Duncan Alternatives? Check out 4 Best Yo-Yos from YoYoFactory

Champion Yoyo! Being a champion requires more than just a great yoyo, but the Yoyo Shutter is something every champion needs.

The Shutter is the ultimate competition Yoyo designed by Gentry Stein himself and made by YYF. Gerry Stein became world champion in 2014 and 2019 with this yoyo.

It offers decent performance, maintains speed, and is easily maneuverable. A quiet and smooth spin time is ensured by the Center Track bearing, and as a response system, narrow pads remain proven and popular. Yoyo Shutter costs around 50$, and it comes in all beautiful color combinations like fades or splashes.

You can definitely feel its competition-oriented throw. Spin time and stability are decent. Bearing is smooth, and yoyo is vibe free. No string vibe or something like that. It can go really fast, and you can do with it all hardcore tech, slack, tricks, and combos.

The shape is the classic look of Gentry’s lineup, and it has some inner and outside cuts for fingergrinds and also fingerspins. It’s comfortable in hand and in my opinion every color looks cool. With those engravings, it’s one of the best-looking yoyo.

This is the signature model of the new Japan National Champion, Izuru Hasumi. The pragma was designed after his first signature model from yyf, the singularity, designed to be more enjoyable yet more stable during play.

The pragma is made of 6061 aluminum with thick stainless steel rims. The stand-out feature about this yoyo is that the stainless steel rims have a hollow air pocket inside the rings, which most or if all yoyos do not have. This feature leads to an interesting feeling. What this does is that not only does it reduces the overall mass at the center part of thecrim, making it lighter, but it allows SUS/JDS to be able to utilize thicker rings to not only increase durability but also make it very stable without it being too extremely rim weighted. It has a very comfortable shape too, which makes binding less painful since it has a narrow gap width for those tight binds.

It plays very stable and solid yet has a surprising amount of float while being easy to control when doing speedy and horizontal combos, something which Izuru constantly does in his freestyle. For technical tricks, it has a very solid presence on the string, which is something tech-heavy players will appreciate.

In conclusion, the pragma is a unique bimetal yoyo that feels competent in whatever style the player is more accustomed to, and it is sure to get you on the podium with all the performance you will yearn for!

Angelo Aguirre (Angel2up) has become one of the most influential yoyo players of this generation, and Godspeed has also become its hallmark in TikTok. First off, I really like the name, and I would say that it does fit the shape of the yoyo. The yoyo has a relatively large diameter of just about 56mm and a contrastingly small width of just about 40.9mm. Moreover, the yoyo has comparably sharp indents in the catch zone, which make it look good while also adding to that thin feel. I personally love the feeling of thinness, and just the overall design of the yoyo is appealing to me.

Aside from the design, the yoyo gives a stable throw with its rim weight and doesn’t tilt too quickly. I would say that the yoyo feels heavy but also fast at the same time, most likely due to its skinny shape. This allows it to carry its weight better and move with less air resistance. Other than that, the yoyo does have a good feel when returning to the hand and does well with binds, including grind binds. The smooth finish allows for a multitude of grinds tricks and finger spins tricks. However, I have trouble with my finger spins on this yoyo. One of the downsides of this yoyo is probably its high walls which do make it slightly more difficult to do rejections, but it isn’t a deal breaker.

So, with all of these details, I most likely wouldn’t recommend this as a beginner yoyo, but as you get more used to yoyoing, this would be a wonderful addition to anyone’s collection. Overall, the Godspeed is sturdy, dense, nimble, and definitely worth the price of $35.

Can you feel the power Kronk? Oh yes, I can feel it.
I always thought Evan Nagao’s yoyos looked a little “odd.” With those crazy big rims and the seemingly small V shape, it seemed like a weird design choice. However, after throwing it the first time….then returning it to my hand after a bit of a combo….and being surprised at the sheer power with which it hit my hand, I instantly understood.

This thing is CRAZY powerful. It’s a brute beast that wants to power through combo after combo and then maybe another combo. This is a competitor’s design, for sure. Where you have the raw power to do the trick after trick after trick without having to regen or throw again, it really does not want to go off-axis. It can…but you have to force it to. Since fingerspins tricks and thumb grinds are not used a lot in a comp, this yoyo does not cater to it. The finish, however, is very nice and smooth to the touch, and loves fingergrinds. Fingerspins are not really a problem. Just not as good as with something that was specially made for tricks

It comes in a nice premium plastic hard case that can be used for display purposes if you’re so inclined. But really…this yoyo wants to be thrown. Mind you…it doesn’t come cheap with its $125 retail price. But it just might be worth it just for the experience of power. Don’t hold back with it….because it won’t hold back. It can be bought from most places that carry Yoyofactory products.