WHO WE ARE
Although there are countless people whose hard work and dedication come together in every Tom Kuhn Custom Yo-Yo, the driving force behind our company comes from two men:
Tom Kuhn resides in San Francisco, where he conducts his long-established dental practice. As a child, he won the local Duncan yo-yo contest in his Detroit neighborhood. As an adult, he received the gift of a beautiful rosewood yo-yo…that broke and fell apart in a few hours! With this, he set out on the quest for the “perfect yo-yo.” The year was 1976 and marked the start of a new beginning for yo-yo design and technology. Tom’s passion and joie de vivre have inspired for over three decades; he continues to serve as the creative and philosophical “center” around which this company spins!
Brad Countryman lives in Maine, among the hardwood forests of New England. Part artist, part scientist, Brad oversees the production of Tom Kuhn Custom Yo-Yos and is constantly pushing the limits of wood (with its inherent inconsistencies), reaching new levels of precision, balance, and aesthetics. He has over three decades of experience producing wooden toys including Fisher Price/ Toy Town Collectibles, Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends Wooden Railway, Little Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Play System, to name a few. Combined with his status as a master craftsman (his handmade wooden carousel horses and other projects have been featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Lemelson Center, Smithsonian Museum, Burchfield Center and Albright-Knox Art Gallery), Brad is the world’s undisputed authority on the manufacture of wooden and mixed media yo-yos.
What We Care About
Quality and Design: Tom Kuhn Yo-Yos are renowned for their innovative and aesthetically pleasing designs. Nothing is quite like a Tom Kuhn Yo-Yo. Every Tom Kuhn Yo-Yo is manufactured and hand assembled in the USA, then tested for quality and tuned for performance. We build our yo-yos to last and provide a lifetime of fun. We proudly and unconditionally guarantee customer satisfaction.
People: Why yo-yo? It is a great cure for boredom, but so are many things. Indeed, the modern world is full of things to occupy our time. Many of these modern diversions have a dissociating effect on the user, leaving them in a state of isolation behind the invisible wall of handheld games and music players. Yo-yos, rather, are intriguing to other people (and pets as well!). Playing with a yo-yo in public not only makes a light-hearted, carefree statement, it invites others into your world as they marvel at your incredible tricks and recall their own personal experience with this universal toy.
The Planet: Tom Kuhn Custom Yo-Yos is proud of its commitment to the environment. Our raw materials are sourced from mills with FSC certified hardwood. FSC (The Forest Stewardship Council) has the highest environmental standard for forest management of any certification system in the world. FSC supports healthy forests and healthy communities. Our metals are RoHS compliant, with over 85% produced in the USA.
Holding, playing, and admiring a wooden yo-yo can serve as a reminder of our responsibility to the living things of our planet, the source of everything! To be sure, we are not hopeless idealists but we do recognize that little things can have great impact (just like a yo-yo!). Yo-yo play won’t change the world, but it is definitely compatible with a more environmentally responsible future. Portable, electricity-free, and long-lasting… yo-yos provide the perfect alternative to video games, which devour energy before being discarded after a few weeks or months. We encourage people to exchange their virtual reality for actual reality…
∼Happy Yoing∼
