MVP Best Sellers – August 2019 Edition

August 30, 2019 Dylan Durrant 2 comments

MVP, Axiom, and Streamline Best Sellers

Recently, we all got hit with a rough announcement: Fifteen MVP and Axiom molds are going out of production. This seemed like a good time to take a look at the data and see where the sales stand. MVP has talked of big plans for 2020, and we believe them! We’re looking forward to another great year from MVP! So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the data and discuss.

The Best Sellers

The Envy, for another year in a row, takes the top spot. This isn’t too surprising, the Envy is an awesome mold for up shots and putting. With it being available in so many plastics, everybody seems to be able to find a flavor of Envy that they like.

The Pilot takes the second spot! This was a little surprising, coming from the smallest of the trifecta, Streamline. The Pilot has sold super well over the past year, it is well loved as a putting putter and a straight approach disc.

The Insanity moves up a few spots from last year’s report, snagging the #3 spot. This has become a very popular driver in the last few months, really excelling to the top of the charts.

Discontinued Molds

The highest selling discontinued mold is the Axis in the #22 best seller position, which does bring into question the decision to retire it. However, it was explained in MVP’s announcement that some of their older, original midrange molds are less compatible with their new modern machinery. They promise to make new midranges to replace several that were brought out of production. Midranges only make up about 11% of our MVP sales, so they are not quite as popular as the other discs, or they just get replaced less often. There is generally a reason that players do not buy discs. More on that later.

We also took a look at the percentage of sales the newly discontinued molds make up. In the last year, the now discontinued molds only made up 9% of the total MVP, Axiom, and Streamline sales. Those fifteen molds make up less than 10% of our sales, so we can infer that it is a good move for MVP to make some shelf space for their new additions.

Everything Else

While we were at it, we added a couple interesting pie graphs to the mix.

MVP made up 53.6% of the sales, Axiom brought in 32.9%, and Streamline made up the remaining 13.5%.
Electron Firm, Plasma, and Eclipse made up nearly 50% of the Envy sales.
Neutron plastic made up for more sales than Proton and Plasma combined.
Distance drivers and Putt & Approach discs each took about a third of the sales, leaving fairways and midranges with the last third.

That’s it for now!

What did you find that interested or surprised you? Let us know in the comments!

Distance Driver Sales Race – Animated Graphs

August 29, 2019 Todd Durrant 2 comments

Here at Infinite Discs, we love looking at statistics. The numbers always help tell a story of how the disc golf market is moving, at least when it comes to measuring how our own customers are responding to new discs or different brands. This week we thought it would be a lot of fun to make a video chart which shows actual movement of those trends through time.

Hot Distance Drivers

We know that distance drivers are considered the sports car of the disc golfer’s bag. It is one of the discs that almost every player feels defines them, their abilities, or their play style. It is one of those discs that players often swap when they feel like they need to revolutionize their game, so new distance drivers tend to get a lot of sales movement when they are first released.

That is why we thought it would be fun to track the movement of some popular, established distance drivers side-by-side with new distance drivers as they entered the market during the past 11 months. The ten distance drivers that we decided to track include some new ones that only came out in 2020, but we wanted to see how much attention they might have pulled away from the more established discs. These are the distance drivers we chose to track:

Destroyer (always a hot seller)
Wraith (another popular Innova seller)
Shryke (a somewhat newer driver by Innova)
Photon (a top-selling MVP driver)
DD3 (the new 2020 driver by Discmania)
Raider (the new 2020 driver by Dynamic Discs)
Trespass (a popular driver by Dynamic Discs before the Raider)
Pharaoh (a relatively new driver by Infinite Discs)
Force (an old driver by Discraft which became a McBeth signature disc in 2020)
Zeus (the first distance driver in McBeth’s own disc line)

This particular selection of discs lets us measure how Paul McBeth affected the market when moving from Innova to Discraft as his brand sponsor in 2020, how new discs affected other brands, how they compared to discs of their own brand (like the Raider vs the Trespass), how market hype can play into sales, and how availability may stifle the momentum of a new release.

