disc golf discs Archives

Most Important Factors for Selecting a Disc: Weight, Flight Ratings, Color

April 14, 2022 Ted Hegemann 2 comments

Choosing the Right Disc: What to Consider

When it comes to buying a disc, there are many factors we might consider in making our decision about which disc to choose. I think that most of us have established our hierarchy of disc needs that we weigh against the options available.

Flight numbers, for better or worse, and weight are definitely high on my list of requirements. There are many molds and weights that are outside my set parameters and I would never buy one of those discs. Plastic type is only slightly behind weight and flight in importance, and sometimes I have some flexibility in what I will buy – assuming that my top preference is not available.

Following those three factors, my hierarchy becomes less about needs, and more about desires.

Although I will throw any brand, I have a lot of Infinite molds in my bag because I like the molds and plastics. And I will also throw any color disc, but if I have a choice I will pick bright pink. Pink is the best color when you end up searching for a lost disc in bushes, trees, or long grass. (I love the look of a black disc, but HATE looking for a black disc in bushes!) Collectability, resale value, and the stamp are all important factors in certain circumstances. But, for a thrower those things are near the bottom of my list.

Factors in Choosing Discs

All of the factors mentioned above are what we asked about in the State of Disc Golf survey. This week we will look at what we consider important factors in disc selection. We will also look at a couple of subsets of survey participants and which factors are important for them. Let’s start with the three things that I place at the top of my preference list: flight numbers, weight, and plastic type.

We have established in previous survey blogs that although some of us buy discs to collect and not throw, most of us are going to play with the discs we buy. Since that is the reason we are buying most of our discs, the factors affecting the flight will be the most important things to consider. Here are the results of the survey question asking about the importance of those factors. We gave four options to select, ranging from ‘Don’t care at all’ to ‘Very important’.

Flight Numbers

Nearly 90% of disc golfers consider the flight numbers of the disc as an important factor. 59.1% consider flight numbers very important while 29.6% feel the flight numbers are semi-important.

Disc Weight

To more than 90% of disc golfers the weight of the disc is an important factor when selecting what to buy. While flight numbers are very important to the majority, weight is not rated “very important” quite as often.

Plastic Type

Disc golf is full of different plastic blends and varieties. Players develop preferences, and the plastic type of the disc is important to 96% of disc golfers. My guess is that the plastic preferences don’t variate much between premium plastics, but do vary substantially between a disc mold when comparing a base and a premium disc mold.

Our Disc Choices

It is interesting to see that more people chose plastic type as being Very Important than chose flight numbers or weight. Regardless, around 90% of us consider those three factors as being at least semi-important. I would expect at least that amount, and maybe more. Let’s look at a few more factors.

Less Important Disc Selection Factors

Beyond the flight of the disc we might consider its aesthetics when looking for a disc to buy. Finding a color that is appealing, or utilitarian, as well as a stamp that we like can be as difficult as finding the right flight numbers and weight. Even more so if we prefer a specific brand of disc. Here are the survey results showing the importance we place on those three factors.

Disc Color

The color of the disc is important, but more than 32% of disc golfers don’t consider the disc color as important while only 22.6% of disc golfers surveyed consider color to be very important.

Disc Golf Brand

There are many brand loyalists in disc golf, especially for sponsored players. Over 70% of disc golfers consider the brand of the disc as an important factor when selecting their next frisbee to buy.

Disc Stamp & Stamp Artwork

While having a good looking disc with a nice stamp and artwork is awesome, just a little over half of surveyed disc golfers consider the stamp artwork as important with only 14.2% of disc golfers saying that the disc stamp is very important.

Once again, if we consider the percentage of us who think that those factors are semi-important to very important, we see that brand and color are hovering around the 70% mark. The stamp/ artwork factor drops off a bit from the other two categories, coming in near the 54% mark. All things considered, most of us would take an amazing, good-looking stamp over a boring stamp. But, little more than half of us make that a priority. Disc color and brand are a bit higher.

Buying Discs for Collectability and Resale Value

The final two factors to look at when buying a disc are beyond the throwers that most of us are looking for. Buying a disc for its collectability, or rarity, is something that few of us think about. Resale value is important to even fewer of us. While there are many in our sport who buy a rare disc to immediately flip it for a profit, most of us don’t make purchases for that reason. Even the one in five of us who buys a discs for its collectability does so without the thought of resale value about half of the time. Here are the numbers:

Skill Affecting Decisions

What factors are most important to beginners, intermediate players and professional disc golfers?

