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Everything in May 2025 (LONG)
Hey guys! May was a busy month for “alternatives”. And off we go:
- Chen Yang from W1LD (16/5/25)
The day before Stronger EP7, I met up with Chen Yang at the airport to welcome him on his first visit to Malaysia. We had met briefly before in December 2024 at VNYC but didn’t get to chat much then. We spent the afternoon together and had a really good conversation.
If you’ve never met Chen Yang, he’s more of a quiet individual - but a genuinely hilarious guy once you get to know him. He shared a lot with me about his journey with W1LD, and I could tell he really gives 100% to his brand with all the amazing products he’s putting out.
One thing that really impressed me about W1LD is how quickly they’ve grown and lived up to the hype. They started about a year earlier than us, and honestly, I can’t imagine ourselves being their size now, one year later.
Although both of us are on different journeys, I think what clicks between us is that we’re both in it for the love of the game and genuinely enjoy the company of the team and the people around us.
I got to try some of W1LD’s latest products and prototypes—and damn, I was honestly a little jealous.
Pictured: Chen Yang and I after dinner, the night before Stronger. I actually posted this on IG with the caption "With my new best friend!", it was really funny when Chen Yang re-shared it haha.
I learned a lot from Chen Yang, and I really appreciate the effort he made flying down to Malaysia to support Stronger, and also for sponsoring the event. I didn’t lose any money this Stronger—and W1LD was the biggest contributor to that.
- Stronger Yo-yo Cup Episode 7 (17/5/25)
Thank you to the following for making Stronger EP7 possible:
W1LD – Our biggest sponsor for EP7. Thank you again Chen Yang! I owe you one.
44EMPORIUM – Canada’s yoyo store owned by Yejune Seo, one of the coolest guy I’ve spoken to. Beast of a yo-yo player but nerfed to the ground by meta haha! Can’t wait to meet him at Worlds 2025. PS: They will be taking in some stock soon, so If you are in Canada, do hold off a little bit to save on shipping!
OFFSET – Our homies from day 1, the kings of sound effects. I shared a bit about them in the previous blog as we had a collab with them recently!
DOUBLECLICK – A new culture brand by the boys from Singapore, if you’re reading this please drop by their IG and drop them a follow, IG is extremely difficult to grow nowadays. Karthik is also part of the DOUBLECLICK team, and he emceed the event again! They also helped with organizing the yo-yo battles at EP7.
KEDAIYOYO – Malaysia’s yoyo store owned by Ewin Ee, they have supported us as the head judge of every stronger and supplied us with prizes and medals from the start. Kedaiyoyo also has INERTIA's in stock, so do check them out to get one!
YOVOCATES – A community & webstore owned by Bryan Teo, whom goal is to push and grow the Singapore scene!
Stronger Episode 7 - you had to be there. There were just too many memorable moments that can’t be captured in clips or summed up in a blog post. It was an amazing event, and I’m extremely grateful for the turnout we had - huge thanks to all the judges, Eunice for helping with music/cam, and of course, my girlfriend.
Since EP7 was our largest event yet, I was busy the whole evening. I remember being called across the room for something, and then hearing my name again every 10 seconds to be somewhere else. I think 30% of that was because the livestream kept dying.
EP7 was also the first time I met Roh Tae Uk (Korean 2A Champion) and Kim Dong Young (Korean 3A Champion). These guys are the best - super talented and extremely fun to be around.
Pictured: Wilderness PR - That Kenneth Bay bought from the W1LD booth
I also won a Purple Adrenaline from the W1LD mystery box. Finally. I really love this yo-yo and spoke highly of it in one of the previous blogs. On a side note, the Wilderness PR is a REALLY good yo-yo – an under-rated and perhaps one of their best offerings right now.
It was great seeing Ilhan Gabriel going 100% and winning X-Division, Marcus Ee back on stage after a short hiatus, and Karthik “freestyling” a routine with almost zero prep. Christian James Welly also threw down his cleanest 3A routine yet—which was my favorite of the whole event.
The freestyles from EP7 is uploaded on our Youtube Channel.
Pictured: X-Division Winners! 1st Ilhan Gabriel, 2nd Roh Tae Uk, 3rd Christian James Welly
If Stronger were a movie, the perfect ending would have been Jonathan finally winning and dethroning Xavier from taking his third straight win. But—too bad! A month before Stronger, I was telling Jon he had to beat Xavier: “Please don’t let him win again.” But since we released the Xavier version INERTIA at Stronger, I was actually a bit conflicted, haha.
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Pictured: 1A winners, 1st Xavier Ng, 2nd Ahmad Kharisma, 3rd Jonathan Sitanggang
The Doubleclick battle was also really fun. Arm Nakarin surprisingly threw the hardest round and was hilarious to watch.
Huy Dang also became an overnight sensation with his signature pose.
It’s a special feeling to have players from all across SEA travel down to your event—and it’s a feeling I hope you all get to experience too one day.
