Picture yourself walking into a disc golf store to look around. If you don’t have a local shop, picture yourself hopping on InfiniteDiscs.com. What’s the first disc you want to look at? Do you check out the discs on sale? Do you look at the new releases? Are there some cool stamps that grab your attention? Or do you just look for a specific disc you had in mind that brought you to the store in the first place?

Now that you’ve decided on what to check out, think about what drew you to the disc. Did it have a cool stamp that you like? Was there a new plastic for a mold you like? Did you head straight to your favorite brand? Maybe it was the color of the disc that caught your eye? Or perhaps it was the flight of the disc?

In this week’s State of Disc Golf survey results we examine which disc qualities we like, and which ones are not important to us. This week we’ll look at the brand, plastic types, and flight numbers. Let’s find out which factors are the most important when we buy a disc.

How Important is a Disc Golf Brand?

There was a time when disc golfers only had a few choices for brands when they were looking for a disc. However, the past few years have seen an explosion in the number of new manufacturers and new molds. We now have such a large selection of discs that we might not be as loyal to one brand. However, we might still feel like certain brands are better than others, and stick to those brands. Let’s look at the numbers and see how important brand it to our disc buying preference.

Nearly 25% of us find the brand of a disc Very Important. Additionally, nearly half of us find the brand of a disc semi-important. Although more of us will likely be throwing a more mixed bag, since there are so many more options available now, those numbers may not change much in the future. Those of us who still value certain brands will just have more brands that we prefer to throw.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see which brands were preferred by the people who indicated that brands are very important. Here is the chart showing the favorite brand, or the brand that makes most discs in our bag, by people who find the brand Very Important:

Over half of the people preferred one of three brands: Innova, Discraft, or MVP. Although MVP hasn’t been around nearly as long as the other two manufacturers, they have been around long enough to gain some traction in the disc golf world.

Year Started

The next thing I wanted to look at is what year this same group of people started playing. I wanted to see if newer players or players that started years ago were more likely to find the brand of their discs important. Here are the data:

Pandemic Choices

Over forty percent of us who say the brand is important started in 2019 or more recently. The numbers drop off prior to 2019 and are spread out relatively evenly. The worst year of the pandemic was 2020, which has the highest percentage of people who find brand important. That year there were major disruptions in the supply chain. Since people couldn’t always get the discs they wanted, they started buying any brands that were available. This introduced a lot of people to new brands. I wanted to see if the people who started playing in 2020, and who found brand important, had favorite discs that were not mainstream companies. Here are the results:

The top five brands are the same. Apparently, being forced to buy the brands that are available didn’t really gain those brands loyal followers. Or, at least those brands aren’t the only one that people are loyal to.

Importance of Plastic Type

Let’s take a look at another factor to consider when buying a disc. In fact, this factor had the highest number of people who said it is Very Important. The factor is Plastic Type. Here is the graph of the survey results:

A whopping 95% of all survey respondents indicated that they found plastic type either Semi-Important or Very Important. Over 63% said they found plastic type Very Important. I’m in that 63%. There are plastic types that I won’t throw, and others that I won’t throw with certain disc types. I hear other disc golfers express similar feelings about plastic types, so the numbers in the graph don’t surprise me.

Plastic types not only greatly affect how a disc feels in our hand, but affects the flight and durability of the disc. They also affect the cost of the disc. Less expensive plastics are not as durable, nor as stable as premium plastics. They do cost less and occasionally we might want a disc to wear a little faster so it will fly like we want.

Are Disc Golf Flight Numbers Important?

The second most popular factor that we look for in a disc is its flight numbers. Although flight numbers for a particular mold can vary significantly because of plastic type, wear, and weight, it is still the best system we have for a manufacturer to indicate approximately how a disc should fly. We can then use that knowledge to find out if a particular disc is the right one for us.

Over half of us rate flight numbers as Very Important, and nearly ninety percent think that they are at least Semi-Important. Although it would be nice if we could test the flight of each mold and plastic under controlled conditions with few variables, until we reach that point we’ll have to rely on the flight numbers to help us chose a disc. It appears that most of us value the numbers and use them to guide our purchases.

Tune in next week when we will conclude our examination of the disc factors that are most important to us.

