Disc Golf Brands We Know

 

2021 State of Disc Golf

 

One of the great benefits of being such a large disc golf retail store is that Infinite can carry every brand of disc golf disc that we can get our hands on. In addition to the big name brands that everyone has heard of, Infinite also carries smaller brands, including companies just starting out. Some brands we carry literally have only one mold! We want to provide our customers with as many choices as possible so that we can help you live up to our motto: ‘Throw what you love!’

To help you get to know some of the less popular brands, we have been running a blog series which highlights many of these companies. Check out the most recent post here. In the comments to these blogs, invariably there are people posting that they hadn’t heard of the brand before. Bringing awareness was one of the goals in starting the series.

Which Brands Do We Know?

Brand awareness is also one of the questions we asked in the latest State of Disc Golf survey. While Infinite Discs has sales numbers that tell us which brands and molds are the most popular, the survey digs in a little deeper. We want to know if you’ve even heard of some of the manufacturers. We also want to know how well we know the bigger brands. Let’s check out the results.

In the survey, we listed the brands and asked you to rank how well you know each brand on a scale from 1 (Not aware of the brand) to 5 (I regularly follow this brand). I’ll list each number on the scale and show how each company ranked in the survey.   We will start with the least amount of brand awareness.

Never Hear of That Brand?

 

The chart below shows how each brand was ranked according to the percentage of people who have not heard of that brand.  Less than half a percent of us are not aware of Innova, while over 94% of us are not aware of the brand XCom. For the 2% of us that are not aware of the Infinite Discs line, click here. 😁

Here are the results. The higher on the chart, the less know the brand:

Some of the brands are still rather small and are on the high end of the scale. There are some in the middle that I wonder if people aren’t associating certain molds with the company that produces them. For example, a lot of people have heard of a Wizard, but might not know that the Wizard is a Gateway disc.

Know a Little

 

The next answer in the survey asks if we have at least heard of the company. Just to clarify, while nearly all of us have heard of Innova, this survey question asks if that is the MOST we know about the company. Here are the results:

 

The next option in the survey was to indicate that we at least know a little about the company. Maybe we know their top-selling molds. Or we have a buddy that throws some of their discs. We might even have one of their molds, but don’t know much more than that. Keep in mind this chart, like the last, indicates the most we know of the company. Here is the chart:

 

 

Familiar Disc Golf Brand

 

The next category is that we know enough about a company that we could hold a conversation about them. We know their molds, or at least their most popular molds, and know the flight numbers of those molds. Either we throw or have thrown some of their discs. We might even know some of the pros that throw the brand. While we don’t necessarily keep up with their new releases, we have more than a casual knowledge of the company. This is where there should be a little more separation from brand to brand. The higher on the list, the more well-known the company. Let’s see how they stack up:

 

 

Ask Me Anything About…

 

The final category is for the die-hards. The question asked which brands we like well enough that we follow them. Since a large number of us follow the pros and watch the tournaments, we are exposed to a number of brands and molds. We hear what the top disc golfers throw and we know the molds and flight numbers. We hear about the new releases and are eager to try out the ones that fit our lineup. The higher a brand is on this list, the more well-known they are. Here are the top brands:

 

It will likely not come as a surprise to see the company names that are on the leader board of this category. While some brands are relatively new, these are the names we see sponsoring tournaments or sponsoring pros. If a brand can afford to promote their molds, those are the brands we will be exposed to the most and are more likely to throw. The top two on the list, Innova and Discraft, have been around for decades and have a head start on the newer brands. If you’ve been playing for a long time you probably throw one of the older brands. They sold the molds that the long-time players grew up with.

Most and the Least

 

Just for fun I wanted to look at the first and last categories and see if the graphs looked like the inverse of each other. I was pretty close. Below is a graph showing the best known and the least well known manufacturers. You can see that they are close to mirroring each other.

