Yoyo string design in the past year or so has made huge leaps and bounds. In the past, strings were made by larger companies, and any small hand-made brands or surges in stringmaking in the community often petered off quickly because it’s a lot of work to do string. Innovations in unorthodox materials and more reliable construction methods really brought boutique companies/brands back.

In addition to buying strings, every “string boom” results in a lot of people who try to make their own. One of these guys has made and sustained a string makers’ community, and I’m excited to be working with both him and a few other community members for the next ThrowCafe drop!

Rob (Airetic Strings) contacted me a while back asking if I wanted to do a collaboration. His brand is a movement geared toward exchanging strings and expanding the community rather than having an official storefront. We tossed around ideas – I wanted to try and respect the spirit of Airetic’s movement but didn’t know quite how to do it. We settled for a middle ground: the new Cappuccino drop will have two strings in each pack: one randomly selected from four string makers (including me!) and one from Airetic.

ThrowCafe is also holding a contest in the spirit of creating more content to the community.

Whether that’s a string rig, yoyo trick, modding method, accessories, I want to see what you can come up with! More details here.

Oh, and here’s the new colors.

Red Velvet (Red with pink fade): My camera makes everything seem pinker, it’s a ruby red.

Mint Chocolate Chip (Green acid wash, brown splash)

And a new thing that we’re gonna drop as well, the Espresso. Small cat with more punchiness. Slightly heavier than the Cappuccino at 63.3g, way smaller at 50.2 x 38.2mm. Only 10 of these have been made.

The Cappuccino and Espresso will be dropping on Wednesday, December 6 at 5:00pm PST.