The Percentage Animated Graph

This first animated graph is designed to show which disc was grabbing the larger percentage of the market through the movement of time from October 2018 through August 2019. That means that we take the total sales of these 10 distance drivers, add those sales together, and compare the percentages of that total that each one grabbed.

For example, the Destroyer may have been holding 40% of the total sum of sales for those 10 discs for a couple of months, but then a new driver comes out and grabs 40% of the total sales that particular week. That would make the Destroyer percentage drop, even though it may still be selling the same quantity as the previous months, simply because there is only 100% available for those 10 discs to share. This chart helps us to see which discs were grabbing attention at any given moment. The time line will appear at the bottom of the chart.

For your viewing pleasure, here is that October 2018 – August 2019 animated chart (click the play button to activate the graph):

You’ll notice that as the new 2020 discs entered the market, they grabbed a percentage of the sales for a moment, but sometimes didn’t keep that momentum, either because of limited availability or the hype didn’t last. For example, availability of both the DD3 and the Raider was fairly limited when they were first released and it took a little time for regular stock releases to give them a boost.

The Zeus went through huge spikes depending upon availability and the releases of the prototype (originally called the Kong), the first run, and ending with the August release of the limited edition Big Z Zeus– thus the spike at the end of the video when it grabbed a huge percentage of total sales.

You’ll also noticed that the Destroyer sales moved up as Paul McBeth announced his change of sponsors, while players and collectors grabbed his old signature edition before the end of 2019. It got another boost with the new Wysocki edition.

The Force sales at Discraft started to rise based on speculation about what he would throw, and then the announcement came of the Force as a McBeth signature disc. But then the Force died down as the attention turned to the Zeus, which as a disc in Paul’s own line, was grabbing more attention than the Force.

The Race – Total Sales Animated Graph

Now for a look at a chart that takes less explanation. This is very straight-forward. We totaled the sales through time, adding to the total with new sales from October 2018 through August 2019. This allows us to watch the total sales for that period like a race where the disc that sells the most by the end is the winner.

So, rather than comparing percentage of sales, we’re just adding sales for each separate disc. Will the slow-but-steady disc end up selling most in the end? Or will the spikes on new releases help boost the newcomers to the winning position?

For your viewing pleasure, here is that October 2018 – August 2019 animated race (click the play button to activate the graph):

It’s pretty obvious that the steady sales of the Destroyer kept it far enough ahead that even the spikes on new releases, including the Zeus, could not boost those newcomers to the lead. The Zeus finished in 2nd place, getting enough large spikes to push its totals up, but not high enough to take the win. The Wraith, even with it’s slow and steady sales, gave it the 3rd place title, with the Infinite Discs Pharaoh following closely behind.

We hope that you’ve enjoyed these animated charts. Watch them over and over and see what kind of analysis you can offer in the comments below.

Top 100 Discs – First Half of 2019

August 5, 2019 Dylan Durrant 7 comments

Top 100 Discs

Welcome to another statistics blog! These are some of my favorite blogs to write and look at, since we can see some fun data about the sport we’ve grown to love! Today we’re going to be looking at some of the top discs, specifically the Top 100 Discs from the first half of 2019.

Disclaimer – This data is all from InfiniteDiscs.com, the biggest online retailer. This data is from discs sold this year- hundreds of orders shipped per day to all across the country and world.

Click to expand.

Discraft vs Innova

First off, we notice that the Destroyer is still clenching the #1 spot, even after McBeth’s switch to Discraft. The Zeus and Luna, however are making a run for the top. They come in at 4th and 5th place respectively. The Anax was released shortly after the first half of the year, so it didn’t quite make it to the chart.

Innova appears more than 30 times on the chart, while Discraft is just under 20. Last year, this was definitely a different story; Discraft has grown a lot this year.

Infinite Discs

In the second year of having our own line of discs (produced by Innova), we have 5 discs on the chart. One of them, the Pharaoh, makes the #9 spot. The Pharaoh has definitely been our hottest mold. This is a little biased, however, because currently the only place to get our line up is from our own website. We will wholesale our own line later this year.