One of my favorite survey results that I like to explore is the number of discs we own. Although most of us started with a disc or two, or maybe a starter set, over time most of us picked up a bag full that we regularly throw. Then we might have gotten a few back-up discs in case we lost our go-to’s. And we always like to try a new discs from time to time. If you play tournaments, it is common to get a disc in your player’s pack. Raffles, found discs, and gifts from friends are other ways that make our collection grow.

After playing for a while, most of us eventually end up owning scores of discs. And that is just the ones we throw. Many of us collect discs or have wall-hanger ace discs that add to our total numbers. How big are those numbers? Let’s check out the survey results and find out.

How Many Discs We Own

One of the staple questions that we’ve been asking in our annual State of Disc Golf survey is how many discs we own. It is interesting to see how many of us own the bare minimum, and how many of us have bought significant numbers of discs. Here is a graph of the results:

The number of discs we own slowly increases until the 41-60 range.  Then the percentages bounce around a bit before finishes on the highest percentage at the 200+ category. Nearly one out of five of us has over 200 discs! One out of four of us has between 100-200 discs.

When Did We Start Playing

Those big numbers don’t surprise me. I saw how quickly I got to 200, and I know a lot of people who got there faster than me. I was curious if the people who indicated they had more than 200 discs had been playing for a while. That makes sense, since people might just be holding onto discs while buying more. Let’s look at the people in the survey who indicated that they have more than 200 discs, then see what year they started to see if my theory is correct.

At first glance, it appears that the opposite is true. The percentages slowly decline the longer you’ve been playing. It looks like there is a spike in some of the earlier years, but that is because the graph shifts from single years to a five- year block in 2006-2010. Then it switches to a ten-year block for 1991-2000.

The people who started during the pandemic represent the largest group. They make up 10% of all people who own more than 200 discs. At the opposite end of the timeline, people who started playing decades ago make up a smaller percent of people who own 200 discs.  In that case, there are fewer numbers of them. Below is a graph that shows when we started playing disc golf.

The number of people who started playing prior to 2001 represent 9% of survey respondents. But, they represent over 17% of the people who own 200+ discs. Their overall numbers are smaller than other starting years, but a high percentage of them have the big collections. If they started collecting when they started playing, they undoubtedly have some sweet discs in their collections!

We are acquiring more and more plastic!

Now let’s look at previous year’s results and see if the number of people who have 200+ discs have some kind of trend. Here is a graph of the number of people who indicated that they have 200+ discs, sorted by year:

As you can see, the number of people with 200+ discs has been increasing regularly, with the exception of the Pandemic year. In fact, this year was the highest number to date, and it was a decent increase from last year. Presumably, if people keep playing, there will be more and more who hit the 200+ mark.

Collectable Discs

In addition to many of us owning a lot of discs, we also wanted to see how many people have discs that are for collecting and not throwing. I am guilty of that, and have a large collection of discs that I never intend to throw (I collect discs with bear stamps, among others). Let’s see how many collectors there are by looking at the survey results:

Over half of us have 5 or fewer collectable discs that we don’t throw, with nearly have of those people having zero collectable discs. That still means that most of us have at least one collectable disc. Most of us have between 1-15 discs that meet that criteria. At the extreme, 1.7% of us have 200+ discs that we will never throw. I’m one of the 1.7%.

New Collectable

For those of us who collect discs, we wanted to see how much our collections grew last year. This number might be affected by the type of discs that we collect. For example, if you collect first-run discs, the growth would depend on how many discs were released last year. If you collect all known examples of a certain mold, your growth would depend on how many became available on the collector markets.

Here is how many discs we said that we added to our collection:

Two-thirds of us were content to add three or fewer discs to our collection. Only a tiny percentage of us added 40 or more discs. There were a few that managed to add 200+ to their collection. I want to know more about them and their collection!

Tell Us About YOUR Collection

Since the number of people who have 200+ discs is growing, I would like to add more options for survey respondents to select from, such as 201-300 discs, 301-400 discs, 401-500 discs, and 500+ discs. I would also like to know who has the most discs, or at least who the top few collection sizes. Comment below and let us know approximately how many discs that you own. If you collect discs, let us know what kind of discs you collect.

Check back next week for more State of Disc Golf survey results.