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Team Losi
379 Plays1 year ago
Steve and Mark talk about Team Losi, the R/C car company that gave Steve his first big break as a demonstrator.
Brought to you by YoYoExpert, the best place to do expert things with expert yoyos, especially if you want to do those things expertly.
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Transcript
Introduction and Yo-Yo Play Styles
00:00:00
Speaker
I'm Steve Brown. And I'm Mark McBride. And this is a podcast about that time. We made up two whole new styles of yo-yo play. And at the time, nobody cared. And now a few people care, maybe.
Origins of Team Losi and VeriFlex
00:00:36
Speaker
Team Losi started in, I want to say it was like very early eighties. So Team Losi was an RC car company started by Gil Losi Senior. The Losi family, and I think Gil Senior was part of that specific endeavor, but the Losi family also started Veriflex.
00:00:59
Speaker
Okay. So Team Losi was an RC car company. VeriFlex is a skateboard company that a lot of people remember from like early eighties, like kind of cheaper, more mass markety kind of skateboards. They were a step above Nash, but a step below everything else.
00:01:17
Speaker
Yeah. My understanding is that VeriFlex came first and then Team Losi came slightly after. There was like an RC car track near like the skate park that VeriFlex had opened and that's how they got interested in the RC cars and then ended up parlaying that into a new company.
Team Losi's Expansion into Yo-Yos
00:01:36
Speaker
So Team Leslie was an RC car company that like a lot of random ass companies in the mid to late 90s saw that there was a yo-yo boom happening and decided that they were going to capitalize on it. Well they made plastic stuff. Yeah I mean they made round plastic stuff that was high performance like it wasn't it wasn't much of a leap. Yeah I mean they're and they're hitting the same market.
00:02:02
Speaker
Yeah. They're hitting, they're hitting hobby stores for boys. Yeah. I mean, they already had the distribution network. You know what I mean? Like it was a really, really easy jump for them.
Steve's Sponsorship Journey
00:02:12
Speaker
So they started making a yo-yo called Da Bomb, which, I mean, I remember like, that was a nice yo-yo. And you know, the, the side cap, I mean, that's that, like that'll, you can put a sticker right over that thing that says Da Bomb, right? Yeah. It's flat. You just,
00:02:33
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it was, you know, it was a bunch of white dudes in Northern California. Southern California. Trying to be cool. Oh, Southern Chino. Chino's in Southern California. Chico is in Northern California. You know. Dude, how? You went out there. You went out there. I know the difference between Chino and Chico, but for some reason in my head, I thought that Chino was also further north, but I know. No, it's inland.
00:02:55
Speaker
It's inland, but it's also like, it's not near anything else. It's near dirt. Yeah, it felt, getting there felt the same as getting to Chico, where it's just like an indeterminably long trip through nothing to get to almost nothing. You're closer to other nothings in Chino. Right, right. So, you know, RC car company, prison, couple of good taco trucks, the end.
00:03:24
Speaker
I think she knows right above the Salton Sea. Nah, it's gotta be a little further away. But yeah, that's the corner of the world we're talking about here. Yeah, it's not great there. So this is probably around late 97. Yeah.
00:03:43
Speaker
late 97, early 98, probably, yeah, probably early 98. And I was desperately trying to get a job as a yo-yo demonstrator, but not for lofty pursuits where the kite shop is, you know, the kite shop that I was working at.
00:04:00
Speaker
Right. I didn't want to just be like the store demonstrator. I wanted to actually like get a get like get sponsored by a company and like start traveling and touring and all this stuff. Yeah. And this is right around the time that, you know, your mega and high performance kites were putting together team high performance. Yeah.
00:04:16
Speaker
I know I've told this story before. I may have even told this story before on this podcast, but I called Alan to go because I heard that he was putting a team together. I called him up and was just like, Hey, I'd like to get a spot on your team. And he was like, can you do two handed shoot the moon? And I was like, no, I'm mostly a one a player. And he was just like, Oh, yeah, we need to a players click straight fucking hung up on me. Like done.
00:04:45
Speaker
Oh, the story shows up in the origin of 5a episode. Oh, does it? Okay. Yeah. So, you know, like my, my first attempt at like getting sponsored, like out of lofty pursuits was, uh, just a traumatic failure.
Performing with Team Losi at World Championship
00:05:00
Speaker
And, um, and I just kept looking around and I remember I called up play max who talked to Tom Vanden Elsin on the phone for about 20 minutes. And then he assured me that his son had it well under control and he didn't need anyone else.
00:05:15
Speaker
Which, you know, in fairness.
