From CLYW: Our latest return top is a love-letter to the early days of CLYW. A reminder to ourselves that sometimes it’s ok to take that weird, hilarious idea and just run with it.

During a brainstorming session in December 2018, we started talking about classic CLYW designs that we still loved and what ideas and features we wanted to bring back and update. As always, our conversation turned to the Chief. What could we do to update the Chief and make it new again? How could we take that same unique look and feel and mix in some more modern and unique design elements….Chris was on a mission.

We started with what we knew and loved. The classic Chief profile is ever so present in this new design. We knew we wanted to make this play faster and zip in and out of tight tricks with ease. By reducing the diameter just a little and slightly narrowing the rims a hair everything we loved is intact but just more nimble. Then we started talking about weight distribution. What would that classic CLYW double-rim design look like nearly 10 years later? And that was the magical moment Chris did what Chris does, and it was simply brilliant.

As you will see the ‘soul’ of the Chief special rim design is still there but just hidden ever slightly out of reach and just on the inside. A true inverted Chief.

One look at the finished CAD and we were so excited that we couldn’t wait to get these made. We talked about names and immediately the unique quality of the Bear Trap prototypes popped into mind. Two pieces of CLYW history realized in design form together in one magical update, and here we are.

We are beyond proud of what this new return top has achieved and cannot wait to get it into your hands. It’s weird, fun, and it’s forward thinking while giving a solid high-five to the past.