The yoyo community is a relatively small one. With a niche hobby, the suppliers of hardware tend to be more closely connected to customers and as a result are more closely inspected and analyzed than in a bigger one. But for many people the process of running a yoyo company is a mystery. This article is going to focus largely on where my experience sits. The ‘boutique’ yoyo brand. For those of you other than my 6 fans who may not know my history, over the last 8 years I’ve been involved with 3 yoyo brands. I started as a sponsored player with MonkeyfingeR Design out of Calgary (Canada) as a sponsored player. From there I moved onto quasi-manager of King Yo Star Canada. It was an weird position, it wasn’t my brand (It was owned by a toy store owner in China) but I had full authority on promotion, sales and sponsorship outside of China. By the end I had a lot of say over the design as well. Currently I’m running my own brand (Rain City Skills) as the full on head honcho. Between King Yo Star and Rain City skills I’ve now got 9 yoyo releases under my belt.
Smaller brands are a different story. These are usually one-person operations run by someone who works a full time job to pay the bills and designs/makes/sells yoyos as a passion. They are often designing yoyos themselves and having batches of 50-100 made at a time, doing all of the assembly, packaging and advertising themselves. They don’t usually have the budget to hire people to do work for them, or to spend the big bucks to do google and Facebook ads, so it all comes down to making personal connections with individuals and with groups in the community through various social media outlets. Having said all of that, in both cases the process of creating and selling yoyos is generally the same. There are a lot of half-truths about the costs of making yoyos that float around. I am not going to list off exact hard costs because every yoyo has a different price to make, based on difficulty of design (time on the machine), quantity made, the anodizing, where you have it made and so on. Below is a list of the costs that go into getting a yoyo to market that are a ballpark average based on my experiences and those of others I’ve talked to. Direct costs
hidden costsOne of the challenges is that there are many costs that aren't directly about creating the parts of the yoyo. 1. Shipping. This cost can’t be emphasized enough. Here is a list of things that need to be shipped to get the yoyo run made. Yoyos are heavy, and shipping is charged by weight, so shipping 100 yoyos around is expensive! -prototypes - to you from the shop, then to players to test. -anodizing - shipping from the machine shop to the anodizer back to you. If you are making them in China those are usually hidden costs, you’ll just pay the freight to you, but if the shop is incurring costs you are paying for them. -bearings, pads and axles - if you are machining in china you can usually get the shop to source them for you and include with your yoyos, but they are added weight and you are paying either way. -boxes - you can avoid shipping on these if you go to a physical store near you, but it’s often cheaper to order bulk online and you have a better chance of finding something that will help your brand stick out. -stickers - same as with boxes. -throws to team members - The small brands main source of testing and advertising -throws to reviewers - Again, key piece of advertising -assorted accessories included (string, carry bag, etc)
4. Advertising - This is the big one people don’t think about. Out of a run of 100 yoyos, maybe 80 actually get sold. The biggest way to advertise a yoyo is to have people play with it. -Your average small brand has around 5 players representing them, so you send them a minimum of 1 throw each (more if they are competing with it). -Next you have reviewers. At least 1, sometimes more (I sent 4 gamers to reviewers). -Contest sponsorship. Smaller contests will allow you to donate product or a combination of product and cash, so you are looking at 2-5 throws from each run, and at least 200-400 cash per year just to sponsor one or two contests. You might pass up this advertising venue, but I’ve always received my biggest bump of ‘fans’ and the associated sales after I attend a contest, even if I don’t have a table. -For the larger brands there is also the cost of direct advertising on youtube, Facebook or google ads. Finally: The mathSo lets throw some imaginary math at this to put it in a bit of perspective. I’m going to pick some numbers that are a reasonable ‘average’ price for the various steps involved (Numbers in USD). These will be based on a short run of 100 yoyos made in China, with a medium complicated design. These are average costs, you can do all of this cheaper by cutting corners, and you can spend more for quality and branding. 