00:05:18
Speaker
Yeah, no, they were doing good. They were doing good. The yellow and black brigade, they were... Yeah. They were like right after the teals, they had it together. And, you know, Ben ended up being a much better fit for that whole kind of deal, that whole vibe there. And to be honest, if Playmax had hired me, I would not have lasted long. Dude, you would have been out of Playmax faster than Duncan. Yeah, it was...
00:05:47
Speaker
Tom and I were oil and water. Tom Van Den Elsen being the owner of Playmax at that time. Yeah, we did not, famously did not get along well. So I was, I was striking out left and right. But I was like, I really wanted this for myself. And then Greg got this Da Bomb yo-yo in from Team Losi. And it was a ABS yo-yo. It was the brightest fucking neon yellow.
00:06:15
Speaker
And most of the other videos at the time were made out of polycarbonate. So it was a little bit lighter, a little bit softer. And it was the most shocking, horrifying shade of neon yellow imaginable. And I loved it. You couldn't look directly at it at the right time of day. Oh, it was fantastic. I mean, as somebody who was doing a lot of stuff on state, doing a lot of shows, I was like, this is the fucking best thing ever. It was so good.
00:06:42
Speaker
And it was bearing yo-yo, which at the time I was, eh, I was like, you know, I was being all like weird about bearings. So I would, I would take the bearing out and I would put in Spintastic's wooden axles. So I was, I was playing this like ultra light yo-yo with wooden axles. Uh, I was like waxing the string, you know, to give myself a little extra spent time. So traditional, such the purists, old man, Steve Brown, got to keep it at room for the kids.
00:07:12
Speaker
I mean, I was just more comfortable with it at that point. And honestly, they looped a lot better with wooden axles. Oh yeah, of course. They were, they basically played like much nicer, zippier Russell's, but with adjustable gaps. Okay. Which, you know, it was pretty fucking good at the time.
Modifying Yo-Yos for Personal Style
00:07:28
Speaker
Totally. So they had this yo yo da bomb. And then they had just released a purple version of it called the grim, which was a little bit better.
00:07:37
Speaker
which like grim sleeper a little bit better than the bomb. Yeah, it's true. At least, you know, at least they were just going for like just straight up yo-yo puns. Yeah. Rather than like just, we're young and hip. How do you do fellow kids? But it was just, you know, it was a standard like imperial ship yo-yo. It was pretty decent looper. I liked it. Yeah. I mean, it was, you know, it was good, lightweight, really zippy.
00:08:03
Speaker
It played nice. And I remember Greg got those samples in and he was like, well, you should call them up and see if they want a demonstrator. And I was just like done. And I remember calling them up and I talked to, I believe it was Jack Johnson.
00:08:21
Speaker
was like my point of contact at Team Los 3. And he was the guy I ended up talking to first. The World Yo-Yo Contest for 1998 was held in Prim, Nevada that year as part of the International Juggler's Festival.
00:08:38
Speaker
And we basically made a plan that they were going to send me out some product, and then I was going to compete with said product at the 98 World Championship. And that was going to be like my audition, I guess, for them to see if they wanted to hire me as a demonstrator. They had no demonstrators. I like that they were smart enough to know that you got to get your product in front of people.
00:09:06
Speaker
And like, I don't know if I ever told you this story, but you might remember it, that after I left Yomega, like I left Yomega in early 99 to go full time with Fiend magazine. And I was just kind of like, oh, I'm just kind of going neutral, neutral freelance. I can still help you guys out. That was kind of my attitude.
00:09:29
Speaker
And they were like, okay, whatever. And BAC 99 was coming up. Again, arguably the epic contest. Things were happening, all the creative people, invitation only, and they go. And I was like, oh, I'm out of my Omega supplies. I was like, oh man, I should get some more. So I called up the Omega and I'm like, hey, I got invited to
00:09:58
Speaker
be in this, be an invitational, like one of like six pros. Can I get some yoyos to throw on stage? And they're like, you don't work here anymore. And I'm like, okay.
00:10:16
Speaker
Okay. So, okay. And I'd seen Jack, like I was somehow, like, I think I had, somehow I had Jack at like Losi's number either through you or through Bill Liebowitz at Golden Apple. And I, I was like, Hey, Jack, um, I'm competing. Can I get some cherry bars or, you know, to play with, you know, some yoyos kind of thing?
00:10:39
Speaker
Yeah, sure, cool kind of thing. And you know, showed up day of contests or like right before contests, like as in I really probably should have gotten the yoyos earlier to practice with. Well, and they needed breaking in. And so he gives me the yo-yo that I just remember, again, not having contact, which more anymore than that kind of thing. He goes, hey, hey, good to see you, Jackie. Just gives me this like bag of yo-yo, so much stock. I was like, wow, cool, man.
