotation.