1. Prototype run - $400 per run (shipped), we’ll assume only 1 prototype was needed = $4.00 2. Yoyo parts - $15 per yoyo. $1500 for the run. 3. Axle - $0.20 4. Bearing -$1.50 (decent quality budget bearing) 5. Pads $1 per pair (sourced through an existing company, not custom made) 6. Anodizing (in china) $4 per yoyo for 3 colour splash 7. String $0.15 8. Shipping to North America $120/100 = $1.2 (includes customs duties) 9. Simple boxes $0.50 10. Custom Sticker Art 100 = $1 each 11. Sticker printing (1000 is usually the best value) $50 (shipped) = $0.5 each yoyo 12. Carry Bag $1.5 (Incl shipping from China) Total that up you get a cost of $30.75 per yoyo. Lets account for 1 for the owner, 5 for the team, 1 for review and 3 for contest sponsorship. That’s $321. Divide by the remaining 90 adds $3.57 per yoyo, bumping costs up to $34.32 per yoyo. OK. Next bit of math - Finding a price. If you are selling direct and not retailing at all you get to make a bit of money, but it’s more work to sell through the run. If you choose to retail here is your math. Most retailers ask for a minimum of wholesale x 1.7. For some it’s closer to wholesale x2 (which is a standard minimum markup in any industry, yoyo retailers take a smaller cut than most businesses). Going with the minimum. 34.32 x 1.7 = $58.34. That’s your retail price if you aren’t going to make a penny on the yoyo. For retail stores I usually try to give myself $5 as a minimum, so new math: 40.7 x 1.7 = $66.84 If you have a look back up, we started with raw parts costing only $15, $20 anodized. At the end of this adventure the brand owner earned $5 per yoyo on a maximum of 90 yoyos which gives you $450. If you have ever tuned a yoyo you know how much time is involved in assembly of the 100 throws, add in packing them up, all of the design, testing, social media work and that’s peanuts.
Move to North America? Add $20 per yoyo at least. Have to do a 2nd or 3rd prototype? $5-$10 more per yoyo. Bi-metal or Titanium? Sponsoring a high level player or want a spot at the big kids table sponsoring nationals or worlds? The costs keep going up. Yes, you can get things made cheaper, the fact that there are metal throws on the market for under $40 tells you that. If you can afford to make 1000 yoyos the price can drop as low as $5USD for the parts, that’s how you can find aluminum yoyos on EBay for under $10, but can you sell that many? What is displayed above is not an unreasonable set of numbers for a short run of made in China yoyos from a reputable, quality controlled shop. So there. One persons averaged numbers on how yoyos are made. One of the wonderful things about the internet is that you can find just about any information. If you are thinking of making your own yoyos, I wholeheartedly suggest you do some research and see if it’s something you want to pursue. Companies like Magic Yoyo, Vosun and FPM all do yoyos on demand, or if you want to stay in North America hit up One Drop or Foxland Precision and get some prices. Feel free to comment or hit me up at [email protected] if you have questions on any of this!
29 Comments
Rob
11/11/2017 12:23:18 pm
Thanks for the article. Well-written and informative. I knew it is a complicated process and a labor of love to produce a boutique yo-yo but I never really thought through all the details you presented. I suspect it is even more demanding than you make it sound to have a successful brand. Thanks for sharing!
Reply
Abby
11/20/2017 03:32:02 pm
Wow I had no idea how much money went into yoyo companies I now have a new respect for boutique companies.
Reply
Mr Yoyothrower
11/21/2017 04:08:11 pm
I know, right?
Reply
Jared
11/19/2017 09:02:31 pm
Interesting article, it's crazy how fast the price can stack up, and how little profit is turned in the end. Definitely a passion thing for the most part.
Reply
Conrad
11/19/2017 09:09:31 pm
Well now I get why throws are so expensive. Thanks!
Reply
Roy Muema
11/19/2017 09:21:28 pm
This was a great read! Really helps make sense of how much work and money goes into making yoyos and why they're priced the way they are.