Jumping back to the top three factors that most of us consider when buying a disc (Weight, Flight Numbers, and Plastic Type), I wanted to see how our skill level impacts the importance we place on those characteristics. Let’s compare the numbers of beginner/intermediates with professionals. Here is the data:

Although both skill levels give the Weight of a disc nearly the same level of importance, there is a bit of difference when it comes to Flight Numbers and Plastic Type. Looking at what those two skill levels consider are the most important characteristics, we see that professionals care a significant amount more about plastic type than beginners. And beginners care about the same amount more than pros do about Flight Numbers.

Our Flight Rating System

Ahhh, flight numbers. Many disparaging remarks have been made about our current 4-number flight rating system. As flawed as it may be, many of us still rely on it for information about a particular mold. As people first get into disc golf they learn about the flight rating we use, and rely on it heavily. That would explain the higher number of beginners who value the Flight Numbers.

As people get more experience in the sport, I suspect they rely on other methods of determining which disc will be useful to them. Talking to other experienced players, and seeing what other people on their level are throwing would be more accurate to them than the flight numbers. They likely also develop more of a feel for what they want to throw, which would explain the higher value placed on the Plastic Type by pros over less experienced players.

Collectors – How Many Discs do They Buy

One other subset of the general population that I wanted to look as is the avid collectors. For this blog we will look at the 344 people who said they bought more than 40 discs that they will collect and not throw. I wanted to see what value they place on Stamp/Artwork and Resale Value. Let’s see what the survey says:

It’s not surprising to see a higher percentage of people who collect discs make Stamps and Resale Value a higher priority. Speaking from experience, there are some discs I want to add to my collection regardless of the stamp. Other discs I want exclusively because of the stamp. The Nicola Tesla stamp is a good example of that. Plus, I think that most of us like the idea of having discs in our collection that enough people want that gives us the option of selling it down the road for a tidy sum. That’s just a little more of a priority for collectors.

Comment Below

Comment below and let us know which of these survey results surprised you the most, and which was completely expected. Then check back next week for more survey results!

State of Disc Golf: How Many Discs We Own

April 6, 2022 Ted Hegemann One comment

When people are new to the sport of disc golf, they tend to experiment with a variety of discs to find ones that they like and that fly well for them. I think most of us go through that experience. Hopefully we have friends that can guide our disc selections so we don’t end up buying discs based on the name, description, or marketing, when we have no business throwing that disc yet. How many of us bought a “Super-Long Distance High-Speed Driver” as a newbie?

Our Growing Disc Collection

Once we learn about flight numbers, we manage our buying a bit, but are still left experimenting with discs because of the inconsistencies of the flight numbers. Plus, most of us are still attracted to the latest, greatest molds and plastics being released today. What we end up with is a lot of discs. Throw leagues and tournaments in the mix and our collection is continually growing through player’s packs, CTP prizes, and found discs. It doesn’t take long before our throng of discs numbers in the hundreds.
In addition to all of those means of acquiring discs, add some disc dying and collecting and we can end up with a small disc store worth of discs. That leads us to today’s State of Disc Golf survey results examining how many discs we own and our disc buying habits.

The sizes of our disc golf collections is something that I look forward to finding out about every year for the survey. As someone who is guilty of being in the ‘200+’ club since my early days in the sport, I like to see how many fellow disc golfers are in the same category. We’ll start with the question, “How many discs do you own?”

The results show that the largest category, which is also the average, is the 41-60 group. If we think about it, that number is pretty much a bag full of discs, several backups, a few practice putters, an ace disc or three, and maybe a handful of discs that we’ve either outgrown but haven’t given away or sold, or that we can’t throw well yet. It’s a good number of discs.

Mega-Collections

At the low end of the scale are those people who have a bare minimum of discs. Well under 200 people own 10 or fewer discs. At the other end of the ownership graph are the people like me who have 200 or more discs. (Next year in the survey I would like to explore that last category to get a clearer picture about that number. How many have 500+ or 1000+!)

There are nearly 1100 of us that own 200+ discs. If I’m going to categorize the disc golfer who own that many discs, I tend to think they are either collectors or hoarders. But maybe they are just people who buy a lot of discs to try. Let’s look at what the survey said about the number of collector discs we own.