 

Top Sales

 

In addition to learning about the brands that you know or don’t know, I thought we could take a look at Infinite Discs sales for last year and see how the brands that had the most sales compare with the brands that people are most familiar with. As with any statistic from 2020, the numbers are not what we would have seen had Covid19 not affected disc golf supplies. Here are the top selling brands for 2020. The top ten are very similar to the top ten in the category ‘I Regularly Follow This Brand’:

Here are the top ten in sales and brands that are followed:

 

In YOUR Bag

 

The percentages aren’t going to match perfectly because the survey allowed us to select all of the brands that we follow so those numbers will always be bigger that the total sales. These graphs still give us a decent snapshot of the most well-known brands. And, we can always take a peek inside our bags to see if our knowledge of the different brands translates into filling our bags with those brands. In the survey we asked what brands are in our bags. Here is what we indicated. Let’s see if the graph aligns with the brands we follow. These results show what percentage of us throw what brand:

 

 

Once again, the top 10 or 15 brands are pretty much the same as what we sell and which brands are the most well-known. We’ll see in next year’s State of Disc Golf survey if our blog series affects how many brands we know, and see if that means having more brands in our bag.

For the record, one person indicated that they carry 18 different brands in their bag! That sounds like someone as dedicated to a mixed bag as the person who bags only one brand. Either way, we at Infinite are happy to carry as many brands as we can so you can throw what you love!

Comment below and let us know the top few brands that you know best!

State of Disc Golf 2020 – Disc Golf Brands Bagged by State

Brands vs Location

We asked the question, “Which disc brands are found in your bag?” Participants were allowed to pick as many disc brands as were in their bag. With more than 6,000 responses, this was a giant list of brands! We decided to break it down and look at which states bag which brands the most. We’re going to start off with some maps that break down the top brands, and then we’ll list the top five bagged brands in every state. All of this data comes from the 2020 State of Disc Golf Survey.

Most Bagged Brands

Let’s start off with a map of the #1 bagged brand in each state. It may look exactly how you predicted:

Yep! Innova still rules most of the country. It’s important to remember that people may have selected multiple brands that they bag, so whichever brand shows up the MOST in a state, takes the win. This doesn’t mean other brands aren’t popular in these states, it  means that most people bag at least one Innova disc. Dynamic discs holds down the fort in Kansas and North Dakota, and Discraft shines through in Michigan, Iowa, and Alaska.


Without Innova

Now we decided to take the map a step further. What if we eliminate Innova entirely? Which brands would take the chart? Have a look:

This chart may not have looked like this two years ago, but Discraft has really topped the charts over the last couple of years. With Paul McBeth and Paige Pierce joining Discraft’s ranks, it’s inspired a lot of people to try and bag Discraft molds. Dynamic Discs takes a few more states this time, though. Also note, since this is a chart by brand, Dynamic Discs, Latitude 64, and Westside are each represented as their own brands. Some regard them as the same “Trilogy” brand, but technically they are separate.


Without Innova & Discraft

Let’s take this another step further. Let’s eliminate Innova AND Discraft from the equation, and see who takes the cake:

Dynamic Discs comes in strong! This means that most people do bag Innova, Discraft, and Dynamic Discs molds in their bags. Dynamic Discs almost completely takes the chart in 3rd place for bagged molds. It also shows how strong Dynamic Discs is over it’s family brands, Latitude 64, and Westside. Some new faces appear on this chart: Discmania, MVP, Westside, and Latitude 64.


Without Innova, Discraft & Trilogy

Shall we take it one last step? Let’s Eliminate Innova, Discraft, and ALL of the Trilogy brands to see if we can bring some color variety into the chart:

Did you see that coming? Discmania shows up strong and sweeps most of the country! I think we can attribute a lot of this to Discmania’s massive popularity of the P2. It’s been the #1 selling putter at www.infinitediscs.com for three years running now. Discmania also has a lot of really great discs and signature molds that people love! Prodigy takes a bit of the South region, and MVP takes a good variety of the eastern half of the country, plus Alaska and Hawaii.


Brands per Bag

This data has shown us a lot. There are very dominate brands that appear in a lot of player’s bags. Innova, Discraft, Dynamic Discs, and Discmania have shown us that. We also noticed in the survey data just how many people are throwing mixed bags.

Here’s a histogram chart that shows how many brands each survey participant bags.

We find that most people bag between 3 and 7 brands, and there’s still a big chunk of people who bag even more! Some people are bagging 10+ brands in their bag. There were even a couple of wild people who throw 20+ brands! They must have a different brand for every mold in their bag. We love it when people try out some of the lesser known brands.

Top 5 Bagged Brands by State

Now the moment you may or may not have been waiting for! We’ll list off the Top 5 Disc Golf Bagged Brands in every state. You can see how your bag lines up with your state.