00:11:09
Speaker
I can't believe that Yomega wasn't sharp enough to want their yogis in front of people like this. He goes, you're not on Yomega anymore? I was like, I don't like you. You're smart.
00:11:30
Speaker
fantastic. Yeah, Jack was such a good dude. Like he was, he was great. He was, uh, I guess he was like a marketing guy or something. Um, but he was, but yeah, he was, he was like my, my primary point
Cherry Bomb Yo-Yo Development
00:11:43
Speaker
of contact. He was the guy that like I worked with and dealt with the whole time. Um, he was the guy that, you know,
00:11:51
Speaker
that I sold on them sending me out on Warp Tour in 1999. Because on that whole tour, I was working for Team Losi. Yeah. So I called these guys up and I talked to Jack. You want me to let you know a secret? What? So when Greg and I were putting that together, this will be at least
00:12:18
Speaker
one to 12 more episodes as fans of Warped Tour. When we were putting it together, we were getting all the different companies to put people on it. Because again, by this point, I'm like Gene magazine, I'm putting it on, kind of thing. And we're like, we're trying to get everyone on there. And we're like, man, you had a really want to get low seed, but they're hemming in their hawn, in their skin trouble. And we're like,
00:12:43
Speaker
but we got to have Steve. Greg and I totally cut Lucy a deal to make sure that you got on that door. We're like, if we did years of the fans worked without Steve Brown, there would be a ripple in the universe. Fantastic. Yeah.
00:13:08
Speaker
I mean, they were big for an RC car company, but like the whole yo-yo thing, like it was a hundred percent just like a fucking whim little side project for them.
00:13:20
Speaker
Um, so they didn't have, there wasn't a ton of support for it. Um, everybody was really like emotionally enthusiastic about it, but not financially enthusiastic. Like it was, it was a nice little bump in sales for them. But honestly, like many of the guys there felt like it was just a distraction from focusing on the RC business, which in fairness, they were fucking totally correct on that.
00:13:46
Speaker
But, you know, I mean, it was, it was great. They, so they had, they had those, those two models. They had the Da Bomb and the Grim Sleeper. Over the course of like talking with them, leading up to Prim, I was talking them into making a butterfly. I was like, you guys really have to have a butterfly.
00:14:03
Speaker
Like you just do, you have to. And I remember Jack coming out to Vegas to meet me in Vegas. And I remember him actually showing up with Xeroxed CAD drawings, CAD sketches of the cherry bomb, which would become the iconic butterfly yo-yo from Team Losi. Iconic for at least 11 minutes.
00:14:32
Speaker
Totally. No, it had a moment. It did. It did have a moment. And I mean, that was, you know, technically like that, that was the yo-yo that I created 5A on. At the time, there weren't many butterfly bearing yo-yos. I mean, you had like the saber raider. And then, yeah, I mean, it was probably like the widest. It was probably the widest. Yeah. I mean, this was, I mean, it was certainly pre freehand. All you had was the renegade. Yeah.
00:15:01
Speaker
No, I think it was before the Renegade. No. Are you sure? I'm pretty sure the Renegade was after 99. No. Yeah, the like the butterfly bumblebee. I think would have been the other thing like it. No, I'm pretty sure the Renegade came out in like. Ninety seven. No. Eighty eight. No, the Renegade was definitely definitely in golden apple days for me, not
00:15:30
Speaker
which was would have been, I just tried to pull it up and it says, uh, it just says late nineties. We'll have to look into this. Yeah. I'm going to call Arnie Dixon and be like, I'm going to need a date on that renegade, sir. Um,
00:15:50
Speaker
But it was, uh, I mean, it was definitely like it, it had its moment and had a little moment there. Um, and you know, for me, like I immediately started like working with them on like product development. Cause that was just naturally like where my head was at. Um, and so we took the, we took the da bomb and we took the cherry bomb, which was great, but it really did require like those, it came with rubber weight rings.
00:16:19
Speaker
And it was so lightweight it needed them. Do you remember the release party for the Cherry Bomb? The one at Golden Apple? Yes. Yes. Oh, yeah. I'll get into that for sure. So I launched into product development mode with them. And Jack showed up and showed me pictures of the sketches for the Cherry Bomb.
00:16:44
Speaker
And, uh, and I was like, yes, perfect. Let's do this. And, you know, started working on like prototyping and everything for it. Um, I flew out to California to do a special release party for the cherry bomb. And we did it at golden apple, because if you were in California doing anything to do with yoyos fucking, it had to go through golden apple and, and bill.