Wall-Hangers

For the survey question, we asked how many discs we own that we won’t throw. That could include discs we are collecting, ace discs, or sentimental discs. Let’s look at those numbers.

Over a third of us believe in the mantra that discs are made to be thrown. Combine that number with the number of people who have between 1-5 discs that they won’t throw and you have three-fourths of us who don’t collect a lot of discs. Looking at the graph we see a diminishing number of people have discs we won’t throw with each category of increasing numbers of discs, with a couple of minor exceptions. At the other extreme, we see about 5% of us that have 100 or more discs that we won’t throw.

Adding To Our Stash

In addition to seeing how many of us have discs we won’t throw, we wanted to see how many discs we acquired for collecting purposes just last year. Let’s see how much our collections grew in 2021.

An overwhelming number of us bought 14 or fewer discs for collecting last year. That seems like a reasonable number of discs for most of us to slowly grow our collections. But there are still around 4.5% of us who picked up 40 or more discs that we don’t have any intention of throwing. And .4% of us, 32 survey participants, who added 200 or more discs to their stash last year alone. That’s a lot of discs!

Disc Buying During Shortages

Let’s see how many of those people, and all of us, bought more discs last year than the prior year.
In the survey we asked how our disc purchases last year compared in number to 2020. We wanted to see how the rising costs of discs, or other circumstances, affected our buying habits. Only a small percentage of us bought fewer discs because of the increased costs.

One of the benefits of our sport is that, for the most part, it is relatively inexpensive to play. I know it CAN be expensive to play, depending on how much we get into the sport. But, it really can be an inexpensive hobby. Compare the cost of a premium-plastic driver to a premium golf club. Because of the price point of most discs, even a sizeable increase in price puts the disc well within most of our budgets.

Historical Collecting

Although we haven’t asked about how price increases affected our buying habits in previous surveys, we have asked how many discs we own. Let’s look at this year’s results compared to previous years, to see we own more discs than previous years. Since the number of people who take the survey varies from year to year, we’ll look at the percentage of people in each category.

From the first State of Disc Golf survey to the most recent, the percentage of us who have a hundred discs or more in our collection has be slowly rising. If that trend continues, it will be interesting to see how much people are willing to pay for the discs that they want to own. We are already seeing high prices for good-looking, rare discs. But, that is the subject for another blog.

Comment below and let us know how many discs you own. And if you’re comfortable disclosing the information, let us know the most you’ve paid for a disc!

Check back next week for more survey results.

New Disc Golf Disc Releases – Prodigy Falcor & Reverb

March 9, 2022 Keith Barker Leave a comment

Another week, and some more time to enjoy life. With this week there are some new disc molds that are coming out this week. Not as many as there have been in the past, but

This Week Releases

Prodigy Falcor

The Prodigy Falcor will be available for purchase on Thursday, March 10, 2022. The Falcor seems to feel a bit wider than a Destroyer. This disc is quite stable, I find that it does push a little more than I would have anticipated. Even with this nice glide, this disc is still rather quite overstable. Probably a little too much for me though, I don’t have that strong of an arm though.

The Falcor is the first disc in the Cale Leiviska line of discs. This is an overstable distance driver that provides a large amount of glide. Higher speed arms will achieve max distance out of this disc.

Prodigy Reverb

The Prodigy Reverb, feels good in the hand. This disc is a wide rimmed distance driver. Even though it is a 13 speed driver, this is still fairly comfortable to my grip. It is surprising that this is comfortable to me. This thing is quite beefy for me, it flies very straight and then fades hard. I can easily see this thing withstanding a lot of windy conditions. It definitely makes for a great utility disc, for me that is, I don’t have the strongest of arms. Come tomorrow, you’ll be able to get this for yourself tomorrow.

The Reverb is the first disc of of the Kevin Jones line of discs. This is an overstable distance driver with a little more fade at the end. This handles power, deflects wind, and works as a utility driver. The Reverb will hold a line for the majority of the time before the fade kicks in.

Be sure to check these molds out, as well as all of your other disc golf needs at Infinite Discs. Have a good one!

Infinite Discs Restock

March 2, 2022 Keith Barker 2 comments

Here at Infinite despite all of the complications that the Pandemic has caused. We are working hard to restock all that we can. In case you haven’t noticed, here is a handful of the Infinite molds that have been restocked:

Pharaoh in Swirly S-Blend

In this most recent run of Pharaohs has a lot of great swirls in the plastic. The aesthetic of this plastic is superb! As someone who doesn’t throw the Pharaohs, these discs make me want to grab one and throw it. That’s how good these discs look. Grab your beautiful Pharaoh for $16.99.

