Mt2 — METAL: Jeffrey Pang's Adult Toys

OSAKA | “A lot of my customers, like 70%, are actually adults, like working professional adults.”

WORDS BY NICOLAS HOLT

Jeffrey Pang

Here’s a thought experiment. I’m going to tell you two things about a design object, and you must imagine what that object is. The first thing: it was fabricated with titanium. This is one of the most durable metals found on Earth and routinely used in the construction of aeroplanes, satellites, and underwater submersibles. The second thing: it was “engineered around the principle of pushing the limits of material properties to enhance” its functions. This is a design ethos oriented towards maximising what an object can do by getting the most out of what it’s made from─and remember, it’s made from titanium. Now, what object are you imagining?

Components by Luftverk

Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t a yoyo. And if it was a yoyo, you’re probably Jeffrey Pang. Pang is the founder of Luftverk, a yoyo company that fuses dedicated design, high-end materials, and precision engineering to craft objects of a quality most wouldn’t expect from, well, yoyos. Perhaps that expectation owes to the perceived simplicity of the ancient toy — proof of its existence dates to 500 BCE — which is basically just string tied to an axle that’s situated between two discs. But when you hear Pang discuss his work, you realise that this simplicity belies a profound physical complexity, one of rotational inertia and gyroscopic stability that could be undone by the slightest defect in material or design. And those defects, or their absence, are intimately felt. It is, after all, the tactility of the yoyo experience that drew Pang to it.

Components by Luftverk

Beginning his career as a web designer and working long hours before a glowing screen, Pang found yoyoing as a way of centering himself with something tangible, something that shifted attention towards the present moment. He’s learned that, especially since the pandemic, his customers long for this tactility as well. It’s almost as if watching the object unwind helps you do the same. So, while Luftverk’s yoyos could probably survive a trip to outer space, all the precision of their design and strength of their materials leads back to a surprisingly grounding experience.