The Amazing Yo-Yo

Fourteen-year-old Stoney Mack loops a yo-yo around his finger. The yo-yo becomes a blur of motion as he tosses it left, tosses it right, twists it backward, sends it up, sends it down, then snaps it into the palm of his hand. It’s a spectacular stunt.

Stoney had never even seen a yo-yo until about two years ago, which is hard to believe. One day on a field trip, his teacher handed out yo-yos to keep students occupied. Stoney played with the yo-yo for a bit but soon put it aside—until the pandemic.

“I started doing a few more tricks every day in my free time,” he says. Stoney began to get good—really good. He posted videos of himself on Instagram. In the videos, he was performing increasingly complex moves. One video went viral.

Pretty soon, Stoney had his own line of yo-yos. He even appeared on the TV show Game of Talents. In just a few months, Stoney had gone from a yo-yo novice to a yo-yo star.

Yo-yos have been around for thousands of years. Some historians believe that the yo-yo is the second oldest toy in history, after the doll. But in the United States, yo-yos are relatively new. In fact, 100 years ago, few people in America had ever heard of one. And then Pedro Flores came along.

Flores grew up in the Philippines, where yo-yos had been popular for centuries, and he came to the U.S. as a teenager, in 1915, and after college, he worked at a hotel in Santa Barbara, California, where he would entertain guests with his yo-yo.

Flores realized the toy had the potential to be a big hit in America. In 1928, Flores founded the Yo-Yo Manufacturing Company. Within a year, his factory was cranking out 300,000 yo-yos a day. By the 1940s, it seemed like every kid in America had one. And why not? Yo-yos were inexpensive, pocket-size, and easy to learn to use.

Today, yo-yoing continues to evolve. It’s now an international sport, with more than 10,000 competitive yo-yoers around the world. Surely Flores would be amazed to watch them face off in choreographed routines set to music, performing tricks while flipping, running, and dancing.

As for Stoney?

He isn’t surprised that yo-yos have lasted this long. “Yo-yoing is fun and versatile,” he says. “It’s a thing you can do with your friends. You can show your parents, teachers, and classmates cool tricks. Yo-yos are my passion.”

^{This article was originally published in the March 2022 issue.}