Discmania & MVP

Discmania & MVP both have nine entries on this list. These are two awesome disc golf companies that have been exploding in popularity recently! Axiom has the Envy at #11, and Discmania has the P2 at #3 and the FD at #13.

Honorable Mentions

The Pig snags the #46 spot, largely due to Ricky Wysocki putting in his new Innova bag this year. People have started to take notice of his silky smooth pig throws!

The Orc has the #33 spot, due to an influx of some really cool Pre-Flight number Orcs that we’ve come across. People say these are the best of the Orcs, so check them out!

Kastaplast has two entries on the top 100, the Reko (#60) and the Berg (#63). Kastaplast has been putting out some really unique feeling plastic and people are loving them! The Berg and Reko are some awesome putt & approach discs worth looking into.

The MINT Discs Alpha barely snuck onto the chart at the #98 spot. MINT Discs is an up and coming company with two very good molds, the Alpha and the Bobcat. MINT has it’s fan club set in stone, with popularity growing!

Let’s Discuss!

Let us know how many discs you throw from the top 100!
Next, we’ll do a top 100 for the entire year of 2019. Which discs do you think will make the chart? The Anax?
Which brands do you think will grow more this year and next?
Which discs deserve to be in the top 100?

Hot Disc Brands of 2019

July 23, 2019 Alan 6 comments

When Paul McBeth announced his change of sponsors from Innova to Discraft at the end of 2018 we knew it would have an impact on the buyer behavior of die hard disc golfers. Many scoffed at the million dollar contract and wondered how Discraft could afford to pay a professional disc golfer that much money.

After looking at our sales numbers for the first half of the year 2019, it appears that Paul McBeths brand value for disc sales may have been underestimated. When it comes to “hot brands of 2019,” among the major players, Discraft is on fire.

During the first six months of 2018, Discraft was our #5 brand in terms of disc sales. The Innova, Discmania, Dynamic Discs, and Latitude 64 brands all accounted for more InfiniteDiscs.com sales than did Discraft — which represented less than 7% of our online sales.

Jan – June 2019 InfiniteDiscs.com Sales By Brand

Through the first half of 2019 Discraft sales have nearly tripled! The introduction of the Paul McBeth Kong/Zeus was our hottest disc release ever. Sales of the Anax and Luna were almost just as hot. While Innova is still #1, Discraft has sold more discs than the #3 and #4 brands combined. The sales difference gap between Innova and Discraft was less than 13% during the first half of 2019 compared with a 31.5% difference during the same time period one year ago.

Not all of the credit can be given to Paul McBeth. Discraft has made some major changes to prepare themselves for a massive production increase that would bring their brand back to the top. Discraft Swirly ESP plastic is arguably the best looking plastic on the market. Discraft has done a brilliant job re-marketing themselves as a leader in disc golf.

With such a rapid increase in Discraft sales, the question arises, is it at the expense of other brands?

Overall, our total disc sales at Infinite Discs are up slightly for the first half of the year, but Discraft is taking market share from others and we have seen a year over year decline in sales for some brands.

Brands That Saw Sales Declines

Among the larger brands we sell, Innova and Discmania (brands Paul McBeth used to promote) have seen a slight decline in sales. During the off season, Discmania made some significant changes by also manufacturing with Latitude 64 and Yikun. With these changes I was very surprised to see that our Discmania sales declined. Had they sufficient stock of DD3’s to meet our buyers demand, I’m pretty sure Discmania would not have appeared on this list.

The biggest “hit” taken on brand preference in 2019 among our customers appears to be decreased demand for Latitude 64 and Westside Discs. Our online sales for Latitude 64 were down 17% while the Westside brand was down almost 25%. One likely reason for a decrease in sales of these brands is the loss of Ricky Wysocki as a Latitude 64 sponsored player.

During the first six months of 2018, the Westside Harp (one of the primary discs used by Ricky Wysocki) was our #11 selling disc. During the same period of 2019, Harp sales dropped to #26. The Explorer dropped from #36 to #62 and the Dagger dropped from #47 to #92.