00:17:07
Speaker
Leibowitz did the coolest fucking thing imaginable and this was so wasted on me at the time because I was such an idiot. So here we are releasing a yoyo called the Cherry Bomb at Golden Apple, right?
Cherry Bomb Launch Event
00:17:24
Speaker
So Gil Losi Sr., the owner of Team Losi,
00:17:28
Speaker
is like a vintage car collector. So he busts out like a 1940s hot rod straight out of a fucking ZZ Top video. Oh, that shit. I forgot about that. Yeah. Amazing. So he's like, yeah, we're going to roll up, like we're going to show up at Golden Apple in this. And I'm like, that, this is fucking amazing. Yeah.
00:17:46
Speaker
And bill lined up sharing curry from the runaways yes the runaways being the band whose big hit song was to cherry bomb and who else came out of that band. It jon jet came out of that jon jet in leader ford and leader ford i mean that was like.
00:18:08
Speaker
Oh, Joan Jett. Oh man. I know. We're talking like late seventies, Joan Jett. I don't know if you've seen Joan Jett lately, but she is still drop dead gorgeous and so much cooler than anybody. So fucking cool. Yeah.
00:18:28
Speaker
so so that that was the big release party for the cherry bomb so like me and sherry curry and like her son who gave no shits about any of this stuff whatsoever his name was jake uh like and he was you know he's probably like eight ten years old and like completely uninterested in all of this shit because you know bill was bill was was in just strangely connected yeah and
00:18:56
Speaker
So it was a matter that he had friends and was very connected in music, but like old music. But I mean like all of LA, like he was just one of those people that like he knew people in film industry. He knew people in the music industry. He knew obviously a shit ton of people in the comics industry. So he'd gotten, you know, so he'd buddyed up obviously with Gil being local and stuff like that. So yeah, we'll do a premiere here. Wait.
00:19:23
Speaker
I know Sherry Curry. She's got a son. Let's make it happen. And I'm sure that that's like Billy was just like, yeah, okay, cool. Definitely. So, so yeah, so I rolled up. So they had, they had everybody who was there for the premiere, like lineup outside, like this huge crowd of people outside of golden apple comics on Melrose. Oh, there's gotta be pictures of this somewhere.
00:19:46
Speaker
There are definitely pictures of this somewhere. And as soon as we're done recording this, I'm going to find them. And I've actually, in that bin right behind you, I've got original flyers from this event. Oh, that's great. Yeah, so good.
00:20:00
Speaker
So, you know, Gil's driving this car. Uh, we basically roll up to like two blocks away from the shop and pick up Cherry and her son. And, uh, and then like do a loop around the block and then like slowly, like, boom, boom, boom, boom, like right in front of golden apple. And everybody's outside and Bill's like, yeah, I know.
00:20:30
Speaker
And, uh, and so, you know, we roll up in like this, like 40s hot rod and Sherry Curry gets out and like all the dads are cheering for Sherry Curry. And then I get out and all the kids are cheering for me and we go inside and like photo opportunity or whatever. And, you know, she waves and she like tries awkwardly to throw a yo-yo and people take a bunch of pictures of it. And then she's like, yeah, great job. And then she's out. She's fucking gone. Like.
00:20:57
Speaker
He's like, great, cool. Thanks. That was awkward. I'll see you all later. Oh my gosh. I can't believe that I met Joan Jett on a plane once, just like sitting across the aisle from me. And I talked to her very briefly because a friend of mine's band was on her label. And I saw her give the stewardess a copy of the CD. And I was like, wait, that's actually my friend's band. It's pretty cool. And I just had this moment.
00:21:28
Speaker
How is it that thanks to yoyos and randoms, I've met two of the runaways? Like, what is just surreal? Yeah, it's pretty amazing. I mean, she was super nice. She was really cool. She's wearing this wild. She's wearing like one of those, like, I was a rock star in the 70s jackets. Totally. It was like suede with like all the fringe everywhere. This is just all suede tassels everywhere. It was amazing.
00:21:55
Speaker
that was like 98 going into 99 because that would have been that was 99 for sure. Yeah, it was definitely early 99. Because again, like May, that's when Jack may would have been BAC. And that's when Jack gave me a like a
00:22:11
Speaker
a bag of cherry bombs. Right. At that point, the cherry bomb came out and then I immediately started working on variations of stuff. I came up with the idea to do the A line, which was the polycarbonate
00:22:31
Speaker
versions of everything. So it was like different plastic, like heavier plastic. Yeah. Um, which, I mean, we did the chair, we did the, the bombs out of in, in the A line. They didn't need to be heavier. They were actually way better. Yoyos lighter. Um, but the cherry bomb benefited dramatically from the extra weight. Now at some point.
