Solaris

Say hello to the Solaris – the aluminum reimagination of our flagship titanium model, the Polaris.

SPECS
Diameter 55.1mm
Width 48.9mm
Weight 66.8g
Material 6061 al

In January, we released the Polaris – a new flagship titanium model that was designed to optimize for fluid power, a specific type of playfeel that combines agility and smooth motion, with enough stability and power for any modern trickset. In other words, a model that had everything on spin power and stability that you could want, but was still amenable to a player’s touch and control.

The result of the Polaris was a model that had a very, very comfortable heft – and as subjective and controversial as the term is, the Polaris plays somewhat floaty despite its weight. The Polaris quickly became an internal favorite – and while there’s some obvious and natural bias there, if we had to restart our entire Weatherman Design Line from scratch, the one model we’d keep as our brand cornerstone would actually be the Polaris.

By virtue of the experimental nature of the Weatherman Line, many of the designs that sit under that umbrella naturally fit the category of one-and-dones – the Khuno is a perfect example of that. It was a valuable proof of concept as the world’s first Side Effects-enabled bimetal – as a case study in weight distribution, it showed modular adjustment of mass could yield interesting and educational results for those that tinker. But beyond that, we were unconvinced that the model needed to live on in a sustained way.

Quite conversely, the Polaris does not sit within that category. After the Polaris was released to the general public, the conversation quickly evolved into reimagining its essential features into an aluminum counterpart that could exist as a mainstay in our design lineup – an accessible, simplified design that best represented Atmos’ design ethos and philosophies – perhaps what the newly released Butterball has been to our body of work in the organic space.

We set off to work, using the Polaris as our keystone, and sketched out a draft of our first prototype. The most immediate physical changes are a +0.9mm increase in width, a +0.2mm increase in diameter, and a reduction of mass by 0.7g. The thought here was to decrease overall mass while redistributing the balance across a larger form factor, which would lead to lighter, more powerful play. Something really valuable we’ve learned by working on projects such as the Ekta, Cloudberry and Polaris is using diameter and width adjustments as an effective substitute for mass – and by consequence, how to make heavier yoyos play a lot lighter than their numbers would suggest.

The Ekta sits at 67.3g on paper, but it feels more like a 65-66g design in play; the same could be said of the Polaris. The gap between measured specification and a player’s experience is the space we have enjoying operating in, and is where a lot of the magic happens.

The first prototype we made turned out to be about 75% of what we were hoping and expecting it to be. The Solaris felt nice, full and comfortable in the hand, and the subtle cuts and minimalist lines came out really nicely. It doesn’t feel indulgently large – the 48.9mm in width feels very natural and proportionate to its form factor.

Playwise, however, it felt slightly lacking – even in conversations with the team, it was difficult to really put a finger on what was missing. It’s in moments like this that we hard work to find the vocabulary for experience – and it was particularly difficult to do here. It had a certain hollowness to its play, and just felt very middle of the road. For many of its good traits – such as power and stability – it lacked the same fullness in playfeel that was embodied by the Polaris.

When it comes to prototypes like these, that sit in the 75%-90% zone of completeness, the most essential tweaks are almost always under-the-hood. They don’t lie in diameter and width adjustments – what helps the most is a light touch.

We went into our CAD archives and pulled out various blueprints, and studied alterations in weight distribution we’ve made through quite nearly a hundred prototyping rounds in the past – and finally zoned in on a specific fix via mass redistribution, while keeping overall mass unchanged. We also threw in a few more quality-of-life adjustments, such as rounding off the angle close to the response step, which ensures a smoother play experience, and softened a few lines across the silhouette of the body.

With the Solaris, you feel its weight on initial throw – but once it gets into motion, it feels a lot more like a 64-65g design – it runs across your string with ease.

This is entirely subjective, of course, but beyond the Polaris as a design reference – we personally feel the Solaris shares some qualities with the Cloudberry. It has a fullness about it – it doesn’t feel overly airy or frail – it has some genuine punch. It’s powerful and spins for days, and you really feel this when it returns to hand… We’re always surprised by how much spin there is left even after a longer, technical trick.

It takes after the Polaris in playfeel entirely. It’s a stretch to say it plays light, but it has a really easy and amenable cadence and rhythm. While it has all the technical capability you could ask for, we suspect this might most appeal to rhythmic, flow-centric playstyles.

The name Solaris pays homage not only to Polaris, which is its design forebear, but also the Weatherman Line. It etymologically references the sun – a large, floating body of great gravity – and keeps with our tradition of using natural terminology under the Weatherman umbrella. On a lighter note, we’ll eventually run out of names that have “ari” embedded in them – but today is not that day.

The Solaris is part of our effort at Atmos Projects to develop simplified, minimalist flagships in our design lines. The first of that initiative is the Butterball – which was released a few months ago, and is likely the best received organic we’ve released – and we’ve put forth quite a number.

The Solaris serves that same purpose for our W-shaped models, and we can’t wait to hear what you think.

–

the solaris is equipped with premier kit in

stratos pads by atmos
type ii concave bearings by atmos
first class xl string by kitty
atmos carry pouch

·

october 2024

·