Dylan is an amazing yo-yo player and former State Champion in both Wisconsin and Illinois. He throws down in Crystal Lake IL, not only as a MagicYoYo sponsored player, but as an MMA trainer too!


I've been following Dylan’s YouTube channel, pretty much as long as I've been throwing around a yo-yo. I stumbled upon his channel quite easily, searching for a review/unboxing on a yo-yo that I was interested in checking out before I spent the cash on it. Just type in the name of a popular yo-yo + the word "review" in a YouTube search engine, and see how many times Dylan's name pops up - it's crazy!


Dylan also does unboxings, reviews, and tutorials on all sorts of other crazy stuff; MMA training, home made fidget toys, how to spike a mowhawk in one minute, how to carve a turkey like a boss, how to make begleris, how to make yo-yo strings, how to anodize stuff, and the list goes on and on. This dude goes crazy producing content for his channel - no wonder why he has over 76k subscribers. That's INSANE!!!


We will be ever grateful for Dylan's contribution to the rapid growth of ZipLine Strings. His unboxings and reviews of our product has reached thousands of more views than we ever would have without his enthusiastic participation. His input on his awesome colorways have been gaining a ton of traction and they look and perform incredibly. There’s been a crazy number of people that have been lining up to buy his signature strings :)

If your world is on a string, that string better last.

Our first collaboration effort was to create custom colorways for a handful of our favorite YouTubers. So far, we have 4 contributors, whom we love and fully Support.


•     TokYo-Yo (Bushido Baby • Notorious Ninja)

•     Throws N' Brews (Hulkenstein • Tainted Love)

•     Dylan Kowalski (Bubble Vicious • Bazooka Blue)

•     Sam Hicks (Highlighter • Sedona Sunrise)


This all started with our relationship with Thomas Velto; he reached out to us to create a couple of his own custom colors, which led to the idea of collaborating with a few other YouTubers, which we also follow and support.

FRIENDS & COLLABORATORS

Tom is an all-around amazing guy, and has been throwing around and collecting yo-yos since the nineties. His channel, Throws N' Brews, is jam-packed with a plethora of great reviews and unboxings on just about every cool yo-yo out there. If you need info on a throw before you take the plunge on a purchase, chances are that Tom's channel's got it covered. If not, there will be something close enough to it, to help you make a sound decision before you take a chance on something you're unfamiliar with. Tom also plays guitar like a "Banshee" (intended yo-yo pun), which you'll get to see, from time to time, if you're subscribed to his channel.


If it weren't for Tom, I'm not sure if this collaboration would even exist. We had a couple of conversations during the initial creation of his first two signature colorways, and he recommended that we reach out to Sam Hicks, Dylan Kowalski, Michael Montgomery, and some others. Surprisingly enough, I had already been subscribed to each of their channels and followed them pretty regularly. Upon browsing through the back catalog of each of their videos, I noticed that Dylan, Sam, and Tom had already been collaborating together - helping to promote each others channels and directing traffic to one another. I was intrigued by their camaraderie and support for each others channels, and I was drawn into the idea.


After giving it some more thought, and discussing it further with Tom, I decided to reach out to Dylan and Sam. I asked if they'd be interested to check out our strings, and if they liked them, I'd be very interested in a collaborating with them as well.


Tom has been an amazing friend to us, and his enthusiasm for our strings is quite contagious. One of the things that drew me into the Throws N' Brews channel was Tom's honest thoughts on things that even go beyond yo-yo reviews; thoughts on yo-yo as therapy; thoughts on using yo-yo to combat anxiety, etc. I also love that he continually expresses the importance of growing the yo-yo community, and that he reaches out to his subscribers for their thoughts and ideas on this topic.


Tom has been very instrumental in the launch of ZipLine Strings and his continued support on YouTube has really helped grow this business from a humble idea to a what it is today. I can't thank him enough for all that he's been doing to help us move this thing forward.

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Throws N' Brews (Thomas Velto)

• Hulkenstein • Tainted Love •

Dylan Kowalski

• Bubble Vicious • Bazooka Blue •

Sam Hicks

• Highlighter • Sedona Sunrise •

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Sam Hicks puts out some top-notch yo-yo tutorials on YouTube, and I've personally learned a good handful of tricks after having subscribed to his channel. One thing that I really love about Sam is that there's a certain charm about his channel that I can't quite put my finger on. Perhaps it's the mystery behind why you never see Sam's face on camera, and the fact that he always uses the coolest, yet somewhat eerie beat-driven music for his tutorials. I love that fact that he leaves out all the fluff and gets strait to the point of why we're here. The tutorials are lead by hand gestures and on-screen captions that move you through the tricks efficiently and quite comprehensively. I can't say enough good things about this :)


Collaborating with Sam has been really great, as he's a logical thinker, he has great ideas, and he knows how to execute. Sam knew how I felt about neon yellow strings (not that I don't like them), but he insisted that this is something that people will want, and that it's pretty much the only color he plans to use on his videos. Although he was pretty keen on an all yellow string, he was still cool with my idea to integrate the ZipLine core thread recipe, and so we were able to sneak the right amount of white threads into the mix, which also made me very happy. The end result is that *Highlighter* turned out to be one of our highest performing strings, right up there with *Antifreez*. What's more? It's became one of our highest anticipated string releases. I'm not kidding - so many people have been banging at our door about this one! What can I say? I think we hit a home run with Sam on this one :)


Sam also suggested that with the popularity of sunset fades, we should do an orange/purple blend. I have to say, I probably spent more time on this string than any other string we've made. Finding the right orange, purple, and light purple that not only looked good, but also performed up to our standards was quite a challenge. After about a month of trying different things, we ended up with a winner. Looks great and performs right alongside our *Slushy Edition* strings, following a near identical formula.


We've been seeing some great ZipLine Strings unboxings from Sam, and we have so much gratitude for what he's been doing to help grow our company! I'm excited to see where we'll be going from here :)

Since the very first yoyo review I watched by Tokyo-yo, I just knew T had something very special and that I should be keeping a close eye on him. From his thoughtful opinions, to the way he edits his videos, to the music he composes, I can really feel the and effort he puts into his channel. T's approach to filming/editing, and organizing/presenting his opinions about yoyos and yoyo related products is very high-end and captivating; not only in an informative sense, but you can definitely feel his heart and passion as well.


I had been conversing with T, here and there, while we were both quite fresh in the community, but I always admired his opinions and his approach to his channel. To my surprise, T contacted me one day about the idea of possiblily collaborating together in the future, and perhaps release a red and white string (to represent the Tokyo-yo colors.) ZipLine and Tokyo-yo were both quite swamped at the time, so we agreed to revisit the idea when we were each in a better place. However, after a very short amount of time had passed, I couldn't let the idea sleep any longer; not matter how busy we were, I was going to make some time to produce a care package and put together Tokyo-yo's very first signature string (inviting him onto the team.) You can see the unboxing video here: (click)


We're also excited to mention that T is now collaborating with international yoyo retailer, Yo-Yo Store Rewind; you can see him reivew their products here: (click)


I honestly believe that the sky is the limit for T. He'll be able to take Tokyo-yo as far as he's willing to take it, and it'll be as huge as anything else in the community can get! It's just a matter of time ;) ZipLine and myself are so proud to be working with T, and we're excited to see what the future holds for this collaboration!



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TokYo-Yo (T)

• Bushido Baby • Notorious Ninja •