Pedro Edralin Flores (26 April 1896 – 3 January 1964)
was a Filipino businessman and yo-yo maker who has been credited with popularizing
yo-yos in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. He patented an innovation to yo-yos that used a loop instead of a knot around the axle, allowing for new tricks such as the ability to "sleep."
Early history
Pedro Flores was born in
Vintar, Ilocos Norte
Vintar, officially the Municipality of Vintar ( ilo, Ili ti Vintar; tgl, Bayan ng Vintar), is a 1st class municipality of the Philippines, municipality in the Philippine Province, province of Ilocos Norte, Philippines. According to the 2020 cens ...
,
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
and came to the United States in 1915. He attended the High School of Commerce in San Francisco 1919-1920 and subsequently studied law at
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
and the
Hastings College of Law
The University of California, Hastings College of the Law (UC Hastings) is a public law school in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1878 by Serranus Clinton Hastings, UC Hastings was the first law school of the University of California as ...
in San Francisco. Flores dropped out of school and moved to
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coas ...
where he worked at odd jobs to make a living.
While working as a bellboy, Flores read an article about a self-made millionaire who made his money by selling a ball attached to a rubber band. At this point he remembered the yo-yo (previously known as the bandalore), a game which has been played for hundreds of years in the Philippines. Bringing it all together, Flores saw a good market opportunity in the US, and the ability to go into business for
himself.
Flores Yo-yos
Between 1928 and 1932, Flores started and ran the ''Yo-yo Manufacturing Company'' in Santa Barbara before selling the company and trademark to Duncan who continued to market and sell Flores yo-yos alongside the Duncan line.
Flores initially made yo-yos for neighborhood children by hand, but soon started buying machinery to produce them more quickly. Approximately a year after Flores opened his yo-yo business, his company was selling 300,000 yo-yos annually.
Flores has been credited with popularizing the yo-yo in the U.S.,
but he never claimed to have invented the yo-yo. Yo-yos were introduced to the Philippines in the 1800s. The word "yóyo" was a
Tagalog word that means "come and go"
or "come back."
Flores is sometimes referred to as the original
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
holder of the yo-yo. Although he didn't patent the first yo-yo in the U.S., his patent included the
Filipino
Filipino may refer to:
* Something from or related to the Philippines
** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines.
** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...
innovation
of using a loop instead of a knot around the axle. This is known as an "unresponsive yo-yo" and allows for additional tricks such as the ability to "sleep."
The ability to do tricks was one of the main selling points for Flores' yo-yos, and he created some of the first yo-yo trick competitions.
Other types of yo-yos (Bandalores) had already been patented prior to the company's existence.
Flores stayed involved with yo-yos most of his life. He founded a yo-yo manufacturing company in Santa Barbara, California, in 1928, founded the Flores Corporation in Hollywood (6301 Sunset Blvd.) and cofounded Flores and Stone in Los Angeles (1938 Hyperion Ave. in Silver Lake) c. 1929. In the 1930s, he promoted yo-yo contests along with Duncan. He cofounded the Chico yo-yo company in 1950 and founded the Flores Corporation of America in 1954.
Duncan
Between 1930 and 1932, Flores sold his interest in his yo-yo manufacturing companies for greater than $750,000, to
Donald F. Duncan Sr.
: ''This is about the American manufacturer. For others, see Donald Duncan (disambiguation).''
Donald Franklin Duncan Sr. (June 6, 1892 – May 15, 1971) was an American entrepreneur and inventor, and founder of the Duncan Toys Company. He is ...
,
which during the depression of the 1930s was a fortune. On this transaction Flores was quoted saying ''"I am more interested in teaching children to use the yo-yos than I am in manufacturing of yo-yos."''
Taking his own words to heart, he became one of the key promoters in Duncan's early yo-yo campaigns. During 1931-1932, Flores was instrumental in setting up a large number of the promotions in the cities where the early Duncan contests were being held. In relation to his contests run just two years earlier with his Yo-yo Manufacturing Company, the new Duncan contests were vastly different. These contests now required a series of tricks similar to modern day contests with ties being broken by the number of loop the loops completed.
References
Sources
*Meisenheimer, Lucky J. (1999)
''Lucky's Collectors Guide to 20th Century Yo-Yos: History and Values'' Orlando, Fl.: Lucky J's Swim & Surf, Inc.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flores, Pedro
1896 births
1963 deaths
Filipino emigrants to the United States
Filipino inventors
University of California, Hastings College of the Law alumni
People from Ilocos Norte
Ilocano people
20th-century American inventors