The sport of yoyoing seems to be growing more and more recently, which has left me (a well as many others) to ponder the pros and cons of an explosion in popularity. Now I am no professional writer, economist, or yoyoer but I certai nly have my two cents on this subject.

On the side of pros:
The exposure will always be a benefit, all publicity is good publicity.
New demand seems to be producing new companies and will continue to do so.
Great talent and creativity just keep flowing forth with the new generation as well as forcing an evolution among veteran players.
New concepts and products ( I am always a sucker for innovation and tech ).
Larger competitions, and more substantial prizes.
The companies with a mass following will benefit from the flooding market.
The list goes on...

Now the cons:
I fear that with the growth, new attitudes and "beef" will come to light.
Where will some companies cut corners to meet growing demand.
Will the outsourcing of labor to foreign countries become more commonplace?
Will honest, small, quality and community involved companies be forced to adapt or die ( This one is my biggest concern )?
Will the newcomers immerse themselves in our heritage, or will progression cause them to lose sight of our history?

Now I understand all of my cons were merely questions, but I ask them to myself all of the time. Partly because I enjoy the idea of pondering the future of this amazing sport, but mostly because I feel if I stop asking I may lose sight of where this sport came from.

I am 31 years old, and have been playing the yoyo collectively for over ten years. I have seen a number of ebbs and flows in the tide of yoyo popularity. Still to this day I get people twice my age telling me things like; I used to play or I won 2nd prize in a yoyo competition when I was 12. I take pride in making infants, toddlers, teenagers, and adults smile and engaging them in conversation every day. One of my fondest memories was playing outside of a gas station with Hans(aka YoHans), and being taught braintwister. My hope for the future is that these experiences be had by others, rare frequent or otherwise. I have seen companies like One Drop show great loyalty and compassion to the members of it's community, myself included. My hope is that this loyalty can still exist after the growth. I think if these things stay present, growth can only be a good thing.

I encourage all opinions, thoughts, facts, and debates. Please feel free to offer them here or in a private message without fear. I think the topic deserves some thought from all of us.

Where do you get the idea that the sport is growing right now?

There are new members on every forum daily, new videos from new players worldwide in a weekly basis. Look at all the new companies in the last year and a half. The sport is always growing. Based on past experience, another wave in popularity is is due. I myself have introduced a dozen plus people to the yoyo, and plan on starting a class at my local community center this summer. Even one new player is growth.

it's not a matter of "good" or "bad", there are good sides as well as bad ones, we've had this debate on another forum a few months ago and I actually believe it's here to stay and not one of these "yoyo booms"

there's good and bad, you can't really pick one

i was waiting for my hair to get cut a few weeks ago, and i heard a kid talking to the barber say "a lot of kids at my school yoyo now, it's the new thing that everyone is doing. it's hard not to see them playing"
he then looked over at me as i was doing a GT suicide. it felt good for some reason.

just look around

in europe it's quite obvious, and from here, the scene in US and asia is already fairly big

a year ago, in France, we only had 1 website/forum
right now there are

French yoyo association
yoyo france news website
soon our first web shop

the french yoyo competition is starting to look pretty good with more people and more styles representes, everything looks more and more "pro" and I can tell you there's more and more money involved all together

didn't OD recently spent like $100k on a piece of machinery ? if they weren't confident they'd get their money back, I take it they wouldn't have invested it.

Some leading brands are starting to emerge and take a stand, YYF recently came in europe officially and are building a team here, OD's obviously growing bigger, you have brand new manufacturers putting out great products such as Xcube

these guys are here to stay. yoyoing is here to stay

If you go back even a year a French or British company was nowhere to be seen but now there is Xcube and Spin Junkies (new company in UK)