00:22:54
Speaker
you chromed them. Yeah. That was the silver series. Yes. Yeah. So we had the silver series and what we were also doing with these, and this was, this was cool because like nobody else was doing this at the time. We had chase colors of the yo-yos chase colors. So, so the cherry bomb only came in red. Yeah. But in every carton of 12, there was one black one. Really? Yeah. I didn't even know that. Yeah.
00:23:20
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. Now I want a black cherry bomb. I wish I still had a black cherry bomb. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Cause that was one thing that I did remember that I thinking about Losi was that their yo-yos did only come in those colors. Like everything's like, Oh, I've got a Raider Raiders came in clearer and pink and red. And this is like, there'd be like a little bit of very, like little variations here and there, but generally you had a lot of,
00:23:49
Speaker
these solid colors and it would be a yo-yo in multiple colors, but all the bombs were yellow. All Grim Reaper's were purple. We knew the only difference was the color and cherry bombs were all red. I didn't even know that there were black cherry bombs. Yep. There were black cherry bombs. They were a chase. It was like limited to like one per case. Um, and then we also extended that into the silver series. They were black chrome. Son of a gun. Yeah. Oh my gosh.
00:24:19
Speaker
now i know but now that i think about it now i'm trying to remember if those were ever actually released or if those were just prototyped this is all just a pipe dream that steve brown had i mean the sleep in the factory the black the black cherry bombs for sure were definitely released and i remember that being like a big deal and i think we did black to bombs as well
00:24:43
Speaker
Um, but we made them rare and like, and so the stores, you know, when they're open up stock, like I have a memory of the black to bombs. Yeah. I do remember those. So they would, they would pull them and then, you know, they weren't just like putting them on the shelf. Yeah. Um, because as soon as they realized that they were rare, then, then they became something that the stores would like grab and like use as like prizes and stuff like that. So like, you know, like you couldn't, you had to buy, if you wanted to buy a black cherry bomb from like golden Apple, you had to get it out of the case. Yeah.
00:25:13
Speaker
And it was like, you know, double the price or you had to like win it or something like that. Totally. Um, so it was great because it built this whole like kind of collector economy around, around this thing. Um, and you know, the funniest part of that is that the, the normal production colors looked so much better on stage. Why the fuck would you want?
00:25:36
Speaker
Man so the spring of 99 summer 99 was a warp tour right and then
00:25:44
Speaker
at some point May of 99 is when I released was was BAC. Yes. And that was the first time I showed counterweight in public. Yeah. And I did that on a Silver Series cherry bomb. And I, I remember like spending time at home in Tallahassee, like working on working on freehand and using like regular cherry bombs using a line cherry bombs using Silver Series cherry bombs.
00:26:14
Speaker
And just generally like trying to kind of figure out which one was going to work a little better. And the silver series ended up working out a little better. Just the weight was the weight was there. Yeah. And so that's what I used for. That's what I competed with at BAC 99. So also in at some point around here, there was this ancient
00:26:44
Speaker
primitive technology much akin to the talking drums of central Africa, where people would use these really crazy strips to communicate, but to create images, and they called it VHS. God. Did you like that long walk? That was a long walk.
00:27:18
Speaker
Purely, purely to torture Steve Brown. So Team Losi was a specialty company with specialty distribution, right? They were not mass market. They were making like really high-end RC cars. And really high-end RC cars were not something that got shelf space at like fucking Walmart. But their sister company, VeriFlex, was mass market.
00:27:43
Speaker
And they were still churning out like cheap low end like skateboards and stuff. Yeah. And VeriFlex had the X Games license.
00:27:59
Speaker
because you know, like that's how that goes, right? It's not like birdhouse is going to get the X games license and be putting out like high quality birdhouse decks with the X games logo. It always just goes to some company with the mass market distribution who can do a decent job of slapping the logo on something that's okay and getting it out to everybody. Well, I mean, it's the stuff that appeals to
00:28:22
Speaker
kids who are like, Ooh, X games for the sake of X games. Right. Right. So I, I had designed a new shape for team Losi. That was kind of like a, a hybrid shape. Um, this was, okay. So you need to bear with me here on
Hybrid Yo-Yo and X Games Branding
00:28:39
Speaker
this. Okay. Cause you're getting me, you're getting, I'm giving you the Froude brow. Yeah. So at the time,
00:28:48
Speaker
You got to remember, compulsory's were still a thing at YoYo Contest. Yes. Right. So you still needed to be able to do like this set list of shitty old school tricks in order to get into the freestyle competition. You needed the discipline to do foundational tricks. Right. You were still having to do string tricks and then also like loop out of shit. Yeah. Yeah. It was it was a bad list.