Meanwhile the Innova Pig went from being our 175th best selling disc in 2018 to our 45th best selling disc during the first half of 2019. Despite the loss of Paul McBeth, the Ricky Wysocki signature Destroyer has helped that disc remain as our top selling disc of 2019. The addition of Ricky Wysocki to Team Innova undoubtedly lightened the blow of losing McBeth.

Other Brands That Increased in Sales Despite Discraft’s Surge

The third member of the Trilogy family, Dynamic Discs, saw a modest 3% sales increase compared with 2018. The new Raider distance driver undoubtedly helped those sales.

MVP and Axiom, with their triple foil artwork and loyal fan-base, saw growth rates of 24% and 27% respectively. Their unrelenting new release schedule and new swirly plastic blends fanned the flames.

With the addition of five new molds, sales of the Infinite Discs brand increased by 66% during the first half of 2019.

Prodigy Disc saw an impressive sales increase 43%. Some of this increase can be attributed to the success of their pros, particularly Kevin Jones, who is having a fantastic year and is becoming one of the most liked players on tour.

Gateway, which has made a big emphasis on improving their premium plastic look and feel, saw a modest increase in 2019 sales of 5%.

Most of the smaller disc brands also saw an increase in our online sales with the exceptions being Legacy, Hyzer Bomb, and Viking Discs. A primary reason for the reduction in Viking sales is our inability to order more of these discs from Finland. We have been in need of a major restock for most of the year, and we can’t sell discs that we do not have. With Hyzer Bomb, the sales figures are most likely an adjustment after an incredible run on Mortar discs.

Growth Among Smaller Disc Brands

The introduction of several new molds, as well as the new “Cosmic Neutron” plastic blend, has helped Streamline to a 91% 2019 sales increase. Through the first six months, Streamline is currently our #11 selling disc brand.

Kastaplast’s popular plastic feel and increased availability lead to an increase of more than double their 2018 sales in 2019.

Yikun saw the largest percentage of sales growth from companies not named Discraft. The increase in Yikun sales may be partially attributed to Discmania’s partnership with the Yikun brand which has some players interested in checking out the additional molds.

DGA saw a 56% increase in sales during the first half of 2019. DGA’s likely benefited from their partnership with Discraft and the fact that Paul McBeth spent some time throwing DGA branded discs.

RPM discs out of New Zealand saw a healthy 84% year over year increase while Finland’s Prodiscus brand saw a modest 27% improvement.

The release of their second disc, the Bobcat, helped Mint Discs increase sales by 65% this year.

The first half of 2019 has been a dramatic ride for the ever changing landscape of disc sales. It will be interesting to see if the Discraft popularity surge has peaked, or if the hype for Paul McBeth products will continue.

Disclaimer: The numbers used for this article are taken solely from InfiniteDiscs.com sales, and do not necessarily reflect the actual sales trends for the different brands among all retail outlets. InfiniteDiscs.com customers are primarily avid disc golfers who regularly follow professional disc golf. Casual disc golfers, that represent the majority of people who play disc golf, are less likely to be influenced by the moves of professional disc golfers.

Top Selling Discs–Q2 of 2019

July 22, 2019 Jace Smellie Leave a comment

The always hectic summer in the disc golf world is in full swing! We are doing everything we can here at Infinite Discs to stay on top of it all. This post is a little late, but it is time to take a look back at the top selling discs of the second quarter in 2019!

Top 10 Overall

The disc formerly known as Kong, aka the Discraft Zeus, has been flying off the shelves, but it still wasn’t enough to beat out the “original” Paul McBeth distance driver. The Innova Destroyer stayed at number one this quarter, but it will be exciting to see if the stock stamp release of the Zeus will push it up to the top spot. Beyond that, we see most of the same names we saw last quarter with the most movement coming from the Innova Firebird that dropped from 5 to 10.

