Trevor Gapinski – Contributing Writer

tmg5648@psu.edu

Yo-yoing can be traced back to 400 B.C. in Greece. It was a popular hobby in the United States from the late 90’s thru the early 2000’s, when it fell out of favor. Recently, TikTok has paved the way for the next yo-yo boom. 

Playmaxx released a yo-yo in late 1996 called the ProYo II, changed everything in the yo-yo world. Gone were the days of the Duncan Butterfly yo-yo sputtering out after a few seconds. The ProYo II was able to reach spin times of over 30 seconds, greatly increasing the amount of time a yo-yo player was able to keep their yo-yo spinning at the end of their string. 

Yo-yo performance continued to improve, however; around 2006, yo-yoing fell out of favor for other hobbies. It remained a forgotten hobby until two modern yo-yo players, Gentry Stein, and Angelo Aguirre pushed yo-yoing to heights it had never reached before. 

Gentry Stein, a 22-year-old California native, is a three-time yo-yo world champion. Stein dedicated six to eight hours a day to practice his yo-yo routines leading up to the world championships. He won the World Yo-yo Championship, in 2020, 2021, and 2022. Although he is still quite young, Stein retired from competitive play after his last championship, instead dedicating his time to help start the next yo-yo boom period. 

The media platform Tik Tok has given Stein a chance to accomplish his goal of sharing his love for yo-yos with as many people as he can. You may have seen his popular yo-yo trick, “The DNA,” go viral on social media platforms. The flashy trick begins with Stein rotating the yo-yo on one finger, while throwing the string into the rotating yo-yo, thus causing the string to wind itself up, while looking like a DNA strand. 

This one Trick, as well as people being stuck at home during the pandemic, led to an increasing interest towards yo-yoing. Stein wasn’t the only one pushing the hobby on social media platforms. Angelo Aguirre, who goes by Angel, is known for his iconic yo-yo trick, the “Godspeed.” Although he has never won a national or world yo-yo championship, Angel may be the most influential person involved with the hobby today. 

Yo-yoing has always existed on video sharing websites, such as YouTube. Yo-yo YouTube videos almost never go viral. The short duration of TikTok videos is the perfect platform to showcase modern yo-yo tricks and their complexity. 

During the pandemic, Aguirre began sharing his tricks with friends online. It was not only his friends watching his videos though; they were going viral. He quickly realized there was a market for the content he was producing and began tailor making his videos for a public audience. This led to a modern yo-yo renaissance. Long gone are the days of “walk the dog” and “rock the cradle.” They have been replaced by complex, flashy, dense tricks, such as “The DNA” and “Godspeed.”

Stein and Aguirre are the two most influential yo-yo players of the modern era. Their efforts to put yo-yoing back into the mainstream spotlight have not been in vain. Certain yo-yo releases now sell out hours after release as a whole new generation of players are ready to take up the hobby and help evolve it to even greater heights.