The City of Chandler is renowned for many reasons—it's home to the annual Ostrich Festival, it's won the “Most Playful City USA” award 11 times, it has a whopping 67 parks ... and it's home to the nation's largest yoyo factory.
In 2003, Hans Van Dan Elzen opened the YoYoFactory with Ben McPhee, a friend he met when he saw him yoyo-ing on a beach in Australia.
“We chose to open the factory in the area because there had been a huge yoyo culture here in the '90s,” Van Dan Elzen says. “And I just wanted to make a better yoyo.”
Van Dan Elzen was born and raised in Michigan and moved to Arizona 27 years ago. He started yoyo-ing when he was 15 years old, and hasn't stopped since. In fact, he holds a world record for most yoyo tricks performed in a minute—a whopping 51!
“A friend of mine had a yoyo and I found I had a natural knack for it,” he said. “I'm not particularly good at sports, but for some reason, I just picked it up easily.”
Today the YoYoFactory is one of the biggest producers of yoyos in the world, it sponsors several yoyo competitions, and employs the top yoyo champions in the world as ambassadors for its products.
“Our ambassadors are social media stars and they are incredible, very skilled,” Van Dan Elzen says. “They get to travel the world getting paid to play and compete with our yoyos.”
Every year, the YoYoFactory sponsors and hosts the U.S. National Yo-Yo Contest held in Mesa. The event is one of the biggest of its kind in the U.S. and brings in participants from all over the country to compete.
“The factory has really become a destination for visitors,” Van Dan Elzen says. “It's a great place to visit, shop for yoyos, and even learn how to use them and do tricks.”
Every Friday afternoon, the YoYoFactory offers free yoyo lessons taught by a yoyo champion and expert.
Yoyos were invented in ancient Greece around 500 B.C. It was introduced to the Philippines in the 1600s by the Spanish. The Filipinos introduced the modern yoyo to the USA in 1916.
The toy did have an upswing in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic, but according to Van Dan Elzen, the world sees a yoyo craze about every 30 years.
“I love that ah-ha moment that yoyos give you when it finally clicks and you feel like you've mastered or accomplished something," Van Dan Elzen says. "I get to share that moment with both kids and adults every day.”
YoYoFactory yoyos can be found at Hobby Lobby or at the factory store. There are dozens of different models of yoyos, and they range in price from $5-$450.