The Pharaoh is the quintessential distance driver, built for a high speed release and maximum distance. The fade is not overpowering, making this a distance driver that will work wonders even for intermediate players. Throw the Pharaoh off the tee when you need to cover as much territory as possible. Rule your local disc golf course with the Pharaoh!

Cohort in D-Blend and R-Blend

This mold is a well loved. It makes for an excellent putter, whether your putting or using it for approach shots. This thing flies straight. For approach shots, this disc is definitely a favorite. You can get this now in D-Blend for $8.29 or in R-Blend for $11.99.

The Cohort is a unique putt-and-approach disc that is a great, beadless option for mid-range and approach shots with a comfortable rim for either backhand or forehand players. The revolution toward smaller-diameter discs for mid-range shots continues and the Cohort is stable enough to hold the line when thrown with confidence.

Scarab in D-Blend

The Scarab is a pretty solid disc. It is a stable putter that allows for some great throws or powerful putts. With its bead, it provides a comfortable resting spot for your forefinger. This is an enjoyable disc to throw. This is restocked in the D-Blend plastic, only for $8.29.

The Scarab is a beaded putter that has a similar rim configuration to the Infinite Discs Myth, but with a different flight plate that provides a longer glide for longer putts and approaches. If you love throwing putters for distance, or you’re seeking pinpoint accuracy with your putting game, the Scarab will earn a spot in your disc bag.

Centurion in D-Blend Glow

This fairway driver is a really easy disc to throw. It offers great control and decent distance. The Centurion makes for an excellent disc to use on the longer upshots, or if you’re looking for some needed control. We’ve restocked this disc in D-Blend Glow, it is available now for $11.99, perfect for those glow rounds. Especially now that it is warming up again.

The Centurion is a workable fairway driver. It is a straight-flying, precision driver that will fit into the bags of both novice and professional players. All players can count on the Centurion to hold whichever line they put it on with only a slight end fade. It is a workhorse control driver for precise placement on the fairway.

Dynasty in I-Blend

This control driver is a new release, just as of last week. It is a pretty awesome disc, it is on the verge of a distance driver. To me this 9 speed driver provides a very comfortable grip. I also find that it is quite controllable and offers just enough stability to put power behind it and work to get the distance that I’m looking for. While also able to control it, I really like this disc. For now, it is available in I-Blend, grab yours for $12.99.

The Dynasty is a stable fairway driver. This control driver offers enough stability to provide a consistent “S-curve” flight. Also, it can still fly most any line you would want. Making this into a highly controllable disc. All the while it can achieve good distance for beginner and advanced players alike.

Alpaca in Gummy C-Blend

The Alpaca is an awesome putter. I’ve enjoyed this disc for my putter, as well as a driver. Now, we will make this disc available in Gummy C-Blend Plastic. I really enjoy a flexible plastic, and that is what this blend is, flexible. It is pretty awesome! You should definitely give this putter a try, as it is consistent and floaty. A very versatile putter. You’ll be able to get this disc for $15.49, and it will release tonight at midnight.

The Alpaca is the quintessential beadless putter. While the Infinite Discs Cohort has a somewhat low profile rim, the Alpaca presents a deeper rim for more of a traditional putter feel. Whether thrown at the basket or lofted high for approaches and drives, the Alpaca will carry your workload with ease.

In Conclusion

These are the new Infinite Molds that we have added in these past weeks. We are constantly working to restock all molds, and there are always new discs added. You can check out the newly added discs by clicking here.

Factors Influencing Disc Purchases

April 8, 2021 Ted Hegemann One comment

The State of Disc Golf 2021

Factors in Buying a Disc

Three weeks ago we looked at the number of discs that we bought in 2020. On average, we bought around 25 discs each. For the record, according to the survey, we bought over 157,000 discs last year! Of all the discs sold, what factors went into deciding which disc we would buy? This week we’ll take a look at those factors and how heavily they influence our buying decisions. Let’s look at the factors in the order they appeared in the survey. In the survey, we listed the factors, then gave participants the option to choose how much that factor affected our purchases. The options were:

Don’t Care At All
Not Very Important
Semi Important
Very Important

Obviously, when it comes to buying discs, there are many things that each of us look for. Sometimes we have to sacrifice some of those preferences in order to get a disc. Or, we decide that the available discs don’t check enough of our preference boxes, and we don’t buy until we find a disc that meets more factors. Other times the stars align and we find exactly what we’re looking for. Let’s break it down to the different factors and see how we rate them.