Top Distance Drivers

As always, we see Innova with a strong presence in the distance driver category. They manufacture 8 of the 10. But the other two discs may not be going anywhere soon. The Zeus has proven to be a hit, and the Raider was an instant success for Dynamic Discs. It will be interesting to see if both of these discs can continue to compete with the rest of the Innova made distance drivers that seem to always be at the top of the charts. Oh, and don’t sleep on the newly released Infinite Discs Emperor. I think we will continue to see this disc in the top 10 for a while.

Top Control/Fairway Drivers

Like with the distance drivers, Innova manufactures 8 of these top 10 discs. I think this is the first time we have seen the Innova Thunderbird take the number one spot. It is always near the top, but the new Swirly Star Jeremy Koling Thunderbirds finally bumped it to number one. The newly released Discmania Evolution Instinct came in at 6 with a lot of hype. We will see if it continues to sell well down the road. Beyond that, we have a lot of the same in the fairway drivers.

Top Midrange Discs

The top half of the midrange chart stayed nearly identical featuring the same top 4 as last quarter, but the bottom half shook up a bit. We haven’t heard a lot about Mint Discs since they released the very successful Alpha a few years ago, but now they add a midrange to the mix with the Bobcat taking our 7 spot. Also we see Discraft continuing to have a positive year on the sales charts with the Buzzz SS making its first appearance on the top 10 for as long as I can remember.

Top Putt and Approach Discs

This is something I’ve never seen before. All top 8 selling putt and approach discs this quarter are in the exact same position as last quarter. I guess we are pretty consistent with our putt and approach game here at Infinite Discs :). The Streamline Pilot cracked the top 10 this quarter with help from a Special Edition release in Streamline’s Neutron and Cosmic Neutron. The MVP Entropy is a newly released overstable approach disc that fills a great slot in the MVP lineup.

And that does it for our 2019 Q2 top sellers! Do any of these charts surprise you? What discs did better/worse than you would have expected? Tell us in the comments! And see you next quarter!

State of Disc Golf 2019–Disc Buying Habits

May 23, 2019 Jace Smellie 4 comments

We are getting into our busy season here at Infinite Discs! People are playing lots of disc golf which means they are buying lots of discs. So it seems like a perfect time to take a look back at our disc golf buying habits from 2018.

How Many Discs Do We Own?

First, let’s look at how many discs we own. Are we a bunch of hoarders? Let’s find out!

Surprise, (not really) we own lots of discs! The pie chart is a bit crowded, so here is a bar graph featuring the same information:

The most popular response was 41-60 discs, and from the pie chart we can see that almost 3/4 of us own more than 30 discs, which is more than you can fit in an average disc golf bag or cart. I remember when I first started playing disc golf and I saw someone on the course with a backpack full of discs. I thought there was no way I could ever own enough discs to fill a backpack bag. Now I have boxes and boxes of discs…

But that is the literal state of disc golf and disc ownership! And it is something that is pretty unique to our sport. You don’t see many golfers who have multiple bags of clubs, or casual basketball players who have closets full of different basketball shoes. We don’t just own the discs we need to play, but we also collect disc golf equipment.

How Many New Discs Though?

So how many new discs did we add to our collections in 2018? Again, here is both the pie chart and bar graph with this data:

So from this we could say that a rough “average” for the community as a whole is around 10-14 discs since a little over half of us bought at least 10 discs in 2018. I personally would say that is a little higher than I expected. 10 discs is a lot, especially for players who have a pretty established bag. But I think there are a couple of factors that drive us to buy more and more discs.

First of all, there are new releases. I usually write our quarterly sales reports on the blog, and almost every single time one of the top selling discs in every category is a new release disc. We for some reason in disc golf love trying out and collecting new disc molds, and there are definitely more than 10 new molds released every year.

I also think there is a sweet spot in the competitiveness and experience of disc golfers in correlation with how many discs we purchase. Beginners often purchase a lot of discs because they are excited about this new thing in their life and they are jumping in full swing. These new disc golfers are figuring out how to play and what molds will work in their bag. Then after maybe a year or more, once that disc golfer has gotten the hang of things, their purchasing may slow a bit.

