YO-topia™
Grasslands Road
(A division of Amscan, Inc.)
Territory Manager
(North Florida & South Georgia)
John Stangle
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| Who is YO-topia Toys?
John W. Stangle - Owner - YO-topia Owner:YO-topia™ is a Sole Proprietorship owned by John Stangle started in 1993. Location: YO-topia has been an Award Winning Home Based Business formally located in what is normally refereed to as Beautiful Sonoma County Wine Country, located one hour north on highway 101 from the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. April 14th 2006 YO-topia moved out of the state of California to Clay County, Florida and is no longer actively doing business as YO-topia.The YO-topia Story by John Stangle - Owner:My specialty had always been in Construction, Construction Management and Business Administration. This started at a young age as my Father designed the first Fiberglass Spa in the world and I worked with him both in the office and manufacturing plant and in the field doing installations during that time. I completed my service with the US Navy in 1986 as a United States Navy Corpsman, 2nd Class Petty Officer and was honorably discharged in San Francisco, CA. I then specialized in Commercial Construction Management for General Contractors immediately upon my discharge. I started working for an Award Winning Custom Swimming Pool Manufacturer, then Commercial General Contractor specializing in Tennant Improvements and new Public Works facility's (City, County, Federal and Public Bid Projects) and finally worked in the Metal Building Industry that including both new and refurbishing Residential and Commercial projects of various sizes. At times I would easily manage well over ten construction projects, simultaneously with some of the individual contracts totaling well over 1.5 million dollars. About 1992 the company I worked for closed unexpectedly for personal owner health reasons. 1992-1993 I was in-between jobs and helping out (working) with friends BBQing Willie Birds Turkey at various street festivals. Yes as you can guess with the name we BBQed Turkey. This was not just any Turkey but "Willie Bird's" Turkey! Willie Birds raises their own product and has their own Turkey Store (sausage, ground, smoked, whole, sliced you name it) and their Restaurant, Willie Birds Restaurant in Santa Rosa, California. At the end of a BBQ all the adults would usually gather back at the restaurant (and cocktail lounge) and relax (you could smell the BBQ coming a mile away - he he). Willie Birds kind of became my hang out and one of my favorite places to get a good filing meal at a good price. December 1993: One day when visiting the restaurant I notice John Zimmerman (bartender) was attempting to throw a cool looking wooden YO-YO. I asked him what the heck he was doing? John said he had purchased YO-YO's for all of the other Bartenders for Christmas with a note challenging them to a YO-YO Contest once they practiced. Through Christmas everyone became real interested with some of the tricks the Willie Birds staff were pulling off. Simple one's like Rock the Baby and Around the World (but at that time it seemed like they were pros). My interest grew so I went to the same store John had purchased the gift YO-YO's (it was the only around that had any "good" YO-YO's). That store was the Smothers Brothers Wine Store in Kenwood, California. Wines and wine tasting was on the right side of the shop and straight in were Tommy Smothers as the YO-YO Man items everywhere. Not too many YO-YO's but there was a neat curio cabinet with a few nice wood and metal ones. I selected the Smo-Bro No-Jive Three in one from Tom Kuhn. It was a natural finished wood YO-YO with Tommy Smothers laser carved on one side and Dick Smothers on the other. It came with some extra parts (could not imagine why at that time) and a cool pouch to keep it in. I also got the YO-YO Man video (now no longer in production) to help with some of the tricks (best investment I could have made - other than my Smo-Bro). March 1994: After learning some tricks I revisited Willie Birds Restaurant and started trying to show off. It worked! People loved it and I loved the praise. I was not the only one hooked, other customers started digging out their old YO-YO's and getting their kids involved. Soon the staff only challenge ended up in the 1st Annual West Coast Regional YO-YO Championships right at the restaurant. Now forever hooked on YO-YO's I started out to find other YO-YO contests and events. I started attending the National YO-YO Championships in Chico, California each year and joined the American YO-YO Association (AYYA). I called all kinds of people and by June 1995 held the 2nd Annual West Coast Regional YO-YO Championships. Not only did we get ESPN and most of the local media involved at the event but Tommy Smothers made an appearance as the YO-YO Man and hung out in the State of YO all day. Soon people were calling to hire me to do YO-YO Demonstrations and off I went in a crash course about being a Professional Entertainer and the Toy Business. I started selling YO-YO's from the trunk of my car and then from my office and new computer and web site. Gigs started coming in faster than I could make agreements and sales started booming everywhere I went. In 1993 I started representing Spintastics Skill Toys, Inc.'s line of YO-YO's exclusively in the state of California. My job was to visit the stores, handle their orders and educate the staff. Being new to this I joined the American Specialty Toy Retailers Association (ASTRA) and purchased booth space at the Western States Toy & Hobby Show in Pomona, California to show off the products to buyers from Toy Stores all over the west coast. Boom, now I was a Toy Representative. In 1996 I became a member of the Board of the AYYA and in 1997 the President of the Board of Directors of the American YO-YO Association (AYYA). Also in 1997 I placed First in the Advanced Division of the World YO-YO Championships in Pittsburgh, PA. winning the title of "First Place Advanced Division World YO-YO Champion". I soon became the representative for various toy manufacturers exclusively in California! During the time that YO-topia worked exclusively as a Specialty Toy Sales Representative. Over the years YO-topia had and average of over 350+ "active" Specialty Retail Toy, Kite, YO-YO, School Store, Teacher/Educational Store, Museum and Gift Stores that I serviced in California, exclusively, out of a database of over 1,800 retailers that I called on. I would also display the products I represented at the Pomona Toy Show in March each year and supported the Manufacturers Booths at the New York International Toy Fair in February of each year. In 2000 YO-topia was voted Home Based Businesses of the Year in Sonoma County, California and has been featured in articles from the San Francisco Chronicle, the Examiner and many other award winning periodicals about their success in the toy industry throughout the country and world. In April of 2006 YO-topia™ closed their California offices and relocated to Clay County Florida. In August of 2006 John Stangle was hired by Ty Inc. to act as their exclusive Account Executive for the North East Florida territory. This only lasted a few months when I resigned my position with them. In February 2007 I began working for Grasslands Road (the gift division of Amscan, Inc) at Territory Manager of North Florida and South Georgia and continue to do so today. John Stangle - Owner - YO-topia Please note: I have been using the name YO-topia
since 1995, filed for my Trademark 1998 and granted that Trademark in 1999.
You can see this at the United States Patent and Trademark
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