Alabama
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Westside
Alaska
  1. Discraft
  2. Dynamic Discs
  3. Innova
  4. MVP
  5. Latitude 64
Arizona
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Discmania
Arkansas
  1. Innova
  2. Dynamic Discs
  3. Discraft
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Westside
California
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Discmania
  5. Latitude 64
Colorado
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Discmania
  5. Latitude 64
Connecticut
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Discmania
Delaware
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Discmania
  4. Dynamic Discs
  5. Latitude 64
Florida
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Westside
Georgia
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. MVP
Hawaii
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Latitude 64
  4. MVP
  5. Prodigy
Idaho
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Westside
Illinois
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Discmania
Indiana
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Westside
Iowa
  1. Discraft
  2. Innova
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Laitude 64
  5. Discmania
Kansas
  1. Dynamic Discs
  2. Innova
  3. Latitude 64
  4. Westside
  5. Discraft
Kentucky
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Prodigy
Louisiana
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Westside
Maine
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Westside
Maryland
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Discmania
  4. Dynamic Discs
  5. Latitude 64
Massachusetts
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Westside
Michigan
  1. Discraft
  2. Innova
  3. MVP
  4. Dynamic Discs
  5. Latitude 64
Minnesota
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Discmania
  5. Latitude 64
Mississippi
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Prodigy
Missouri
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Westside
Montana
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Discmania
  5. Latitude 64
Nebraska
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Westside
Nevada
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Discmania
New Hampshire
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Westside
New Jersey
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Westside
New Mexico
  1. Innova
  2. Dynamic Discs
  3. Latitude 64
  4. Discraft
  5. Westside
New York
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Discmania
North Carolina
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Discmania
North Dakota
  1. Dynamic Discs
  2. Discraft
  3. Innova
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Westside
Ohio
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Discmania
Oklahoma
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Discmania
Oregon
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Discmania
Pennsylvania
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Wetside
Rhode Island
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Wetside
South Carolina
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Discmania
South Dakota
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Westside
Tennessee
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Prodigy
Texas
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Discmania
Utah
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Westside
Vermont
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Latitude 64
  4. Westside
  5. Discmania
Virginia
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Discmania
Washington
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Discmania
West Virginia
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. MVP
Wisconsin
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Dynamic Discs
  4. Latitude 64
  5. Discmania
Wyoming
  1. Innova
  2. Discraft
  3. Westside
  4. Dynamic Discs
  5. Latitude 64

 



Be sure to check back weekly for more 2020 State of Disc Golf Statistics Blogs!

State of Disc Golf 2019–Brand Preferences

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

  1. Dynamic Discs–17.45%
  2. Discraft–13.33%
  3. Discmania–10.97%
  4. MVP–10.46%
  5. 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?

  1. Innova/Discmania/Millennium/Hyzerbomb/Infinite–45.84%
  2. Dynamic Discs/Latitude 64/Westside–27.73%
  3. Axiom/MVP/Streamline–10.47%
  4. Discraft/DGA/Plastic Addicts–10.20%
  5. 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!

State of Disc Golf – What Brands Do You Know and Throw?

In the 2018 State of Disc Golf Survey we asked some questions that we love to ask every year– we want to know which brands are most recognized and loved, plus how many players bag discs by those brands. Sometimes we see an imbalance between brand awareness and loyalty vs. what is actually inside a player’s bag. For example, last year we discovered that while more people claimed that Dynamic Discs and Latitude 64 were their favorite brands, there were actually more people who had Discraft in their bags than those who bagged Dynamic Discs or Latitude 64. Let’s take a look at how those results panned out in this year’s survey.

BRAND AWARENESS VS IN YOUR BAG

First of all, this chart excludes any brands that were under 1% of survey participants claiming to bag the brand. The “Regularly Follow the Brand” data is made up of those participants who said that they regularly follow the brand as apposed to “not aware of them,” “heard of them,” “I know some things about them,” etc. In other words, we only included the data where players ranked the brand the highest in terms of awareness.

Innova has taken the top spot again in terms of high brand awareness with Dynamic Discs, Latitude 64, and Westside (all Trilogy brands) following behind. When it comes to bagging the brand, Discraft has now fallen right behind Dynamic Discs, but is still in front of Latitude 64. That is still a big disparity between people who regularly follow Discraft and those who bag Discraft — while they don’t follow the brand, they do have Discraft discs in their bag. It’s probably safe to assume that the extremely popular Buzzz mid-range has a lot to do with that.