This is that sweet spot. Experienced disc golfers who have for the most part found their comfort zone in the game. They don’t feel as strong of a need to buy more discs. However, if that experienced disc golfer becomes more competitive and play more frequently, they become more involved in the replacement market of disc golf. Depending on the types of courses they play, they might be losing more discs than average. Also their discs get worn in quicker and may need to be replaced sooner.

But something else that always needs to be remembered when analyzing this data is that the data is from people who cared enough about disc golf to take a survey put out by a disc golf company. We get a large number of respondents every year, but they are generally more active in the online disc golf community. So it makes sense that our numbers might be higher than expected when it comes to disc golf purchases.

How Many Discs Did We Collect?

Now, back to the data! And an interesting question that gets back to my comments earlier about us being collectors: How many discs did we acquire to collect and not throw? I think just the pie chart is sufficient for this one:

Again, we are collectors! Over half of us got a disc that we had no intention of ever throwing. This also doesn’t include discs that we collect but also want to throw a few times before hanging it on the wall or storing it away in plastic totes. This is great news for disc golf manufacturers and retailers. As we can see, their special edition, signature series, and first run discs are working in getting us to spend more money on new collectible discs.

But Where Do the Discs Come From?

So where do we get our new discs from? We asked that question, and provided survey takers with a variety of options for their responses. Here is how we answered:

As it is with the rest of the retail world, online is a dominant avenue through which we acquire new disc golf discs. So some may be surprised to see that the most popular selection was local disc golf stores that are focused primarily on selling disc golf equipment. This is encouraging for small business owners who have invested in building their own small business. It is also why companies like Dynamic Discs have opened several locations across the country.

But in a world that has seen brick and mortar stores go under because of the pressure from online retailers, why would most survey takers still buy discs from local stores? Again, this gets to a quirk in disc golf–there are benefits to seeing and holding a disc before you buy it. It is always nice to try on shoes and see them in person, but a size 11 of the same basketball shoe is going to be the exact same whether you buy it from a local Foot Locker or from Amazon or Eastbay online.

However, a max weight Star Destroyer from your local shop may be different from all of the max weight Star Destroyers available right now on Infinite Discs or any other online retailer. One might be more domey or have any other idiosyncratic feature you have learned that you like or dislike in your Star Destroyers.

I know when I worked in the warehouse at Infinite Discs I always got calls asking how flat a certain Champion Firebird was that we had listed online. Well when you shop in with a local disc golf store, you can inspect the disc however you want before buying your purchase. Due to overhead, some local stores may have higher prices than online retailers, but it may be worth the extra cost knowing exactly what you are getting before you buy it.

Over the last few years, I have been able to help out at our local Infinite Discs store in Pocatello, Idaho. I have seen the above scenario play out several times, but also I think a local pro shop is more inviting to newer players who may feel overwhelmed by all of the options available. Online retailers try their best to provide new players with information, but for many people it is nice to be able to have a face to face conversation with a store associate who knows about disc golf and are qualified to answer their questions.

But another interesting aspect of local disc golf stores being the most popular way that survey takers acquired discs is simply the fact that that many people have access to a dedicated local disc golf store. It would be interesting to know how many disc golf stores have opened over the last few years, but from this survey we know that at least over 60% of survey takers have access to a local disc golf shop, which is exciting for the growth of the sport.

So there you have it! What bit of data stood out to you? Is there something I failed to discuss that should have gotten more attention? Please let us know your thoughts and feelings in the comments!

Tracking the Pharaoh and Emperor Run Numbers

May 2, 2019 Todd Durrant 5 comments

When Infinite Discs first launched our own disc brand with manufacturing by Innova, we wanted to make sure that each run had its own identification. We’re aware that different runs of the same mold in different plastics and at different times can have slight variations. Because of that, we figured that players who fell in love with certain runs or who sought specific characteristics would appreciate a way to know which one they have, which one they want, etc.

When we create a stock stamp, that run number and the run quantity (number of discs in the run) is displayed on the stamp at the bottom. With some of the limited editions and signature editions, the run number and quantity is not necessarily described on the stamp. But we still want you to know what you’re getting.

