I start my new job as a software developer tomorrow. That's probably the weirdest most unsuspecting thing to come out of 2018. Every year I attempt to guess where I will be at the end of the next year. Most of the time its in a different city, or country. But starting a brand new career path is definitely a massive curveball.
Around 3 months ago I came to Vancouver pretty lost. I ended up meeting a lot of new friends through the city but man is it expensive here. I figured doing the whole yoyo thing would work well when I was living at home with my parents in Toronto but moving to the most expensi ve city in Canada also meant that I would need to do something during the day. I thought about just getting a simple job at a coffee shop and doing Luftverk on the side. I worked at an automotive shop rebuilding motors for a few months in the beginning, but I quickly realized I wanted to keep that as a hobby instead of a job. I felt like the pressure was on to find some sort of job, I just didn't know what. But A few of my friends mentioned they took a course to learn web development and that really caught my attention. I thought that would be interesting since I did some coding before back in my engineering days. So I took it more seriously, and the more I looked into it, the more I thought of it as an opportunity to start another path in life.
The course I ended up taking was laid out as a two and a half month hyper-condensed study period. This was one of the huge reasons for dropping off the map in the yoyo world and not releasing anything. Essentially you started at 9am, and left when you got the assignments done, which sometimes ended up stretching until 11pm. This was 6 days a week which, looking back at it, was so much work but also effectively does drill the knowledge into your brain.
I was really lucky to have some savings to pour myself into this program while still supporting myself in Vancouver. I met so many new friends there - the culture was very supportive. Finding a job was more about networking with friends met through the program. The company sent me a pretty indepth programming challenge. They seemed to like what I delivered and they hired me last week. I am just excited to try something out of my comfort zone and learn new technologies.
Going into a full time job means a few things for Luftverk too - and hopefully better things. I always looked at it as a side project that I've been blessed to have the support of all you guys with. But the past few releases were far more stressful now that I am not living at home or bumming around Europe. I was so stressed about if products would move, or what would you guys as customers want, instead of trying new things, and taking bigger risks. Things like the Fulvia project in early 2017 was such high risk - I want to be able to do that more in the future. With a full time job supporting myself, I will be able to once again try out the weird designs that I am afraid of, and not worry as much about the astronomically high prices of titanium prototyping. In summary, I can stress less about "what sells" and focus more on "what I want to design". I can also take more time between releases, or even focus on bigger pictures like getting titanium yoyos into retailers more. Made in Canada titanium has always been in the back of my mind... maybe I can finally make it happen?
I have to thank everyone who has given me love and support during the past few months. Even some customers personally messaged me words of encouragement to get through the hard times. That meant the world to me. I wouldn't even have had the opportunity to take that course while living on my own if no one bought the Raw 000. So really these opportunities that I am given are spawned from your people's generosity and willingness to keep supporting the brand. But that's enough about what's going on with me - because the new 000 finishes are absolutely stunning.
If you have experienced anodized titanium, you need no introduction to their incredibly iridescent color-shifting properties. The pink is a darker version of the pink that was on the CLYW x LFVK Tundras. It flip-flops from Pink to a gold color in bright sunlight. You can actually even make it out in the photos. Its the same story with the Root Beer color as well.
I also decided to include a small batch of each AMS2488 and Ultra-Matte. To refresh you, AMS2488 is the coating available as an anti-gualling agent in many military and medical machined parts. This means its very hard, and slippery - almost like a teflon. Contrasting to Ultra-Matte which feels much more like a chalkboard texture. Still very grind friendly, but the unique properties of this finish is that it develops its own patina as time goes on. The surface is slightly absorbant to anything that is around it - including oils in the hands. But looking at the photos its incredible how matte it really is, it looks like it's carved out from a chunk of concrete or something. Fits the minimalist design language very well.
Keeping the super minimalist design going, the logo is lightly etched into the surface with the anodizing applied afterwards. This gives it an almost ghost of a logo - you can only see it or feel it if you really look for it. I love how simple and clean it looks. I find branding to be very distracting to the design of a yoyo that has lines like this, but of course that is my own opinion. Either way it turned out excellent.
What an insane year. I think looking back it's been one of the harder years for sure. Nearly all aspects of my life was unexpectedly flipped around but I am very excited for new opportunities. But here's to a new year and new memories! Thank you everyone!
These will drop on Thursday December 13th 10PM EST at www.luftverk.com
It has been a year an a half living in Osaka, crazy how time flies. I remember releasing the Plastic Fulvia just before leaving Toronto, a product that I could argue changed the trajectory of everything. At that moment, Luftverk grew exponentially, with the support of retailers around the world. At that moment, I developed so many behind the scenes processes for management that it became much more of a corporate job then a creative one. Huge projects like Cheatcode, and the CLYW collaboration definitely had its creative sides dont get me wrong, but the addition of moving to a foreign city, learning a new language, pursuing motorsports and delegating tasks behind the scenes with razor sharp margins meant for a lot of it I was on the brink of burnout. I questioned if I even still liked doing yoyo stuff at all, or if it was just to keep food on the table.
Crazy to think it has been 2 years since the original release of the Plastic Fulvia and Plastic 000. Both models as of now are pretty much sold out everywhere, and I knew it was about time to update both with a small batch of new colors as well as fix a few small issues with the first designs. I appreciate everyone who has reached out anticipating a restock of these - as the manufacturing process is very timely for sure so restocks can't happen as quick as I'd like.
In January, I released the AKURA MG, a yoyo made from Magnesium. This material has a very low density and I talked about how it performs more like a plastic than anything else. But what made that yoyo really special is the aesthetic. I loved the lines on that yoyo. The proportions with the chunky rims were just perfect. One of the biggest aesthetic challenges though were that after the ceramic coating the lines were quite subtle which hid the design.
Keeping the super minimalist design going, the logo is lightly etched into the surface with the anodizing applied afterwards. This gives it an almost ghost of a logo - you can only see it or feel it if you really look for it. I love how simple and clean it looks. I find branding to be very distracting to the design of a yoyo that has lines like this, but of course that is my own opinion. Either way it turned out excellent. 
Jeffrey Pang
Author