I'm currently listening to the dama nerds podcast , and in the description , says latvian dama wars. Does the latvian kendama scene only use one brand of kendamas?
From what I remember of the episode, it sounded very brand vs brand in that there’s a group of players who rep say, KUSA, and another group who reps Sweets and they butt heads. Cant say for certain since I’ve never been but that seemed to be the gist of Jake’s summary
Notwithstanding the already-popular influence KROM and ISR have in Europe, I first saw Sweets discover the Latvian hype train on Instagram. KUSA got on it a bit later. Feels like the beginnings of another Kendama boom, like Romania, Hawaii, and Singapore were. Hope it doesn't go bust.
I hope it's just friendly competition lol. Beef in a kendama community is stupid, especially because of trivial things like what brand you rep.
I would listen to the episode, but from what I recall and I could be wrong, it is far from ‘friendly’ it is legit ‘you cant hang with us if you arent playing the same kendama brand as we are’
I've heard some stories... it definitely sounds kinda wild. It would be funny, if it wasn't kinda sad. The players and owners of the brands involved are all friends, but in Latvia, the impression is that its one brand vs another. Definitely not how I would want my brand repped!
Regarding the Latvian Dama Wars (sounds like an awesome dama event name btw), I think it's enforced by the fact that KUSA and Sweets don't show up at the same events. I might be wrong but it seems that the Sweets and KUSA reps are always invited to different events, probably organized separately by those two opposing groups.
From what I've seen, its not actually a KUSA vs Sweets brand thing, but then, I haven't actually been to Latvia to see it for myself yet. Otherwise I think you're right, a couple of shops / distributors over there seem to have created a culture of one brand vs the other. Like I said, its pretty funny really. Almost all of the kendama companies are quite friendly with eachother. Its like they're fighting a war that doesn't actually exist lol
In my defense, those were just the two brands I used as an example. I’m not entirely sure myself if it is them either, definitely do not want to spread rumors. My bad.
this is what is happening in there... adults encouraging little children to fight each other so they could milk more money out of our culture.... it's all calculated and cordinated by adults while I've never seen community as young as it is in latvia.. in some point you got discounts from the shops if you brought in a competitors dama and destroyed it in front of the stuff and other kids etc.. That shit is terrible and by any means not welcome in our community and the brands should make that clear to those they give right to represent them.
That is a shame. I agree that any brands that are being used in this situation should make clear that this is something they would not tolerate.
Oohf, yea, thats not good. No sense in encouraging the needless destruction of one brand's product, just to get a deal on some other brand. The kendama industry is too small to have that sorta stuff going on, its not sustainable
in that case you’ve been listening to a lot of children. not gonna go into detail cause this is pretty irrelevant these days, but kids are always gonna pick sides when it comes to things like these (as far as I know its pretty common everywhere and with everything lol) and come up with “stupid shit” to fight over. all the super toxic “players” are long gone and we have a dope ass scene , besides some “misplaced” people.
Do you work for any of the shops or brands there? tbh, I've seen a lot of kendama scenes come and go, and sometimes funny things happen (like in Hawaii, kids would always play DAMA for keeps, which caused a bunch of trouble in schools lol), but some of the stuff that has happened in Latvia is kind of on a different level. You can say it was 'just kids', but from what I've heard from very reliable sources, that is far from the truth. I hope its settled down-- like I said before, the brands involved are all friends (team members, owners, etc), the rivalries were manufactured, just to sell more damas I guess.
I think by the name and sig that that may Be Roach of KeKe kendamas who reps for Sweets and has his own mod out with them now.. in my opinion the term “kids” gets thrown out and isn’t suggestive of a specific age group.. I’m 37 and still here older people refer to me as that “ kid over there playing with that ball and cup “ Hopefully the drama sizzles out, no real need for it, but as Roach said people, kids, adults whatevs usually tend to pick a company and stick with it or pick a company and fully not support it. I know guys that play and say they won’t play a Sweets Kendama simply because they think they’re over hyped.. and get too much business as is..?!? Unless you work there and know the full ins-and/outs how do you know how much business is too much!? They’re supporting employees, pros, and themselves by also helping us by them making fun good Damas