Discmania is also making great headway in terms of the number of players who bag their discs, and their brand awareness is also growing rapidly. MVP and Axiom have picked up in the number of players bagging their discs. The awareness of those brands has also pulled up the awareness of their newer spin-off brand, Streamline, though not as many people bag that brand yet (at the time of this survey there were only two Streamline molds).

The rising of other smaller brands in awareness and disc use, like RPM, Mint Discs, Kastaplast, Hyzer Bomb, etc. is encouraging in showing that more players are becoming aware of newer or smaller brands, and are more likely now to add their discs to bags when compared to previous years.

FAVORITE MANUFACTURER

 

We also asked survey participants this question: If you could throw discs made by only one manufacturer, which would it be?

The “Innova Made” brands took the lead with 46.4% and that includes brands like Discmania, Hyzer Bomb, and Millenium, which are all manufactured by Innova.

Trilogy came in a strong second with 32.9% and that includes the brands Dynamic Discs, Latitude 64, and Westside.

MVP also manufactures Axiom and Streamline Discs, and they now take up third place with 9.3%. Though quite a bit behind the two leaders, they are a fast-growing part of the disc golf market. They passed Discraft this year to take that third place spot.

Another ironic move in this year’s survey is that Vibram jumped into sixth place where they didn’t even hit the top eight last year. But since the survey they have opted to exit the disc golf business.

CHANGING BRAND LOYALTIES

Finally, we asked if survey participants had changed their favorite brand during the last year. The majority 74.5% said that they did not change favorite brands, while the other 25.5% said that they did. So, a quarter of disc golfers changed brand loyalties last year, showing that the market is still fluid when it comes to branding.

 

2015 State of Disc Golf: Manufacturer’s Overview

The results are in, and once again this series of blogs will examine the numbers, the changes, and the interesting aspects of our opinions about disc golf. We sincerely appreciate everyone who took the time to share a little bit about yourself so that we can get a better picture of the disc golf community.

We will begin by looking at the brands we like and the changes from the last survey.

 

Our BFF!

With the certainty of Paul McBeth sinking a 10-meter putt, Innova dominated the category of ‘Favorite Brand’ again this year. Last year they not only led the category, they also had an increase in percentage of respondents from the previous year. This year’s survey showed a little different picture. The undisputed champion (pardon the pun) of the disc golf world slipped a little bit, dropping from 48% to 43%. But, that’s still higher than the 2013 survey (38%). The next few positions experienced a few changes, but not big numbers. Discraft dropped from second place at 12% last year, to fourth this year at just under 10%. Dynamic Discs gained some ground, going from fourth last year with 6%, to second this year at nearly 12%. In third place, Latitude held steady at 10%.

When taken as a whole, the three members of the Trilogy brand (Westside, Latitude 64, and Dynamic Discs) were the favorite of 26% of respondents.

It is interesting to note that nearly a third of us changed our favorite brand from last year. With that much change, there is potential for some big swings in numbers. Yet, other than Dynamic Discs’ 6% increase, none of the changes were drastic.

Favorite Brand

 

 

Fav Brand Change

 

Just Can’t Wait!

Although it is interesting to explore our favorite brands, there are other statistics in the survey that give a clearer picture of which brands are important to us. For example, the question “From which brand do you most look forward to new releases” showed a lot more even distribution of votes across manufacturers. According to the survey, 22.5% of us look forward to new releases from Innova. They are still number one in this category, but that is nearly half the number of respondents that chose Innova as their favorite brand. The second-most anticipated release is from Dynamic Discs at 15.3%, and rounding out the top three is Latitude 64 with 11.9%. Incidentally, nearly 12% of us don’t really look forward to new releases.

Anticipated Release

 

Innova-tion

Is Innova going to lead every poll category? Nope. For the question, “Which brand is the most innovative?” MVP edged out Innova for the lead spot, 23.2% to 22.6%. MVP gained in percentage about what Innova lost. The two companies have been trading positions for the last few years. The third and fourth positions were held by Dynamic Discs and Latitude 64.