Manufacturer

According to last year and this year’s survey, only about 5% of us only throw discs from only one manufacturer. An overwhelming majority of us have a mixed bag. That being said, most of us still care about which manufacturer’s disc we will throw. Roughly 82% of us thought it was at least semi-important. That leaves about 18% of us who don’t care much, or at all, about the manufacturer.

I suspect that much of the loyalty we exhibit is because of our familiarity with certain brands. We throw what we know. When it comes to quality discs, even the smaller brands sell discs that are high quality. That doesn’t really matter though if we stick with brands we already know about. We know the flight numbers of the brands we like, and are familiar with the feel of their molds and plastics, so we stick with those. Here is the graph of the results:

Plastic

For most of us, the feel of a disc ranks pretty high on our personal hierarchy of disc factors. Durability is also a reason people give for selecting certain plastics. Flight stability is another reason we gravitate toward one plastic or another. Some of us even change plastics we throw based on the season. Or, more specifically, the temperature we’re playing in. All of the above are factors as to what plastic we throw. According to the survey, nearly all of us, 97% of us, rate plastic as at least semi-important. 65% said it is very important. Here are the numbers:

Flight numbers

When I first thought about the importance of flight numbers in selecting discs, I thought that nearly everyone would rank that factor highly in the factors that influence our disc buying. I mean, who doesn’t care what the flight number are?! But, then I thought about it pragmatically and thought that it’s really the flight of the disc that we are buying a mold for, not the numbers assigned to its flight. How many of us have multiples of the same mold and even plastic, with each one having a different flight. Whether it is wear, weight, or variations in the manufacturing making the difference, we all know that the flight numbers might not be an indication of the actual flight of the disc.

However, even knowing all that, I think most of us still look at the flight numbers to guide us to the general flight we are looking for. It’s really all we have, short of testing each individual disc before we buy it. It shouldn’t be surprising that the importance is so high. According to the survey, over 89% of us indicated that it is semi-to-very important. Here is the graph:

Color

It was when I threw my tie-dyed colored Firebird in the reeds at Blind Gulley disc golf course in Providence, UT that I started caring about the color of the discs I was throwing. I really liked how good my Firebird looked, but when I couldn’t find the disc after 20 minutes of looking, I vowed to always choose bright colors to throw. Bright pink is my first choice. Blaze orange is my second choice. Orange can cause trouble in the fall, but most of the year it’s a good color when you’re looking for a lost disc.

I’ve even owned a jet-black disc that was simply beautiful. But I would never want to throw a black disc again. The first time they land in a bush, they disappear in the shadows. That’s where a bright pink or orange disc really shines. Yeah, it’s nice to get a variety of colors. But, I would rather save time hunting for discs by bagging easy to find colors. Here’s how the question was answered in the survey:

Weight

Most of my friends that are above a certain skill level like to throw max weight discs. It’s easier for them to control the disc to get the flight they want for a given hole. Most of my friends above a certain age like to throw discs that are quite a bit less than max weight. Generating the arm speed is easier, and sometimes only possible, if the disc is lighter than max. Based on those and other scenarios (beginners, power throwers, injured players, etc.), it’s easy to see the importance of weight in determining which discs we buy. The survey results indicate that weight is important to most of us. Over 93% of us rank weight as an important factor. Here are the numbers:

Stamp/Artwork

I like this factor for a couple reasons. First, I collect discs and have bought quite a few simply because of a cool or unusual stamp. Second, I see a lot of people interested in a particular disc because of the stamp. Yes, I would guess that good looking stamps and artwork, outside of collecting, is just a nice bonus for most people. But, a lot of us seek out cool stamps, so I figured a decent number of people would indicate that stamps are important.