00:29:15
Speaker
It was a bad list. So I designed a hybrid yo-yo that was functionally a butterfly, but you could loop okay with it.
00:29:25
Speaker
Okay. And that was like, that was the goal for it. It was a slim line butterfly with like crazy high walls so that you could like loop out. And that was like, and I called it the hybrid shape. Okay. And, and I designed this specifically to be like my signature from team Losi. Sounds blocky. It was very chunky. Um, and they immediately handed that design off to VeraFlex to make X games, Yoyos with.
00:29:57
Speaker
And I was not happy with that. I was really upset about this. The Steve Brown signature X Games logo. Yeah, no, no. I mean, they made them in a really cool looking translucent green with that horrible old X Games logo on the side caps. Yes. Yeah.
00:30:19
Speaker
They, uh, that green was fantastic. Like the, the plastic color was like fucking choice and they played great, but it was, you know, it was slapped onto this like Veriflex product, which means my name wasn't on it. And that means I also wasn't getting any kind of like royalty or bump or anything.
00:30:42
Speaker
So, you know, this, this was a great opportunity for Steve to learn some shit about how business works. They were manufacturing areas for VeriFlex. They're manufacturing clear to bombs for VeriFlex with yellow or pink caps that had the VeriFlex logo on it. And VeriFlex wanted to retail those with a VHS instructional tape. So I got to go to the Team Losi warehouse on a Saturday
00:31:09
Speaker
and film an instructional video that I wrote on the spot. They didn't even have VeriFlex t-shirts or anything for me to wear, so Jack drove me to Old Navy.
00:31:24
Speaker
We bought a plain red sweatshirt for me. And then he made vinyl VeriFlex logo decals on the plotter that they had at the Timosu warehouse and just did it. He's like, the adhesive on this one's really good. And just made one and slapped it on the front of that shirt. And that is what I'm wearing in the VeriFlex. Instant silk screen. Yeah.
00:31:53
Speaker
So basically, I just had an outline. I literally had a set list of tricks. And it was going to be an incredibly short VHS. I don't know if people remember at the time, so you remember when you could get an entire album on a cassette? Yeah. And then you remember when you can get three songs on a single? Yeah.
00:32:14
Speaker
Yeah. And it was like a really cheap, crappy, ultra lightweight version of a cassette that barely had any tape on it. So they did the exact same thing with VHS tapes. It was barely any actual plastic. There was literally styrofoam filler in those things to keep them from just collapsing in on themselves because the outer shell was so fucking thin and cheap. So this whole video, I don't think it was longer than like 20 minutes.
00:32:44
Speaker
Yeah, sounds about right. And it was literally just me jamming through tricks and like talking through how to do them like in real time. It is like the worst piece of dog shit imaginable. Isn't it just you in front of a solid colored back? It was literally filmed in the Team Losi warehouse on a Saturday because there wasn't going to be anybody there.
00:33:09
Speaker
So like we found like a plain wall and set up a camera and that was it. Didn't that, didn't that make the cover? What's the cover art?
00:33:22
Speaker
The cover art was just like the VeriFlex name and like bad logo kind of action. It was like the similar art that was on the sidecaps. Because I remember seeing a still, someone in the packaging of that, there's a still in front of you in front of that, like blank wall. I don't know.
00:33:46
Speaker
I mean, the, here's the thing. Somebody put the whole video on YouTube. Of course they did. It's like, I really like, I'm looking at right now and it says 16 minutes, 11 seconds, which is probably like the limit on that thing was probably like 17 minutes. We pushed it. We pushed it right up to the limit. Let's see Veriflex vintage yo-yo with VHS video, rare new old stock.
00:34:15
Speaker
Okay. So yeah, it was just the, the cover of the video was just a picture of the yo-yo. Okay. And then it says competition trick kit demonstrated by world-class champion.
00:34:28
Speaker
World class champion. Just stop and take a moment to enjoy that type of world. I was not a world champion, but they really wanted something impressive on there. How do you not have that tattooed on you right now? World class champion. It looks like I managed to get through a decent number of tricks on it. Yeah, the back of it, it looks exactly like the front of it. There is. There is nothing interesting going on there, but I can almost read
00:35:00
Speaker
can almost read the trick less, but I mean, it looks like, you know, one, two, four, six, eight, 10, 12, 14, 16, eight. There's about 20 tricks on there. Okay. That's pretty good. I'm kind of impressed. 16 minutes plus introduction.
