"alternatives" - PREORDERS NOW OPEN.
8. Kevin Hendrata, Ramblings & insomnia's final prototype
My First Call with Kevin Hendrata
Somewhere between that Singapore playtest and the Thailand Nationals, I was reminded of Kevin Hendrata and wanted him on the team. I told Karthik about it and asked for his thoughts on Kevin. Karthik just said that Kevin is "brainrotted like fuck" but would be a good addition. So, I asked Karthik to approach Kevin and arrange a call between us.
During the call, Kevin was very respectful and much more timid compared to what Karthik described. He kept calling me "sir"—Yes, sir. Okay, sir. After the fifth "sir," I told him to stop. I walked him through the entire concept behind "alternatives" and our expectations.
My first sponsorship & Diamont Noir
Back in 2013, when I was offered my first sponsorship by a large, highly desired yo-yo company. They gave me a thick contract to read, which outlined commitments like attending a certain number of yo-yo contests per year, creating a specific number of social media posts, and producing trick videos and promos for their latest yo-yos. I actually accepted the sponsorship but changed my mind within 24 hours. I know a lot of people were really pissed off because of this, and I am genuinely sorry for my behavior back then. There were two reasons for my decision:
- Diamont Noir heard about it and made me an on-the-spot offer, and also all of my friends were on that team including Zafran Aqil & Darrell Mitchell. I joined Diamont Noir instead.
- The commitments were kind of scary, to be honest. I didn’t like the idea of promoting a yo-yo I wouldn’t buy myself, and having a kid (me) sign a contract rarely goes well.
Expectations for team "alternatives"
I think readers would find interesting - here how we operate as a team.
So here were my expectations for the "alternatives" team:
- There is no requirement to post on social media and no pressure to film anything. If filming and editing are needed, we can handle it, and it’s optional for the team to participate. Some players just don’t like social media—they just enjoy playing yo-yos—and that’s completely fine with me. Post whenever you want or don't post at all if it's not your thing.
- There is no pressure to compete or win contests. "alternatives" doesn’t care about contest results. We only care that you’re still motivated to improve. Motivation is important because being surrounded by demotivated or negative people affects everyone.
- "alternatives" doesn’t care about making money. Whenever the company breaks even, profits will be split among the players. Likewise, if the company doesn’t do well, players won’t be blamed or pressured about sales. The company owner is always responsible for profit and loss—not the staff, and in this case, not the players. Also "alternatives" isn't my main source of income. I don't see "alternatives" as a job, but more of a privilege.
- To inform me if they felt like quitting "alternatives" or need a long break or want to quit yo-yoing entirely. I didn’t want our players to feel anxious or stressed about quitting, and if that day came, I wanted an open, and easy conversation. I promised I would never guilt-trip them into staying and that they could leave whenever they wanted. But upon joining - I would ideally like them to stay for at least a year.
- Players must wear the "alternatives" tee at their Nationals/AP/Worlds. As we were a new brand, this was the only real request I had. But players could wear anything they wanted at any other contest. I also said once and if we grow big enough, they wouldn't need to wear the tee on stage if they didn't want to.
Basically, I wanted our players to represent the brand freely and do whatever they wanted without feeling chained down. We did have rules about not posting offensive content, but that was pretty much it.
Our players were free to be featured in videos for any other brand and to film promos for any company if they wanted to. Why? If they advertise for another brand, whether big or small, they are exposed to a new audience, and if they gain followers from that, ALT also gets more exposure. Likewise, if the small brand gains followers from our players, good for them! Sounds like a win-win to me.
Now in the real world, this would never happen. No Coca-Cola influencer would feature in a Pepsi commercial. But this isn't the real world, we are playing with yo-yos! 99% of sponsored players are either getting paid in more yo-yos or basically peanuts. So feel free to ask any of our players if you would like them to promote your product, if they agree, kindly proceed, no permission required from me. Do note, I did tell my players to only promote products that they genuinely liked, and not to lie to their audience by making a bad yo-yo look good.
Another thing about "alternatives" is that if our yo-yos ever felt dated or that our players didn’t like them, they were free to use any yo-yos from any brand at any contest or any time.
My players are already adding value just by being on the team, whether its motivating each other (including me), or just their sheer presence which keeps me happy. Who cares what yo-yos they use, if our products are good, people will buy it. If nobody buys our products, we just have to do better.
Our players have always been and continue to be incredibly grateful to be part of the team, but I feel truly honored that they chose to take a chance with us.
Again, I am no thought leader or influencer, and I think majority of them are cringe. I'm not trying to educate or influence any readers to agree, and I'm not encouraging a debate. These are just my thoughts, and how we operate as a brand. Not every brand operates like this, and they don't need to operate this way, but this worked out for us.
If "alternatives" would ever grow large into a large listed company, there is no chance for most of these rules to exist. This blog won't exist and the content we currently put out would never get approved. So while we are small, let's enjoy the journey - and may be decide to never grow.
Anyways, Kevin said he was in but wanted to try the Insomnia first before deciding to join. I told him to meet me at Malaysia Nationals 2023, which was a few months away. "Yes, sir," he replied. My god.
I also then only found out Kevin was only 17 years old! Maybe because Kevin was tall, I thought he was older than he was, maybe 20?
"insomnia 7068" Final Prototype
To my pleasant surprise, the final prototype arrived in less than two months—pretty fast compared to what I was used to. The changes we made to the prototype proved to be much better.
Ilhan and Marcus tried it first and said it was perfect. I also shipped a piece to Zafran, who said I was a genius lol. Nobody knew this was my fourth attempt at a yo-yo. Crazy how much money I have spent..
Spinworkx also suddenly announced that they would be hosting an XPYYM2023 event in November; which was a no clicker, just for fun performance kind of 'contest'. I really wanted to go, but my company had an event so I had to miss it - which was quite unfortunate because I wanted to do another playtest in Singapore.
I remember watching Karthik's freestyle and thinking there is clearly something wrong with this boy.
Thailand Nationals 2023 was around the corner, and Marcus, Karthik, and I were going to attend the International Open division. Secretly, I was scouting for our next player. For Marcus and Karthik, it was finally time to test out the "insomnia 7068" on stage...
To be continued...