Noma.

We’re proud to announce the final release of 2024, and the first of our Artist Edition line – the Noma., an ultralight organic designed for featherweight, floaty fun.

Designed by Tsukasa takatsu and Atmos Projects, and powered by One Drop.

SPECS
Diameter 52.6mm
Width 46.1mm
Weight 59.5g
Material 7068 al

In October 2023, an idea surfaced in the Atmos group chat about the possibility of working with players and designers in co-creating designs that embodied a unique player or design philosophy – an Artist Edition, of sorts – similar to how some Japanese clothing brands work with artists in developing signature capsules and releases. Multiple exciting names and brands came up in that conversation, but the consensus revolved the most emphatically around Tsukasa Takatsu.

If you don’t know already, Tsukasa Takatsu is a legendary player hailing from Japan, the father of the #thingsthatrepeat trick movement, and is known for his effortlessly creative and intelligent repeater-style tricks that have inspired an entire genre of play. It’s difficult to overstate his impact on modern yoyo culture. Tsukasa is also a tenured member of the One Drop player team, and has produced two signature yoyos with them – the incredibly popular and successful Panorama and Diorama. 

We reached out to Tsukasa – and we were incredibly glad that Tsukasa was as excited to do something together as we were. One Drop also very graciously gave their blessings on this project, which we were incredibly grateful for.

The conversation went quickly towards developing a design concept that would anchor the project. Tsukasa has long enjoyed our organic designs – especially the Noah, Abel and Cephas, and asked to base his design off the Noah, mostly – but melding it with inspirations from a long list of his other favourite yoyos, such as the Wooly Marmot by Caribou Lodge, the 2007 888 by Yoyofactory, the Fern by A-RT, and the Hitman Pro by YoyoJam. We began with an initial specifications ballpark of 50mm-diameter, 42mm-width, and 60g-mass. Tsukasa also requested that the design be Side Effects-compatible – and to be shipped with Aluminum Ultra Lights, his favourite type of SEs.

Our initial reaction to these specs were that this design was turning out to be a lot smaller and lighter than we’ve ever been comfortable with. Our smallest design at that point was the Goji, which came in at 52.5mm, and we had never gone lighter than 61.3g (the Pomelo). For the past few years, we had also been trending towards heavier designs, transitioning away from the ultralight, floaty organic design mold that had been the essence of our early years. At the same time, this felt like the most natural request. The Panorama and Diorama were surprisingly slight and light in play – a perfect match for Tsukasa’s gentle, incredibly controlled style. And for us, it was going back to something incredibly familiar.

We drafted up a first prototype that was north of 52mm in diameter, 46mm in width, and 60.5g in its lightest form. For the most part, we were able to translate the Noah’s weight distribution to the prototype, all while scaling down its size. To begin with, the Noah is an evenly-weighted design – with most of its mass spread out in the center-and-midweight sections. To reduce width overall, we asked Tsukasa if he would prefer us remove the Schmoove-step that is a characteristic feature of the Noah, and go with a wall design more akin to the Butterball – but Tsukasa insisted it remained. These prototypes were sent promptly to Tsukasa for testing. His feedback was that they had “great impressive feel, and very comfortable”, but also felt still  “a little heavy”, by about 1-2g. The spin power was also a little “too strong”, and asked if it could be “powered down”. Tsukasa felt the weight distribution and dimensional proportions were perfect, but wanted something scaled down slightly – in other words, to keep its balance and feel, but go even lighter and gentler.

This feedback was perfect. It’s always incredibly helpful when a player’s tastes are refined and genuinely opinionated – it provides so much clarity of where to go. The further we iterated and heard feedback from Tsukasa, the more clear it became where this design was headed.

During the design process, a comparison to ultralight fishing surfaced, and feels fitting here to describe light play – it’s one thing to go big game hunting, where heavy-duty, high-poundage gear, adrenaline, and physical strength and skill are the focus. Ultralight fishing feels entirely different – the experience is focussed on finesse and precision, technique, and the fact you feel everything – every single turn and twist.

The second prototype was nearly 2g lighter overall, and was designed to have a little less rotational force than its first version. We kept the diameter at 52.6mm to preserve its dimensional proportions, and 7068-AL was also used to make core design parameters achievable. The Schmoove-step was preserved, but slightly altered for smoothness and ease in play. The outcome of these changes were that the prototype played like a baby-sized Noah with its lightness and sensitivity dials turned all the way up. It played floaty, ultralight, and gentle – like a natural extension of the string. 

It feels like a little cloud on a string. 

If you’ve ever had the chance to throw a Panorama or Diorama, you would feel Tsukasa’s tastes and preferences similarly imbued in this one – which, to us, is a perfect reflection of the Artist Edition line, which sole purpose is to spotlight a specific player’s signature feel and play.

The design changes landed perfectly with Tsukasa – he was extremely pleased with the way it played, preferred it heavily over the first prototype, and felt it perfectly fit what he had in mind.

That was all we needed to hear.

Here’s Tsukasa playing a Noma. – if you’ve not read anything up to this point, take three minutes to watch this goodness.

Noma. (々) is a symbol that linguistically functions in Kanji as a repeater – and comes from a simplified form of the character 仝, a version of “same” – which is a perfect homage to Tsukasa’s playstyle, philosophy, and legacy.

The Noma. is not built for the speed player with high-click aspirations, but the type that finds joy in subtlety, finesse, and fine control.

Come enjoy the Noma.

–

the noma. is equipped with premier kit in

aluminum ultra light side effects by one drop
stratos pads by atmos
type ii concave bearings by atmos
first class xl string by kitty
atmos carry pouch

·

december 2024

·