Innoative

 

Respect

Innova isn’t just dominating nearly every poll category, they are garnering respect from more than their die-hard fans. In the category asking which manufacturer has the best reputation, Innova took a huge lead over second place, getting 58.2% of the votes. The next closest was Dynamic at 12.9%. Perhaps people know how long Innova has been involved in the sport. Maybe it’s their sponsorship of so many events. Maybe it is the fact that they sponsor the four-time world champion, and other world-class disc golfers. It could even be their thorough selection of discs. This does not seem to be the type of category that would be inflated because of Innova’s wide and varied distribution channels. It just appears to be a nod to an old, established company. Whatever the reason, the number of respondents who voted for them far exceeds the number that chose Innova as their favorite brand. That’s pretty impressive.

Reputation

 

One-brand Warriors

Similar to last year, about 6% of us have only one brand in our bags. Most of us are happy to throw discs from a variety of manufacturers, but these loyalist only throw a single brand. Innova aficionados make up 54% of the single-brand supporters. Discraft devotees come in second at 14%, and Prodigy proponents come in third with 8%. The survey didn’t ask for how many of each brand people had in their bags, so there could be a good percent of us who could be close to having a one-brand bag. However, most disc golfers love to experiment with brands, discs, and plastics (or rubber!).

Single Brand

 

What are you throwin’?

Now it’s time to turn away from how we feel about certain brands and turn to one of the most interesting and telling indicators of what manufacturers we like: what discs are in our bag. As I mentioned before, indicating which brand is our favorite, or which disc company is most revered, does not paint a clear picture of what we huck. So, let’s take a peek inside the bags of the thousands of people who responded. Spoiler alert: Innova won this category, too.

It won’t come as a shock to anyone that most of us have at least one Innova disc in our bag. Again, they are one of the oldest manufacturers, host the widest selection of discs, can be found in a bigger variety of stores, etc. Over 83% of us are carrying around at least one Innova. That number is down ever so slightly from 86.8% last year. That is not a huge decrease, but it will be interesting to see what the future holds for the disc giant.

The second-most common disc manufacturer in our bags is Discraft, with 62.8% of us toting around the brand. Last year 69.2% of us carried Discraft, which is a lot bigger year-to-year drop than Innova. Whose discs are poaching the bag space from these two giants? The members of the Trilogy are. Latitude 64, Dynamic Discs, and Westside, in that order. Latitude 64 went from 42.3% last year, to 49.6% this year. Dynamic Discs experienced a bigger gain, shooting from 35.3% to this year’s 48.6%. Westside also experienced a large increase in fans, moving from seventh place at 26.1% last year, to fifth place at 36.5 in this year’s survey.

Brands in Bag

 

The Winner?

As we’ve seen in the past couple years of conducting the survey, the numbers among the top companies ebb and flow. The growth of the sport creates opportunities for smaller disc companies to stake out their position in the world, and try to create a few more chinks in the armor of the big boys. Newer golfers may be more willing to try different brands, perhaps even with an attitude of rebellion against the “establishment” of older companies. Although the market will prevent too many new competitors from emerging, several existing companies are making headway into what was formerly the domain of Innova and Discraft. Whether newer companies can overtake the top brands remains to be seen, there are a couple of factors that I assert will affect the chances of growth for smaller companies:

  • Becoming the discs that beginners start with. Most of us have a soft spot in our hearts for our first discs. I suspect they affected our buying habits for a long time. By actively introducing new players into the sport, manufacturers stand the chance of becoming their go-to brand.
  • Find the plastic/mold that becomes popular. Okay, it is a lot more difficult to find the next hot model than just releasing a bunch of new discs. But, by continuing to experiment with new materials and molds, the chances of hitting a popular disc goes up.
  • Sponsorship certainly helps keep their brand in people’s minds. Especially if you get lucky and sponsor a world champion.

It is fun and interesting to look at how we view the companies in the disc golf world. Although we can only speculate as to what is driving some of the numbers, it is still interesting to look at data from the survey and see what is the most current snapshot of our preferences in brands. In the next few blogs we’ll continue to look at who we are and what we like.

 

 

State of Disc Golf 2015: Most Popular Brands Worldwide

This year we had enough respondents to determine which brand is most popular throughout the world. We actually didn’t bother making a map for the most popular brand, because it would look like this:

It’s true, Innova is the most popular brand in every state and region of the world. We knew that Innova was dominant from the responses in the survey, but to find out they were the favorite brand in every region. We are amazed. Even across the country in “Scandinavia” Innova was still #1. Had we asked specific countries, perhaps Sweden would have been Latitude 64.