Here is a quick run-down of the runs that have been produced and ordered for the Pharaoh and the Emperor as of May 2019, for your reference:

THE PHARAOH

PROTOTYPE:
Swirly S-Blend
Quantity 224
This run came out flat with a moderate fade.

RUN 1:
Swirly S-Blend
Quantity 800
This run came out relatively flat with a moderate fade. A few of these were released in Garrett Gurthie signature edition.

RUN 2:
Swirly S-Blend
Quantity 1100 (plus 88 “Test Run” stamp)
This run had more dome on the flight plate than the first run and slightly less fade for some players. Some of these were released in Garrett Gurthie signature edition with a new stamp.

RUN 3:
I-Blend
Quantity 1100 (plus 120 “Test Run” stamp)
This run was again quite flat, but more understable than any of the S-Blend runs.

RUN 4:
Metal Flake Glow C-Blend
Quantity 1000 (plus 79 “Test Run” stamp)
This run turned out very domey with a lot of glide and more overstable than the other runs. This run featured an XXL Alien Pharaoh stamp and also a bottom stamp.

RUN 5:
Swirly S-Blend
Quantity 1203
This run is once again flat, like the first run, with more color variety.

THE EMPEROR

RUN 1:
I-Blend
Quantity 850 (plus 27 “Test Run” stamp)
This run was the introductory run and had an early release with a unique stamp at the 2019 Las Vegas Challenge tournament. The X-Outs were released on the Ides of March as a teaser, with stock stamp following. This is a more understable run, though it still has plenty of fade for average players.

RUN 2:
Splatter S-Blend
Quantity 900 (plus 133 “Test Run” stamp)
This run turned out much more overstable than the first run and was made to release primarily as a David Feldberg signature edition disc for 2019.

RUN 3:
Metal Flake Glow C-Blend
Quantity 900 (plus 41 “Test Run” stamp)
This run has a nice fade that is slightly less than Run 2, but more than Run 1. It is released with an XXL Alien and also has a Garrett Gurthie signature edition stamp.

State of Disc Golf 2019–Brand Preferences

April 22, 2019 Jace Smellie 6 comments

Which brands do we prefer to use? Did our favorite brands change this year? This is an especially interesting year in disc golf to take a look at the survey responses that relate to this topic because of the many sponsor changes made by top professional disc golfers this offseason.

In fact, we tried to address the big offseason changes directly by adding a new question to this year’s survey. This survey was taken at the beginning of this calendar year during a time that was well after the news broke that Paul McBeth would be sponsored by Discraft and Ricky Wysocki would be sponsored by Innova. So we decided to ask straight up–Have you thought about purchasing Innova because of the Ricky Wysocki switch? We also asked–Have you thought about purchasing Discraft because of the Paul McBeth switch? Here is how we responded:

Well, if you didn’t know already, Paul McBeth really is the king of disc golf in so many ways. As you can see, just over a third of all survey takers have thought about purchasing Discraft product strictly because Paul McBeth is now throwing their discs during tournament play. And then, as we saw in the favorite disc golfers post, Ricky Wysocki’s change to Innova doesn’t seem to have been as well received. I’ve mentioned this before, but I really think it is because the fans Ricky Wysocki gained over the last few years while he was sponsored by Latitude 64 viewed Innova as more of a rival than the fans of Paul McBeth viewed Discraft. This is a fascinating anomaly in disc golf.

But as the data has proven in multiple ways, we as disc golf consumers care about which brand of discs sponsor our favorite pros, and it influences our buying habits.

One little tidbit of data is especially interesting in this enigma that is the relationship between favorite disc golfers and favorite brands it what I would call the Eric Oakley effect.

Eric Oakley is one of the best touring pros not just at disc golf, but at marketing himself using social media outlets. This makes him an especially valuable team member for any sponsor. His manufacturer sponsor over the last few seasons has been Dynamic Discs, one of the Trilogy brands (Dynamic Discs, Latitude 64, and Westside).