It was a great way to send off Stronger and end on a high.
Of course… until the next Stronger.
- Ultraviolet KEY + INERTIA (17/5/25)
The ULTRAVIOLET KEY and INERTIA dropped on Stronger. I touched on this topic a little bit previously, but in short – the original ULTRAVIOLET run of the KEY was supposed to be over 30 pieces, however an anodizing accident (I think it was spillage) left us with only 14 pieces. I was quite upset of the news, mainly because that means there are less halves to play around with for tuning, and that I really liked that colorway. Although we were left with that few, the ULTRAVIOLET KEY is somehow the smoothest playing amongst the other colors. Eitherways, we’re left with a few pieces – and I hope you enjoy it!
The purple INERTIA isn’t as limited as the KEY, but we tried a new method of “dyeing” the PC rims. What this does is that it creates a more glossy and brighter shine in contrast to the other colorways. The only downside was that this method kills a bit of precision which made assembly a lot of challenging for the factory and us. However, I really love that colorway, and how striking the purple looks. The final product has some minor blemishes on the hub, but that’s a small matter for me for all of the other results.
The night we received the yo-yos, I called Marcus to come out at 10PM to do a photoshoot with the yo-yos. Our meet up location was pretty dark, and we had issues with ideas and how we wanted to take the photos. We then had the idea of going to FAMILYMART and having one of the cashiers help us with it, but we couldn’t find the convenient store anywhere lol. While walking back, we ran into a security guard and thought, fuck it why not? We asked if he could help model our yo-yos, and he said “yea ok sure”. So that was that.
Click to view our ULTRAVIOLET COLLECTION!
- OFFSET x “ALTERNATIVES” – Xavier Edition INERTIA (22/5/25)
The Xavier Edition INERTIA launched on 22/5/25 – You can read more about it here!
- THE BULL RUN!
The week after Stronger, and since then, is now known as the alternatives “BULL RUN!” If you're familiar with stonks, this is the equivalence of a GODCANDLE.
We don’t actually sell a lot of products online - most of our stock is cleared through events or in person. However, for some particular reason, right after Stronger, our DMs and webstore blew up.
Whenever somebody orders from the webstore, the Shopify app on my phone makes a “KA-CHING!” sound - which, honestly, I don’t hear very often, so I’ll always think, What’s that sound?
One particular evening about two weeks ago, when I was going out for dinner - my phone went “KA-CHING!” “KA-CHING!” “KA-CHING!” every few minutes. It was crazy, and honestly a bit scary. I was immediately overwhelmed and had the most painful migraine. I was happy, but at the same time, I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders - that maybe, finally, I could see the light of us breaking even one day. It was as if the whole year of grinding led up to that moment, and it was amazing.
The migraine actually hurt so much that I could barely finish my dinner - I actually went home and threw up, lol. Ever since that day, we’ve been selling at least one yo-yo a day - which, to me, means a lot. Speaking of which, we haven’t sold a yo-yo today so, feel free to help out continue our 20 days streak! *UPDATE while writing this blogpost, we sold an UV Inertia!*
I spoke with my friends about what could have possibly caused that bull run, since we didn’t have a viral video or anything - I even went back to check if any of Karthik’s skits had gone viral.
For me, I think it was our new friends in Japan who shared our name around on X/Twitter, and also the exposure we got from OFFSET that helped us reach a new audience. We actually just made an X account, but haven’t done anything with it yet though.. Do follow us there!
Thank you all for the support– and special shout out to Jeremy for coming in clutch with the logistics, and DJ Jetfire for spreading the gospel. And yes, before anyone asks, Truffles has been eating well.
- “ALTERNATIVES” 2025/2026
We've been busy working on several exciting side projects—new products, collaborations, and more! One of our main goals for 2026 is to increase production volume so we can offer more affordable pricing. But it’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation: if we make too many yo-yos, we risk not selling them all; if we make too few, the cost per unit goes up, which means higher prices for you. It might be a risk we'll need to take in the near future.
Here’s some things to look forward to!
- New Signature Colorway for INERTIA – Releasing in US Nationals
- Limited Edition KEY #1 – Releasing at US Nationals
- Limited Edition KEY #2 – Releasing at Singapore Nationals
- New PRODUCT – Collaboration with XXXXXXXXXX
- New Signature Yo-yo, 7075+SS – Pre-releasing in Q3
- New COLLAB colorway with INERTIA! – Releasing in Q3
- New 3A Yo-yo, 7075+Ti – Still testing
- New TiSS Yo-yo, Ti+SS – Still testing
- New Yo-yo, 6061+PC – Releasing in Q4/Q1 2026
- New Yo-yo, our first monometal! – Releasing in Q4/Q1 2026
- New Signature Yo-yo, TBC – Releasing in 2026
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And lastly, the thing that I’m most excited about, new team member(s) (Hopefully announcing after Worlds!)
See you at the next blog!