The Gatsby is a thing of beauty. It presents itself as an unassuming piece of metal, but through handling it you realize that it was just being modest. In this post I will tell you my thoughts on this very unique, original spinner, serving as a sort of written version of the accompanying video review that I will be doing soon.

Introduction

This spinner is the brainchild of the one and only Alysia of Everecarre. Alysia is a spinner enthusiast who’s been in the community for some time. She dipped her feet into video reviews at one point, although admittedly I never got a chance to see any of her videos. Aside from these things, she’s very active in the community, and very passionate about spinners. The Gatsby is Alysia’s first venture into the world of making spinners, and she was very dedicated to perfection. How dedicated? She’s spent the last month or longer setting the bar extremely high for her brand, Everecarre. For the uninitiated, Everecarre is a play on words. When it first popped up, I thought she just really wanted the brand name “Evercare”, only resorting to adding extra letters after finding out it wasn’t available. You know you’ve done it, spinnerrmaster420. That is not the case. Those with a keen eye might notice that the name sorta looks like EveryCarry, as in “Every Day Carry”. Ever-e Carr-e. See it now? That was the intent, confirmed by Alysia herself. She seems to be willing to accept both though. The Gatsby I was presented with is the first production Gatsby that made its way into a customer’s hands (#4/30), a beautifully flawed silicon bronze version. I say flawed because it didn’t pass the lift test and had some micro scratches, which I knew and accepted when I bought it. At face value the Gatsby is very different from anything we’ve seen before. Maybe bearing a slight similarity to the Epiphany from Orion’s Customs, but even that’s a bit of a stretch. This design also feels very different, including the spin feel which is unlike any bar I can recall. One might even go as far as to say that the design is game-changing, but I’m still undecided on that.

Specifications

The Gatsby comes in at 55.4g, with a length of 44.8mm, width of 20mm, and thickness of 12mm. The buttons come in at 19.6mm diameter and a height of 13.8mm.

Quality

If there’s one thing that Alysia should be applauded for it is her commitment to perfection. Not only has she spent a month getting everything right (getting the Gatsby’s balanced twice, polished, and changing a ruined set of bearings damaged during shipping), but also commitment to a thematic release. The Gatsby oozes class, and to properly accompany that vintage swagger, Alysia added a number of personal touches that shows how serious she is. She went out of her way to advertise the spinner in a way that might have you questioning what year it is (okay not that much, but you get what I mean). The icing on the cake for me were two things: (1) the pictures she took of the Gatsby in a 3D printed cityscape, and (2) she designed a mail-in order form similar to something you might’ve seen back in the day. It wasn’t actually meant to be used, but it’s still just as awesome. She didn’t have to do that, but she did it anyways. In true Gatsby style, she included real shredded dollars in the package, to cushion the shrink-wrapped Gatsby as it sat comfortably in a martini glass. No toothpick and olive though, which is a damn shame. That said, all of this makes for a very premium experience. None of this is terribly important, but it shows that she cares, and that means something. You may have noticed earlier that I said these Gatsbys were balanced twice, so let me explain. Jordy of FocusWorks (the machinist behind the project) said that he has not heard of the lift test. The lift test is way of testing a spinner for perfect balance. The process is simple: grab the spinner by the buttons, let it sit on a flat surface on its side, and lift it up. If the spinner stays in the same position and doesn’t fall to one side, its balance is perfect. When I say perfect balance, I mean it. There are many, many spinners that do not pass the lift test. In fact, very few production spinners do. That’s because the lift test is a measure of unreasonable quality. Judder can be imperceptible on a spinner that doesn’t pass the lift test. But that wasn’t enough for Alysia. She wanted perfection, and she held firm to that. When the normal avenues for doing that didn’t pan out, she reached a deal of some sort and sent them all off for polishing and balancing to Mr. Bettencourt, another exceptional member of the community who even took it upon himself to send me a Christmas card last year. He’s a good dude. So where did it all go wrong? Well, the spinners were machined and sent to Alysia, but they had judder when spun; nearly the entire batch. I can’t say how this happened because I can’t see behind the curtain, but I have to wonder what kind of QC took place before the spinners left the machine shop. I love Jordy. Not in a romantic way, I barely know the guy, but he’s known for working miracles. He’s the dude that picked up the shattered state of Last Room Standing and brought the Axis Micro back from the dead. He does exceptional machining work for everything from spinners to flashlights. He knows what he’s doing. So what went wrong? Did QC just not happen? Whatever the case may be, he seems to have gladly taken the spinners back to balance take care of the judder issue, and sent them back to Alysia. So why did she have to send them to Mr. Bettencourt for yet another round of balancing? Well, they still didn’t pass the lift test. Like I mentioned earlier, Jordy doesn’t know about the lift test. That’s fine, although I believe Alysia did explain it to him. He did attempt to make it right though, and that’s what matters. The spinners still weren’t up to Alysia’s standards though, so off they went for yet more work. Joey has apparently done a very, very nice job. Therefore, when you get your Gatsby in-hand it will be absolutely perfect. Alysia has set the bar unreasonably high for her first run, but that just speaks to her commitment to establishing her brand. That’s how serious she is. That said, balance and finishing work aside the machining on this thing is fantastic. It requires a fancy pants machine because it’s deceptively complex design-wise. Jordy did a great job of bringing it to life, even if it’s needed to be defibrillated a few times. The use of 3D space on this design makes it very complex, which you may not notice at first glance. Having held it, I can definitely appreciate the time and effort that went into it. As I said before mine came with micro scratches and a slight imbalance, but I like it the way it is and I don’t see myself trying to “fix” it in the near future.

Aesthetics

The aesthetics of this design are really what make it special in my opinion. The style is intended to mimic the look of Art Deco architecture, like something you’d see out of The Great Gatsby, hence the name. Aesthetically, one of my favorite video games is BioShock, which has a similar look as well. The design has curves and style in spades. It’s a spinner that was designed with a focus on three dimensions, and it absolutely shows. It’s a simplistic stepped design that takes things to the next level. It’s truly a piece of eye candy for me. It’s different, unique, oozing with character, and I love every bit of it. It comes together as a cohesive piece that makes sense and there isn’t a single element of it that looks out of place. This section is simple, because the Gatsby says enough with its beauty that there is no need to explain.

Ergonomics