We know that from interacting with others, they may disagree. We have seen the comments that say “everybody throws such and such brand where I live.” Our response to that is, you may not know everybody in your state that plays disc golf. In some cases, the sample size should be larger to strongly say that we are strongly confident in these results (more specifically, the results below). For example, we awarded no 2nd place in Wyoming because there is not enough data to determine.

Where things start to get interesting is when we look at where the second most popular brands are found in this image:
2nd-Most-Popular-Brand

Here’s what stood out to us from the image above:

  1. This is a colorful map. Many different brands (outside of Innova) are strongly favored in different parts of the world.
  2. The closer a brand is to its headquarters, it tends to be more highly favored in that area.

Legacy is headquartered in California. What is California and Nevada’s second favorite brand Legacy? DD is in Kansas, and is dominant in the midwest. The exceptions start to come with MVP, where disc golf manufacturuing is

Before you comment:

To understand how Infinite Discs has come to conclusions in this article, please read our State of Disc Golf 2015: Introduction post. After you understand the statistics and methodology of the survey, feel free to post.

State of Disc Golf 2015: Popularity Around the World

We had some fun digging much deeper into the data to do some per capita comparisons and are super intrigued by what we have found. According to the data, Maine has more disc golfers per person than anywhere else in the world! Below is information about how popular disc golf is in each state, and region of the world.

For the images below, we did not make a world map, just a United States map. The shades of the lettering on the actual name of the territory (such as Canada) indicates how popular disc golf is in said area. For exact details, scroll to the bottom of this post; we published the number of responses from every region. Africa, South America, and Antarctica were not options in the poll; they will be included next year.

Where today's disc golfers are (number of respondents/ divided by population). The more popular areas are shaded darker.

Where today’s disc golfers are (number of respondents/ divided by population). The more popular areas are shaded darker.


Disc golf popularity according to Google Trends. This graph adds validity the previous graph, by comparing search data to where respondents are located. The graphs look incredibly similar.

Disc golf popularity according to Google Trends.
This graph adds validity the previous graph, by comparing search data to where respondents are located. The graphs look incredibly similar.


Region # Respondents Population in Millions
Respondents per Million
Alabama 62 4.78 1.30
Alaska 21 0.71 2.96
Arizona 57 6.39 0.89
Arkansas 33 2.92 1.13
Asia 4 4,427.00 0.00
Australia 30 23.3 0.13
California 353 37.25 0.95
Canada 151 35.16 0.43
Colorado 132 5.03 2.62
Connecticut 37 3.57 1.04
Delaware 15 0.9 1.67
District of Columbia 1 0.6 0.17
Europe 67 722.38 0.01
Europe – Scandinavia 133 20.12 0.66
Florida 134 18.8 0.71
Georgia 133 9.69 1.37
Hawaii 7 1.36 0.51
Idaho 52 1.57 3.32
Illinois 174 12.83 1.36
Indiana 107 6.48 1.65
Iowa 82 3.05 2.69
Kansas 101 2.85 3.54
Kentucky 67 4.34 1.54
Louisiana 29 4.53 0.64
Maine 50 1.33 3.76
Maryland 40 5.77 0.69
Massachusetts 124 6.55 1.89
Michigan 273 9.88 2.76
Minnesota 148 5.3 2.79
Mississippi 26 2.97 0.88
Missouri 146 5.99 2.44
Montana 11 0.99 1.11
Nebraska 20 1.83 1.10
Nevada 17 2.7 0.63
New Hampshire 36 1.32 2.73
New Jersey 32 8.79 0.36
New Mexico 18 2.06 0.87
New York 101 19.38 0.52
North Carolina 232 9.54 2.43
North Dakota 9 0.67 1.34
Ohio 157 11.54 1.36

Before you comment:

To understand how Infinite Discs has come to conclusions in this article, please read our State of Disc Golf 2015: Introduction post. After you understand the statistics and methodology of the survey, feel free to post.

State of Disc Golf 2015: Manufacturer Overview

Before you read:

To understand how Infinite Discs has come to conclusions in this article, please read our State of Disc Golf 2015: Introduction post.

Which brand is the favorite in 2014?

Innova ran away with the title of most popular brand again in 2014. While that fact may not be surprising, what stands out is the amount of increase in popularity from 2013 to 2014. This year, nearly half of all respondents chose Innova as their favorite brand of disc (48%). According to last year’s survey, 38% of disc golfers chose Innova as the favorite brand. That is a sizable increase in one year.

