Written by Charles Noyes
Photos by Shana Sureck Photography

Sponsored by Valley Home Improvement

Published in Northampton Living (February 2021)

Dev was familiar with André Boulay before they’d ever officially met. “André was recognizable because he always went around on his Heelys doing yo-yo tricks,” Dev reminisced. “I was star struck when we finally met in person.” Dev came from Central Mass and André grew up in Blandford, but they both went to UMass Amherst.

André recalled their fateful meeting during their freshman year, “I was with my juggling club friends at their dorm and it turned out to be Dev’s birthday. So she passed out some cake and we started talking and we really enjoyed being around each other.”

Before meeting Dev at UMass, André had worked at A2Z Science and Learning Toy Store in Northampton. “I thought working at a toy store and teaching yo-yo sounded like the perfect job for me,” André said. “It was a 40-minute drive from where I lived, but as soon as I could drive I got the job.” After college, André took a hiatus from working at A2Z to finish his Master’s in Neuroscience and Behavior and start a business with Dev, YoYoExpert.com, a portal for all things yo-yo.

In 2015, Dev and André purchased A2Z from its original owners. While owning and operating a business was a scary prospect, it ended up being one of the best decisions they ever made. André said, “The store already had such a special place in my heart. When I got into yo-yoing, it was right after the big yo-yo boom of the late 1990s. But that didn’t bother me. The teachers at the store and the community aspect of learning there was a great feeling for me. It’s something I try to maintain to this day.”

Dev and André love their life in Northampton with their children: Pierce, 7, and Ella, 3. Coming from either side of the Valley, Northampton left an early impression on both of them. For Dev, Northampton is a place where she feels free to express herself any way she chooses. “You can be whoever you want to be without judgment. Everyone’s so open-minded and loving. Downtown feels European almost, it’s so homey and beautiful.”

And for André, raising a family has changed his view on the Valley. “Northampton is all about the community. It’s so family-oriented and welcoming and people are very focused towards making life better for as many people as possible. You see things here that you won’t see anywhere else and that combination of open-mindedness and quirkiness makes it really feel like home.”

And joining them at their Northampton home are their furry friends, Artax and Padmé the cats and one hard-shelled friend, Hermie the hermit crab. It’s a home they’ve become quite familiar with over the course of the past year since the COVID-19 pandemic reached the Valley. And they’ve stayed entertained with “lots of Uno and Legos with the young kids,” said Dev.

In March, after the shutdown forced them to close up shop, André began working on an online store to replace their physical storefront. What he’d always envisioned being a yearlong project ended up only taking a few months. “When you’re under the gun it’s amazing what you can pull off,” he said.

He recalled that time being fraught, especially at a February trade show called Toy Fair. “At the time, COVID was just a whisper, but I remember being in New York City and thinking to myself, ‘man, this would be the worst place to be if this thing starts getting worse.’“

That foreshadowing brings us to present day after another holiday rush. In a year of uncertainty, help came to the Boulays in many forms. With numbers down 30-50% through the whole summer, they were relying on a big November and December to make up for it. “The community really showed up in December and coupled with the PPP loans we feel so happy and comfortable about where we are for next year, which is not something a lot of businesses can say right now.”

But with the shutdown, A2Z’s yoyo school had to cease among many other things. “I’ve always liked teaching,” André lamented. “I’ve seen the real impact it can have on some people. Children will come in who have a hard time even looking at you, they’re so shy. But after the first throw and catch they learn, you see the enthusiasm come out of them and the parents notice that. And as they continue to develop that skill, all of a sudden they’re on stage in front of a hundred people showing off their tricks.”

André misses teaching yo-yo for many reasons. Yo-yo came into his life in high school during a confusing time of his life and he says it “taught me the effect of hard work and perseverance. It taught me that repetition is key and if you do something over and over again, you will get better.”

But some people don’t see the same value to yo-yoing as a hobby and are quick to judge it as merely a toy. This is something André is all too familiar with, “I was guilty of it too. When I first watched a yo-yo demonstration I definitely rolled my eyes. We all have these snap judgments we make because it’s easy to judge. But once we actually try things out for ourselves and realize how difficult they are, those judgments go away and I urge people to try it instead. Like me, you might find it’s something you’ve been waiting your whole life to find.”

André’s passion for yo-yoing has carried him to places he never thought he’d be. “I filmed almost 180 tutorial videos around 2008 at this little place in Montague and I didn’t think anything would come of them.” But those videos turned out to be some of the few yo-yo tutorials you could find online at the time. Not long after uploading them, André had messages from people all over the world, which inspired him to set up an online forum on his website (yoyoexpert.com). “People meet lifelong friends on there and the community aspect of it really keeps my passion going.