It turns out that only 15.6% of us think the stamp or artwork is very important. However, more than 58% of us think it is semi or very important. I’m curious to see if the Collectability factor has similar numbers, but first, here are the results of the survey question:

Collectability

It turns out that, even though most of us consider the stamp as something that would influence our decision to buy a disc, we are looking at the stamp from an aesthetic point of view, rather than a collector point of view. According to the survey, only 17% of us consider the collectability of a disc as an important factor. Nearly half of us don’t care at all about a discs collectability. Here are the results:

Resale Value

The final factor we asked about was how much we consider the possible resale value when we’re buying discs. It’s no surprise that few of us buy a disc with the thought that we can flip it later for a profit. Only 8.5% of us consider resale value at least semi-important. Judging from the after-market sales web sites, quite a few of us will take advantage of opportunities to make a buck from discs that are hot at the moment (Sexton Firebirds, for example.) But, that is just a small part of the total number of disc golfers. Most of us just buy discs for utility. Here are the results of the Resale Value question:

The factors that determine our disc purchases can be broken down to three groupings. First, the primary reasons we buy a disc. That would be the factors most important to the flight of the disc. Plastic type, weight and the flight numbers. The secondary factors would be those that are important, but less than so than the flight factors. Manufacturer, disc color, and the stamp/artwork on the disc. And the tertiary factors would be the discs collectability and resale value. Here is a list of the factors ranked by importance (Semi and very important):

Check back next week for another look at the 2021 State of Disc Golf

How Many Discs Do We Own

March 25, 2021 Ted Hegemann 4 comments

2021 State of Disc Golf

Buying And Holding Discs

One of my favorite survey subjects to write about is questions about the numbers of discs that we own and how many we purchased the prior year. I’ve been buying discs regularly since I started playing. Like a lot of us, initially I bought discs like a lot of new disc golfers: because they were ‘high speed’, ‘long distance’, or ‘super long distance’. After gaining a little more experience, I started choosing my discs by their flight ratings. Then I moved into choosing plastic types that felt good in my hand. Finally, I started buying discs just to collect. (I’ll be doing an upcoming blog about disc collecting) Not everyone has the same reasons for buying or keeping a disc.

Having been in the disc golf business for a few years, and a regular player for about 9 years, I’ve seen people whose opinions about buying discs run the gamut from people who only throw a couple discs, most of which were either found or were a gift, to those people who are constantly trying out new discs and eager to throw the latest, greatest mold. I’ve seen customers spend an hour in a disc golf store, pouring over the inventory looking for the new discs. And other customers who would be looking for a specific flight, but didn’t care about brand or plastic, and would usually take the first mold suggested.

How Many Do We Buy

This blog post will shed a little light on our buying habits for last year. And it will show how many discs we are keeping in our possession. We can then look back at past year’s results and see if those habits have changed. We will also look at the number of people who buy discs for collecting, and see if that number is trending.

Let’s start with how many discs we own. The answers in the survey maxed out at 200+. I think I’ve been selecting the ‘200+’ option for about five or six years. Part of that is because I started collecting years ago. (For next year’s survey, I would like to include a question of how many of our discs will never be thrown.) But, I also like to try new discs. Let’s see how many discs we have squirrelled away in our closets, bedrooms, hanging on walls, or hiding in the trunks of our cars.

The question we asked was, ‘How many discs do you own?’. Here are the results:

Nearly a quarter of us, 24%, have over a hundred discs! As the chart shows, about 43% of us carry between 21-60 discs. That seems reasonable to be, based on the disc golfers in our club. If you carry 15-18 discs when you play, keep some backups at home, and have kept discs that you no longer throw or have aced with and want to keep as a trophy, you would likely have between 21-60 discs.

Let’s see if that percentage has changed over the last couple of years that we asked the questions. Here are the numbers for 2019:

We can see changes in individual categories, so let’s clump some of the groups together and look at the data. Considering people who have 100+ discs, we see a little more than 26% of us own more than 100 discs. In contemplating why we would have fewer discs now than two years ago, I would have guessed that more of us were hanging on to discs and buying whatever we could. I figured that discs, like toilet paper, would be hoarded due to the diminished supply on the shelves. Disc golf suppliers couldn’t keep up with the growing demand and many molds would fly off the shelf as soon as we would put them online. But, the hoarder mentality didn’t kick in with discs last year.

The other range we talked about for last year was the 21-60 disc category. For 2019, this group was a little lower at about 40%. In 2017 and 2015, that range was similar, around 41%.

Here are the charts for 2017 and 2015:

Let’s turn our focus on how many new discs we added to our collection last year. Our survey question asked, ‘How many new discs did you purchase via retail (at a store or online) in 2020?’ Here are the results:

Nearly 46% of us bought between 10 and 29 discs last year. That’s about where I would fall. A disc or so per month is not bad (I keep telling myself). A small percentage of us bought zero new discs last year, while a slightly higher percent, 3.3%, bought 100+ discs! We were especially interested to compare last year to previous years to see how the pandemic and limited supplies affected our disc golf buying habits. Let’s compare last year to two previous years.