[one_half]Coming in second place  is Discraft at 12%. That percentage is down slightly from 2013. Third place belonged to Latitude 64 with 10% of respondents listing them as the favorite. Dynamic Discs came in next at 6%, followed by MVP and Prodigy, with 5% each. The top six manufacturers stayed in the same order from 2013, with their percentages changing only slightly.

It isn’t surprising that Innova remains at the top of the disc golf world. They have a long, thriving history, the largest selection of models and plastics, they are made in America, and they sponsor three-time World Champion Paul McBeth. They are an established institution in disc golf.

Because of its dominance, Innova is also sold in department and sporting goods stores, in addition to specialty disc golf shops. For that reason, many respondents are only familiar with Innova.

2014 Survey Change

Last year, in many of the survey questions, several brands were combined and listed as a single manufacturer. For example, Latitude 64 manufactures Dynamic Discs and Westside (also known as Trilogy). This year, “Trilogy” brands had 19% of this pie.

Likewise, MVP and Axiom are made by MVP and 6% of the pie.

This year, and in future surveys, each individual brand will be considered separately so its changes are clearer from year to year. In this summary, we will mention the combined statistics for comparison.

Brand Loyalty

Only 6% of disc golfers are so loyal that they will only throw discs from one manufacturer. Most respondents choose from a variety of brands. That’s important because it says that even though people have their favorite brand, they are willing to try different ones. Of the 6% who only throw one brand, 61% of them chose Innova, while Prodigy and Discraft loyalists represented 14% each. Vibram came in at 3%, Legacy just over 1%, and all other brands less than 1%.

Not surprisingly, when asked if you HAD TO throw only one brand, which you would choose, the results were nearly exactly the same as the favorite brands. Only a percentage point at most separated this category from the favorites. Last year Latitude 64 was selected by 20% of the respondents, but included Westside and Dynamic Discs brands. This year, adding the numbers from those three brands, we get 21%, which is nearly identical.

What does the future hold?

While Innova remains the undisputed king of disc golf, several smaller brands are releasing popular discs and working hard to claim their share of the market. That is good, because competition among manufacturers is healthy for the sport. Several statistics indicate that smaller companies are making headway.

Most Anticipated Releases

To start with, in addition to the fact that most respondents throw several brands of discs, the survey also indicates that they like to know what discs will be released from many different manufacturers. Which brand’s releases are people looking forward to the most?

Innova still leads at 33%. After them is Latitude 64 at 11%. Dynamic Discs was the third most anticipated brand with 10%, followed by Discraft, MVP, and Prodigy with 9%, 8%, and 7% respectively. Westside rounds out the top seven with 5%. Even though 48% of disc golfers chose Innova as their favorite disc company, only 33% anticipate its releases more than other brands.

Last year, Innova received only 16% of the votes, showing a major increase this year. On the contrary, MVP was the most anticipated in 2013 and has dropped off significantly. At the time of this survey in 2013, MVP had just announced the Axiom brand (which is now its own option in this survey), and rumors of their distance drivers were on the horizon.

When we combine the Trilogy numbers for this year, we get a total of 26%, which is up quite a bit from last year’s 18%. Innova’s and the Trilogy’s increases came at the expense of MVP and Prodigy, who decreased 12% and 7% respectively. Discraft’s anticipated releases raised slightly, from 8% to 9%.

Most Innovative Brand

When it comes to innovation, the race is a little tighter among manufacturers. Innova is perceived to be the most innovative company, and garnered 27% of the votes, up from last year’s 17%. MVP was not far behind this year with 19% of respondents.  That is a decrease from 38% last year. Latitude 64 was next with 12%, followed by Dynamic Discs and Prodigy at 9% each. Vibram, the only company making discs out of a different material, carried 7% of the votes. Discraft sat at 5%. Comparing Trilogy brands to last year shows an increase from 11% to 21%, which puts them in second place.

