Been a long time since I released much. A lot of things have been going on behind the scenes but a lot of it has to due with either financial or business legal stuff. Both that are not as interesting as I would hope but is definitely necessary going forward. I actually prototyped the initial plastic Stelvia design way earlier on in 2023, but only picked up working on it again at the start of this year.
I like to think of every project as an experiment of some sort hense the term "Study", where I usually gain some amount of knowledge either in manufacturing or design. This was even more so for this project since it was the first time I have developed a titanium and plastic in tandem. The concept for both yoyos ended up being very different - they share the exact same profile but achieve very different things.
STELVIA XSP (Plastic)
The Plastic version of the Stelvia was jokingly codenamed internally as "Extreme Stability Plastic" hense the XSP. This was actually inspired by a lot of what I learned from developing the FULVIA. With the FULVIA model I focused heavily on how the yoyo felt during the initial unwinded and the torque people would experience, making it feel more "metal" like. And after tons of feedback from customers it was obvious that the characteristic of power was something most people found comforting. I started to wonder what would happen if I pushed that characteristic to the extreme. By removing unnecessary design elements I attempted to increase the rim weight to a level never done yet in any of the Luftverk plastic projects.
I often look at rotational intertia values to guesstimate how a yoyo will feel. For the first time, the values that are achieved with the Stelvia XSP coincided with what was expected of a 6061 yoyo. Not to my surprise, a simpler design without any cuts on the edge would be beneficial to performance. Since any reliefs would remove material from the edge, it was vital to keep as much plastic as possible. The flatter edge profile was also a huge part of making this possible, with the added benefit of it being incredibly comfortable in the hand. The diameter remains the same as the Fulvia at 59mm, but the power is something that needs to be experienced - at times maybe overpowering.
You can really see where the weight was taken when compared to the Fulvia in this photo. The hub area (Pink) hollows out nearly 2 grams per half and is redistributed onto the very edge of the yoyo (Green). Due to the simplistic design of the Stelvia it also fills in the "Concave Meniscus" design element of the Fulvia. This visual really shows how different these two models are as far as performance and power.
Another note of the shape is the slight highwall. Due to the power of the yoyo, I wanted to bring back a bit of fun toy like float to the yoyo. This higher wall artificially makes the yoyo play a bit more organic like, which gives it a slightly more friendly performance. Its hard to put into words the difference but I think once you get these in your hand you will understand what I mean.
The color language is something that I was clearly inspired by many home goods available while living in Japan. The agressive performance of this yoyo is a complete contrast to the friendly, inviting color palette. I often get complaints due to the lack of bright colors for most of my products but its something that I stubbornly find my personality is drawn towards. These more adult or mature color palettes tend to photograph so well - I hope there is a small percentage of you that will agree and can appreciate these design directions.
STELVIA XP589 (Titanium)
It has been a while since I have released a titanium flagship style yoyo. Mostly because I have been unhappy with many of the prototypes I have done. Developing a titanium based on the architecture of a plastic yoyo was something I have never done before - and this little project actually taught me a lot about how a larger diameter affects denser materials like titanium. I have designed a few large diameter aluminums for clients in the past, but titanium was something that was a bit foreign.
Firstly its funny to play both the titanium and plastic version back to back. I think it is a psychological thing but the plastic version feels so normally sized yet the titanium version feels oversized for sure. Keep in mind they are the exact same profile. Perhaps its something to do with how the titanium version moves through the string but its definitely interesting. I had a few other local players mention the same thing.
The larger diameter with the combination of thin walls makes for one of the loudest titanium yoyos I have tried - right up there with the Triple Zero. The ring it makes during binds, regens and whips are comical and somewhat intoxicating. The highwall effect again makes it feel much more "organic" then the profile leads itself to be. With it weighing a much ligher 64.3 grams it also adds to the incredible floaty feel making it one of the most fun feeling titaniums while still being very stable due to the diameter.
It has been a while since I have featured the classic "Engineering Type Font" logo on a titanium, I believe since the 54SE or CLYW Alpine. I love how intricate the laser can get - achieving a lot of text detail that can only be admired by looking really closely. As with previous releases with this classic style logo I want it to feel at home on a work desk display as much as I do in a case. A large change this year is the new packaging switching finally to the drawer style box now found on both MG and Ti-7068 yoyos with the back featuring some cross section art and many flagship models of the past.
I hope that gives you some insight into the development of this project - a first for me to develop a yoyo in tandem with two very different materials. The price increase for manufacturing has been a huge toll on my business this year. This was one of the financial burdens I faced for this project and Luftverk as a whole. The manufacturing cost to injection mold and machine a product like this has gone up exponentially so I appreciate the support for projects like this where I pretty much have to bank on volume to make it work at all. This is definitely something I do because I believe in it - not because it makes sense business wise. Thank you for your continued support.
STELVIA (Both Models) will be available on Sunday June 30th, 2024 10:00pm EST.
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.
Jeffrey Pang
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