Reply
Malachi
11/19/2017 09:34:17 pm
Very insightful. It is amazing how what seems like a hunk of metal, actually takes lots of time, effort and money.
Reply
Jeffrey S. Anderson Jr
11/19/2017 09:48:04 pm
This is a great read and a glimpse of what it takes to get something like a yoyo off the ground. Buying a yoyo off a small company or the guy that made it makes it much more personal. I'm totally gonna buy that foodie one once i get together the scratch for it!
Reply
John L.
11/19/2017 10:22:07 pm
Great read! I was wondering about the steps and costs related to producing a throw. Very detailed information about the world of Yoyo sourcing, manufacturing, and sales.
Reply
Andrew
11/20/2017 03:28:12 am
Thank
Reply
Kent
11/20/2017 03:35:01 am
This article shows the proccess of the production of a yoyo. Every yoyo company faces this. Now I don't need to think about why some monometals can cost up to 200$. Thanks!
Reply
Jonah
11/20/2017 04:47:18 am
Super interesting to hear about the backstory and behind-the-scenes of yoyo production!
Reply
Nathan B
11/20/2017 07:25:49 am
yo yo yo yo yo
Reply
Jin
11/20/2017 07:41:34 am
I love posts that break down things like this. There's always so much more involved than we realize, especially in today's prepackaged, off the shelf world.
Reply
memelord2001
11/20/2017 02:49:15 pm
ethan is cool
Reply
John Sotelo
11/20/2017 08:36:19 pm
This is awesome because you get to see what production looks like. This was an awesome post Jeremy!
Reply
Chris McCauley
11/20/2017 10:31:49 pm
Dude I had no idea what went into return top manufacturing. Much love Jer, and MAD respect
Reply
11/21/2017 10:25:31 am
I recently started working on making yoyo's (getting the second prototypes soon) and all the costs are rediculously high, to the point where I'll probably make about 2$ of profit per yoyo, but I just want to get these made right, and sell them at a good price. Thankfully I'm able to do all the design work myself, and don't have a team yet, so I can save some costs there.
Reply
Phantisee86
11/21/2017 10:28:26 am
Thank you for putting out some actually figures!
Reply
Benedict
11/21/2017 04:01:44 pm
This is a very well written and informative post, especially for those who don't have a business background or are new players. Often times new yoyoer's complain about high pricing as they don't understand the cost and amount of effort put into making a yoyo, this article clearly identifies the reasons for paying high costs for a quality yoyo.
Reply
Mr Yoyothrower
11/21/2017 04:05:45 pm
That's exactly why I wrote it! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Reply
Mryoyothrower
11/21/2017 04:06:24 pm
Every decision adds up in a hurry!
Reply
11/21/2017 04:07:25 pm
Feel free to shoot me an email and I'll give you some contacts.
Reply
Mr Yoyothrower
11/21/2017 04:07:47 pm
Thanks!
Reply
Mr Yoyothrower
11/21/2017 04:08:47 pm
I might have to plagerize that Haiku for my book!
Reply
Mr Yoyothrower
11/21/2017 04:10:24 pm
That's the thing. I didn't even get into pricing on 7075 or bimetal. If you are trying to design the perfect yoyo, you might go through 5 prototypes, which is another $25 per unit on the yoyo. That doubles come retail time.
Reply
Mryoyothrower
11/21/2017 04:12:08 pm
That's great to hear! We do always appreciate every customer. You never know when you are going to be the person who buys that one yoyo that puts the creator out of debt on that run, or provides that little bump that allows us to make the next throw.
Reply
Airwiggy
11/22/2017 08:13:37 pm
Nice article. Love the time that you're taking to put these posts together
Reply
J
8/14/2018 01:11:15 pm
I stumbled across this article trying to find a King Yo Star Pax. I’ve been very interested in learning what it takes to bring a yoyo into fruition. Once again, thanks for sharing. As always, you rock. BTW, if you know where One can attain a King Yo Star Pax, new or used, please email me. Thanks Jeremy!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Click here to check out Mr yoyothrower's store
|