While some brands have taken strides in innovation, we feel that a few have accomplishments worth emphasizing:

Trilogy Brands

In 2014, the efforts put in collectively by Trilogy brands have been amazing and they receive our vote as the most innovative. They have diversified their product lineup, popularized the Missilen, which has divots in the plastic for increased aerodynamic properties, and have launched a new blend of plastic which is durable, transparent, flexible, and grippy. But, outside of the product line itself, Dynamic Discs has raised the bar in marketing and creating a premium identity within the industry. Singling out Dynamic Discs within the Trilogy category, they have launched an app specifically for their home National Tour tournament, the Glass Blown Open (which is already sold out at 900 competitors), they have created beautiful short video teasers for new releases, and they sponsor weekly podcasts (which is not new this year). In the end, hats off to Dynamic Discs for their all around efforts to innovate, not just in plastic, but in overall growth for disc golf.

MVP

For how small and young MVP is, they garner many votes in this category. MVP has the best overmold in disc golf. Because it is so unique, it will always stand out as innovative, even if it was introduced long ago. That’s not to say MVP was not innovative in 2014. This year MVP introduced the only overmold discs to ever see the fairway, and they have expanded their product lineup to bring brilliant colors. It’s clear that with MVP their mantra is “If you are going to do something, do it well”. We sometimes consider MVP the “Apple” of disc golf.

Prodigy

In 2013, Prodigy faired well with the amount of new releases, unique plastic blends, and “easy release technology” (which we don’t hear about often anymore). In 2014, Prodigy introduced a new basket with inner horizontal chains which make a chain-out impossible when you hit the target zone. It will be interesting to see how this innovation affects the sport moving forward.

Innova

Innova does something new on an annual basis. In 2013 they began production of overmold discs. In 2014 they created GStar plastic and released it in several popular molds. GStar is a unique blend which is opaque, flexible, durable, grippy, and attractive.

Largest Impact on Disc Golf

The survey also sought to find out which company had the largest impact on disc golf in 2014. The top vote recipient was Innova, who edged out Prodigy, 26% to 22%. Dynamic Discs received 17% of the votes, Latitude 64 got 8%. Discraft and MVP rounded out the list of companies making the largest impact, with 6% and 5% respectively. Innova and Prodigy sponsor a majority of the most widely recognized and skilled disc golfers in the world. That exposure undoubtedly contributed to the high numbers for those manufacturers in this category.

In addition, Innova’s impact on disc golf for simply being in so many stores cannot be measured. How often are players introduced to disc golf while browsing for discs at Hastings? Even Innova may have a hard time calculating that number. Because of the availability of Innova product, more people become attached to disc golf.

Last year Prodigy was voted as the top company to impact disc golf with 40% of respondents. Innova was a distant second with 16%. MVP held a larger share than this year, sitting at 12%. Latitude 64 took fourth with 11%, compared with this year’s combined Trilogy result of 27%.

Best Reputation in Disc Golf

Which disc golf brand has the best reputation? In the most lopsided category, Innova crushed the competition with 58% of the votes. The next closest was Discraft at a distant 12%. Dynamic Discs had 8%, and Latitude 64 had 7%. MVP and Prodigy tied at 4%. That says a lot about Innova when people who throw other brands still respect them.

Last year Innova also led the category with 51% choosing them. Discraft took second last year with 16%. Latitude 64 and MVP rounded out the top four with 11% and 7%. The Trilogy result for this year is 16%, which is still significantly behind the leader, Innova.

Summary

Innova dominates the disc golf world, but certainly has a lot of competitors hungry for a bigger slice of that growing pie. What would it take to unseat the giant? Major breakthroughs are rare in disc golf. True, discs come along that certainly make waves, but what new development will occur that might allow one of the smaller manufacturers to become the new number one? Maybe a new plastic type? Or new material altogether?  It’s more likely that smaller brands will just need to expand their lines to offer a bigger variety of speed and flight characteristics. And, just keep getting their name out there. Sponsoring disc golfers, sponsoring major tournaments, and offering specialty tournaments might turn the tide for Innova’s competitors. Perhaps smaller companies might focus on introducing new players to the sport. That would grow the sport, the customer base, and possibly create lifelong, dedicated fans of their brand.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to share a little part of your disc golf world. The results will be posted in periodic blogs at InfiniteDiscs.com, each blog covering different aspects of the survey.  If you would like to be alerted to new posts, scroll down to join the Infinite Discs mailing list.

In coming articles we will explore more nuances of respondent’s choices for tops brands. We will examine who the typical disc golfers is, and how that affects which brands they prefer. We will also look at who is switching brands and which companies they are moving to and from.

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