A History of Poi Tethers

Many sets of poi, especially contact poi, are constructed explicitly to be able to swap out for different tethers if the desire takes you. And many companies offer several different options for poi tethers both at purchase or as add ons to take advantage of those capabilities.

But it wasn’t always like this.

When I first started spinning poi, our options were pretty limited. You basically had fire poi, you likely assembled yourself out of parts you got from the hardware store, a set of practice poi that were bean bags dropped into socks, and maybe if you had some connection to the emerging world of online poi retailers you could get ahold of a set of primitive LED poi.

In each case, the tether options were quite limited. Your fire poi were made with either ball or twist chains, your LED poi used either chain or nylon string tethers, and your practice poi…were socks. So the tether was automatically built in.

And the thing was…none of these options were ideal. The socks stretched out as you spun them, changing the poi's length and performance if you tried to change tempo. Nylon strings are really abrasive and tend to shred the skin on your fingers. And god help you if you tried to wrap your fire poi to shorten them up. It’s like having your hand in a bear trap!

So there was a desire for better tether options, but it took us a little while to get there.
The first time I was aware of a push toward a specific type of material for tethers was in the late 2000s when Nick Woolsey came forward championing Colecord–a springy material originally used in boot laces that became a sought-after material adopted and sold by several manufacturers under a variety of different brand names.

There was also the introduction of specially-made fabric poi that had the form factor of sock poi without the annoying stretchiness.

But custom tethers really took off with the popularization of one specific innovation in 2010. That was the year Contact Poi broke.

I have an entire video essay in me on the impact contact poi have had on the Flow Arts World that’s gone through several drafts in the past year, but the Cliff’s Notes go something like this:

Ronan McLoughlin introduced contact poi in the late 2000s by drilling out a set of stage balls and threading nylon ropes through them, but the form factor and specific style associated with contact poi didn’t take off until Cyrille Humen released Manipoi in 2010.

Because contact poi were so modular and easy to assemble, their popularization led to countless online shops being set up that sold the poi with a wide variety of customizable color, handles, and tether options.
This created a brand new secondary market for poi mods as people sought out new tether materials to complement their style of flow.

By the way, if you want to see me release that video essay on contact poi, leave me a comment and let me know so I can get a fire lit under me.

So why was finding the perfect tether material such a big deal?

Most sets of early contact poi were created with literally whatever type of rope was handy.

Some people used climbing rope, others used boating rope, cotton rope, dog leashes, Colecord, heck, Home of Poi’s first sets of contact poi even stumbled into using static rope a decade before it became popular! And most of these options had a few key problems.

First was they were abrasive. I can still remember getting into 3 poi in the early 2010s before we had very good options and winding up with my hands bleeding on multiple occasions. It took me a long time to build up callouses thick enough to stand up to most rope options.

The second was a process called pilling wherein as the ropes were used over time, they would fray and and pull tighter and eventually wind up really stiff and an inch or more shorter than they were when they were brand new. Every year or two, you’d have to trade out for new ropes or deal with a set that felt like stale bread.

And finally, there was just simply the issue of feel. None of these types of rope had been developed with spinning in mind, and as such they would behave in wildly different fashions when thrown, rolled, or wrapped up to shorten. In many cases, the flow just wasn’t comfortable or easy on the eyes, either.

The first major breakthrough in this department came when it was discovered that bondage rope had a unique blend of characteristics in that it could resist pilling as well as be gentle enough not to tear your hands apart. Variations of this type of rope quickly spread through the industry.

The other had nothing to do with contact poi. It was the expiration of legal protections around an aramid rope that we usually call technora. It was discovered that technora could, for the first time make spinning fire *gasp* comfortable.

And all of the sudden, we were off to the races.

Within a few years, using thick cotton ropes became a common tool for people experimenting with poi juggling.

And a type of boating rope called HPC that turned out to be really good at resisting pilling became a sought-after tether material.

Before you knew it, poi manufacturers were offering dozens of options for a thriving secondary market of prop modifications catering to people who were always on the lookout for the next cool thing.

Cotton, HPC, Smithy Rope, Flowcord, Technora, FPC, static rope, the list of options has grown long and at times confusing with specific ropes for specific tasks and an ever-present search for the material that can do everything well. And in the process it’s created a lot of confusion for consumers and a lot of opportunities for people who like to get really obsessed with hardware to go down the rabbit hole.

Having all these options, while definitely an improvement over the state of the industry when I started in it, can also lead to a lot of choice paralysis and anxiety over whether one is spinning the best props for them. And honestly, in most cases, you’ll know when you need to change your tethers once you have the experience under your belt of knowing what specific ways your current tethers aren’t supporting your flow.

So which tethers are the best fit for you? There’s only one way to find out! Spin what you have, evolve your style, and see where your practice and exploration take you!