In the survey we asked survey takers if their favorite brand of discs changed this year, and if they answered yes, we asked who their new favorite brand is now. So we took a look at survey takers who named Eric Oakley as one of their favorite disc golfers. Then of those participants, we looked at which ones changed favorite brands. Of these survey takers, 83% said their new favorite brand was one of the Trilogy brands. We see this trend when looking at other professionals as well, but Eric Oakley seemed to have the strongest influence this year.

However, when asked why they changed favorite brands, survey takers did not cite professional influence at so high a rate:

So if data trends show professional disc golfers making a significant influence on our brand preferences, why did so few cite them as reasons for changing their favorites? In my opinion, I think it is fair to say that perhaps these survey takers tried out discs made by their new favorite brands because of the influence of their favorite professional disc golfers, and they stuck around for reasons like the feel and flight of their discs. As was previously mentioned, nearly 33% of all survey takers said they would consider throwing Discraft discs just because of Paul McBeth–before Paul had even thrown a Discraft disc in tournament play!

Of course, this leads to the question–for those who changed their favorite brands, which manufacturer was their new favorite? Well first of all, it is important to note that only 20.76% of all survey takers said that their favorite brand changed during the last year. So for the most part, disc golfers stayed true to their previous favorites. But let’s look at which brands that 20% chose as their new favorites:

TOP 5 NEW FAVORITE DISC MANUFACTURERS

Dynamic Discs–17.45%
Discraft–13.33%
Discmania–10.97%
MVP–10.46%
Innova–9.50%

Remember that Eric Oakley effect I talked about? We can definitely see that influence carried over here. You could also argue from these results that the McBeth effect is so strong that he doesn’t even have to throw a disc to make people change their favorite manufacturer.

We also asked survey takers if they could only throw discs made by one manufacturer, which would they choose? For this question, we put together different brands made by the same manufacturer. Here are the overall results:

IF YOU COULD ONLY USE DISCS MADE BY ONE MANUFACTURER, WHICH WOULD YOU CHOOSE?

Innova/Discmania/Millennium/Hyzerbomb/Infinite–45.84%
Dynamic Discs/Latitude 64/Westside–27.73%
Axiom/MVP/Streamline–10.47%
Discraft/DGA/Plastic Addicts–10.20%
Prodigy–2.22%

I think a lot of this comes down to selection. If you look at how many discs are available from each of these manufacturers, it pretty much coincides with these results. But it is significant that almost half of all disc golfers who took the survey would choose to only throw discs made in an Innova factory if they had to make that choice. All other manufacturers were selected by less than 1% of survey takers.

This leads us to what I believe is the ultimate indicator of our true brand preferences. We can claim certain brands as our favorites, but which brands are we actually throwing and including in our disc golf bags? Let’s look:

I don’t think that Innova being the most popular is too big of a surprise, but over 80% of survey takers having at least one Innova disc in their bag is a bit surprising to me. It just goes to show how dominant their influence has been in the disc golf world over the years. I also was a little surprised to see that Discraft was number two. I would have predicted Latitude 64 to be the number two. Which means I was also surprised to see that Dynamic Discs was higher than Latitude 64.

That being said, it is important to note that the question just asks which brand of discs are in our bag. So if a survey taker has only one disc of a certain brand (like the extremely popular Discraft Buzzz) then they would include that brand in their response.

The trilogy brands together were the third, fourth, and fifth most popular brands. For a long time Latitude 64 was the only of the three that had a “complete” lineup, so they were always the most popular. However, both Dynamic and Westside Discs have released more and more discs giving players–especially those loyal to Trilogy–more options.

Looking further down the chart it looks like things shook out as expected. I was a little surprised at how low Prodigy was considering it wasn’t that long ago that they took the disc golf world by storm and had a large team of professional disc golfers. But Prodigy has been a little more aggressive this year with newer molds being added to their lineup like the recently hyped D2 Max. It will be interesting to see if they can get these new molds into the bags of disc golfers.

So we have thrown together several charts and lists here today, but what does it mean? No, I’m really asking, what do you think it all means? Let us know in the comments what you think of this data and what it says about our current state of disc golf!

« 1 … 3 4 5 6 7 »