00:35:15
Speaker
20 tricks in 16 minutes. Like this was some utilitarian shit. Yeah. It was like, all right, hold your hand up like this. Throw the yo-yo down. Make sure it's snap your wrist when it goes out. Let the yo-yo sleep the bomb. Turn your hand over. Catch it. All right. Next trick, bitch. I mean, I think we established that there's no second angle. Yeah, no, there's no second angle. There's no B-camera. There's no B-camera. I mean, there was no
00:35:37
Speaker
there was no effort put into this, which ultimately, you know, much like the indie films, you know, that like, you know, like the Blair Witch Project, this is the Blair Witch Project of fucking yo-yo instructional videos. So you ended up at the at the end of the video with your head in the corner of the of the factory at the OC?
00:35:58
Speaker
Like the budget to shoot this was like 50 bucks and they sold a metric fuck ton of copies of it because they had this thing in like Walmart. No way. This thing had full mass market distribution. And this was when I learned that if you are, if you're working for a company,
00:36:22
Speaker
and you haven't made some kind of understanding and agreements ahead of time, they can do whatever they want with you and pay you nothing more for it. So they loaned me to Veriflex, who made a significant amount of dollars off of this video. And I never saw a penny, which was a real bummer.
00:36:48
Speaker
And I, and I got into like a really loud argument with Gil Locey senior over this. And this was definitely kind of, this was one of those things that definitely contributed to me. Like when my, my year was up with team Locey, like not talking about another year. Yeah.
00:37:05
Speaker
And, and, and I just, he felt burnt by it because he was like, you work for me. If I tell you to fucking shoot a video, shoot a fucking video, like what's the deal here? And I was just like, yeah, I work for you. Like I came to you to work for team Losi, not to work for fucking Veriflex.
00:37:25
Speaker
You know, and like y'all are sub licensing me out basically to these guys to make a bunch of extra cash, but I'm not seeing any of that. Like my name's not even on this. Like it felt, it just felt cheap and gross and tacky. And, and I felt, and, and whether or not I was, I felt taken advantage of.
00:37:50
Speaker
Um, and the fact that like the yo-yo that I designed to be released for me got like handed off to them was kind of like, that was like nailing the coffin there. I was like, this was supposed to be like my fucking jam, dude. Like, come on. And I remember there was one prototype that I didn't even get to, they wouldn't even give it to me, but there was one prototype of that hybrid yo-yo with the silver series coating in black.
00:38:18
Speaker
The sexiest show you ever. Yeah. It really was. I mean, it was, and that was, that was going to be the release color. We weren't even going to release it in silver. Like it was going to be like black Chrome. You know, it's the pinnacle of every fucking nineties kid right there. Black Chrome. Are you fucking kidding me? That would have been amazing. Oh man. Well, what was it? What were you going to call it?
00:38:43
Speaker
Oh, I don't even remember. I really don't. I don't even think we got that far. Like I just called it, you know, I was just calling it the hybrid. Yeah. And I think I was probably pretty content with that because, you know, it was like 1998, 1999. I'm sure I thought that was cool at the time. Yeah. That was definitely like my low point. Yeah. But I got to go on the 99 Warp Tour as a rep for Team Losi. And
00:39:11
Speaker
So when was the one year mark is prim, prim would have been, if you started with them around prim, that would have been like, that was the end of July. I technically started with them after prim. Okay. So like prim was where they were like, yeah, I think this will be a good fit. I probably didn't have any kind of paperwork or anything signed with them until like August or September. Okay. So I think I basically like finished warp tour and then I had like a month. There was definitely a gap. And then I was done. Yeah. There was a gap time where you,
00:39:42
Speaker
weren't able to start with Duncan. Right. Yeah, there was a bit of a gap, but I mean, Warped Tour was great. Yeah. And I will say that even knowing that you guys were like, I don't know, just fucking charge them whatever, just we need to get Steve on the tour.
Lessons in Business and Self-Advocacy
00:40:03
Speaker
I'm still really grateful that they did it because I know that even no matter what deal that you gave them, that was still a lot for them. That was not an easy yes to get from them. I know that they were making some money off of this Veriflex deal, but I know that they weren't making the lion's share of it.
