Pedro E. Flores and the Modern Yo-Yo

The yo-yo is considered to be the 2nd oldest toy in history next to the doll. Its origins date as far back 2500 years ago in Ancient Greece and Egypt. During that time the yo-yo was made with either wood, metal or porcelain. Modern versions of it are made with plastic and other materials that can appeal to customers. There have even been studies that claim that early filipinos used the yo-yo as weapon. It was designed much bigger than the yo-yo we are accustomed to today with sharp edges and studs attached to a thick rope. It’s also because of a filipino that the yo-yo became a craze worldwide and that filipino’s name is Pedro Edralin Flores.

Pedro Flores was born in Vintar, Ilocos Norte, Philippines on April 26, 1896. He later immigrated to the United States of America at 1915. He went to law school but then dropped out. Pedro Flores found himself completing odd jobs one of them being a bellboy. While a bellboy, he read an article about a millionaire who made money out of a ball attached to a rubber band. He then remembered about the bandalore (the former popular name for the yo-yo) and how it was popular in the Philippines as past time. He capitalised on the idea and that’s how the yo-yo came to the market.

Pedro Flores started his Yo-Yo Manufacturing Company on 1928. Flores did 3 important things for the yo-yo. First he named the toy yo-yo. This made it easier to market the toy because of the catchy name it has and it’s true to Pedro Flores’s roots to the Philippines. Yo-yo in Filipino means “come back” and that is what it is called in the Philippines. Second, the string of the yo-yo looped around the axle instead of it simply being attached or tied to the axle. This gave the yo-yo the ability to spin at the end of the string which revolutionised how it was played with. Lastly, Pedro Flores introduced the yo-yo contest which became an absolute craze at that time.

The craze for the yo-yo heightened due to the competitions surrounding it. The hype was so high that in 1929, Popular Mechanics published an article on how to make a Filipino yo-yo. It eventually caught the eye of entrepreneur Donald F. Duncan. He bought the company from Flores for $250,000 and this made the yo-yo even more popular. When asked why Pedro Flores decided to sell his company he clearly stated, “I am more interested in teaching children to use the yo-yos than I am in manufacturing of yo-yos.” Flores then became one of the key promoters for Duncan’s company staying true to his word.

This just goes to show what we can accomplish if we put our minds to it. Pedro Flores’s legacy will live on to this day. The yo-yo has truly impacted the world because of it’s simplicity and ingenuity. Truly, Pedro Edralin Flores will forever be known as the “Father of the Modern Yo-Yo”.

SOURCES: 

Meisenhemier, Lucky J. Lucky's Collectors Guide to 20th Century Yo-Yos: History and Values. April 1999. March 9, 2014

Bellis, Mary. The History of the Yo-Yo. http://inventors.about.com/od/xyzstartinventions/a/yoyo.htm. March 9, 2014

Bellis, Mary. Pedro Flores. http://inventors.about.com/od/hispanicinventors/a/Pedro_Flores.htm. March 9, 2014

http://www.yoyowiki.org/wiki/Pedro_Flores. March 9, 2014