00:40:28
Speaker
like this was something that they were doing to help pay off the tooling. That's how they viewed it. They were like, oh, well, this will help us pay off the tooling and everything faster. And if we get anything extra off of it, this will help soak up some of the costs of having a demonstrator on staff, which is not something that they had ever really planned for to begin with. So I talked to them into a lot of shit that they then had to pay for somehow.
00:40:55
Speaker
So it was more one of those things where I was really young and I did not understand how this stuff worked. And it was really easy for me to get my feelings hurt about it, you know, because for me, it wasn't business. This was all feelings. This was all like, I loved being a yoyo player. I was so excited to finally be like a company demonstrator. Like this was a huge,
00:41:19
Speaker
step for me like emotionally, like becoming like a proper yo-yo demonstrator. But I didn't, I wasn't communicating that effectively. I wasn't communicating my needs and wants to them very well. And as a result, they also did not feel any obligation to communicate, you know, to reciprocate that. So they were pretty content to just sort of treat me like any other random employee where they're like, Hey, we need you to go do this.
00:41:50
Speaker
So it was kind of a sour end to a really sweet run. Sad run. Yeah. But I mean, I will say, I did learn a lot. Yeah. And the biggest thing that I learned is that you have to advocate for yourself.
00:42:07
Speaker
And you've got to communicate. If you're not happy at a job, don't just sit there and be like, I'm not happy. You've got to talk to the people who can change that. Oh, yeah. You do a disservice to people. It's almost unfair to not tell people. Right.
00:42:27
Speaker
what's going on. Now, if you go to the person who can change that, and you're like, hey, I'm really unhappy with this movement, and they're like, how about go fuck yourself, kid? Different story, whole totally different story. But you said it. Right. Yeah, at least you said it, and you set yourself towards a path of figuring out how that, oh, I'm not going to, this is not going to make me happy to continue being here.
00:42:50
Speaker
But I mean, I definitely like it was definitely one of those things where like, I mean, Gil was a neat guy, you know, he invited me over to his immediate man just mansion, you know, like his 10 car garage filled with like vintage, like fully restored classic vintage cars.
00:43:10
Speaker
And, you know, he was like a good dude to this random dumbass kid from Florida that he hired on a whim. Yeah. You know, um, Jack was fantastic. Like he was, he was like my nuts and bolts, like dude on the ground. Um, I remember you helped you designed that sticker for me. Yes. Oh, that's right. I did the graphics for you. Yeah.
00:43:33
Speaker
for the Steve Brown graphics. I remember that now. And it was like you pushing the plunger on a bomb. Which you got to dig around on a hard drive and see. I've got to find that somewhere. You've got to find that old vector art and put that on a fucking t-shirt. Oh my gosh. If I can find that, that'd be awesome. Yeah.
00:44:01
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, I, uh, you know, they sent me on warp tour and then at the end of that, like my contract was up. I hung out at home for like a month and just kind of like rode that out. And, uh, while I was sitting at home and doing that, I got my offer letter from Duncan.
00:44:20
Speaker
And that, uh, that definitely seemed like a much better deal at the time, especially since I was all bummed and upset about the, the whole Veriflex thing. And that set me on my path. And the rest is history. And the rest is history.
00:44:42
Speaker
That's such a dumb way to end this podcast episode. I don't think I can fucking abide by that. How about this? Thank you, Gil Senior. Gil Senior passed away a few years back. Oh, that's unfortunate. But thank you, Gil Senior. Thank you, Jack Johnson. Thank you, everybody at Team Losi, who put up with my whiny, unprofessional bullshit at the time, because it really was my first like real
00:45:09
Speaker
fucking demonstrator gig and uh like looking back like that was definitely like the first step in what turned out to be a very long journey for me totally totally man first steps are they're significant fucking wild hey do you like yo-yos and yo-yo accessories
00:45:30
Speaker
then you should probably buy some from YoYoExpert.com. YoYoExpert.com is the place with the tagline, make the simple amazing. I don't know what the fuck that means. I think maybe that means that you can make simple tricks look really dope if you try harder or something like that. I don't know. Do you know, Mark? I mean, let's look at it this way, Steve. If you make the simple amazing,
00:46:00
Speaker
Does it remain simple or is it then the amazing? Are you making the amazing simple? I think that's a really good point, Mark.
00:46:11
Speaker
I don't know what the fuck that means, but I think it sounds profound and I'm willing to bet that at least some of the people, some of the people listening to this podcast will be paying so little attention at this point that they will assume that that was a really deep and serious thought about the high quality yo-yo's and yo-yo accessories that you can purchase from yo-yoexpert.com. Yo-yoexpert.com, make the amazing, amazing-er.
00:46:43
Speaker
you