If we look at the three different groups of numbers mentioned above, in two of the categories we can see the numbers rose from 2017 to 2019, then fell in 2021. The ‘100+’ discs purchased category was different. It actually rose from 2019. Let’s look at people who bought less than 10 discs last year, the people who bought 10-29 discs, and the people who bought 100+.

Less than 10 discs		10 to 29 discs		100+ discs
2017	29.1%	2017	40.3%	2017	2.2%
2019	35.4%	2019	43.1%	2019	3.1%
2021	29.8%	2021	36.2%	2021	3.3%

Between the pandemic and the supply shortage, people were simply not able to have access to as many discs to buy. The unprecedented growth rate for the sport certainly contributed to the lower number of discs available to purchase. (To put the growth in perspective, there was a nearly 84% increase in new PDGA memberships last year! From 2016 to 2019, there was only a 34.5% increase!) To get a better idea about our disc buying for last year, let’s look at another question in the survey.

We asked people ‘How did Covid-19 affect your disc golf purchases in 2020?’ Here are the results:

In the survey, participants were able to select more than one answer, since more than one answer could apply. According to the survey, nearly a third of us purchased the same number of discs last year, regardless of COVID19. Nearly a fourth of us would have bought more had supplies not been affected. There were 26% of us that were able to spend a little more than usual, because there were playing more and had the means to do so.

Not everyone was in the same financial boat as those who bought the same or more discs. Nine percent of us were not able to buy as many discs, for financial reasons. It is fortunate that the number wasn’t higher.

Buying More Or Less Than Usual

It was interesting to me that during all of the supply shortages, over half of us bought the same number of discs or more than the year before. I wonder how many discs people were buying that weren’t the ones they wanted, but were available. One more statistic I wanted to check out was whether the number of discs we buy each year was increasing or decreasing. I picked a delineating number of 30 to compare. It looks like the number of people who buy less than 30 discs per year is decreasing, while those who buy 30 or more is increasing.

	under 30 discs	30+ discs
2017	82.8%	17.2%
2019	77.4%	22.6%
2021	75.6%	24.4%

In examining all of these numbers in light of the strange year we had as a business, it’s interesting to see that, despite a supply shortage, there were a ton more disc golfers playing, while a majority of them buying the same or more than usual. It looks like the people that buy the most discs are buying even more. And those who buy the least are buying fewer.

As 2021 unfolds we will be scrambling to get as many discs as possible, while trying to keep up with the growing demand. It’s not a bad place to be in as a business, just challenging that we can’t meet the desires of our customers. As the supply levels out a little, we should have better data to see how many discs people are buying under normal circumstances. Then again, maybe ‘normal circumstances’ will never exist for a long time.

We would love to hear your thoughts on buying discs in 2020. Were you able to get the discs you wanted? If not, did you try new discs that were available? Let us know in the comments.

Feel free to email with suggestions or comments: ted@infinitediscgolf.com

Check out Infinite Discs here: www.infinitediscs.com

STATE OF DISC GOLF 2020 – How Many Discs We Own

March 27, 2020 Todd Durrant 4 comments

Every year we enjoy asking disc golfers questions about their disc purchasing habits and preferences. As a retailer, this is a subject that always interests us at Infinite Discs. We help customers at all different levels, from the novice who wants to know the best beginner discs to the hard-core collector who buys the hottest new releases. It’s time to share the data collected from the survey participants on the subject of how many discs we own and what motivates us to purchase more.

HOW MANY DISCS DO YOU OWN?

Many of us remember when we were new to the game of disc golf. The first time we see another player carrying a backpack loaded with discs is usually a shocker. Why could the possibly need so many discs? It doesn’t take long to learn why multiple discs are necessary as you become a more serious player. But some of us dive much deeper into the sea of plastic than others. Here’s a look at how many discs survey participants claim to own.

Of course, those who would take the time to participate in a State of Disc Golf survey are typically more serious players. Thus, the number of participants who claimed to own less than 10 discs was very low. The highest column on the chart is the one representing players who own 41-60 discs. That means that the sweet spot is somewhere around 50 discs. However, as the quantities go higher, the number of responses doesn’t drop much. The final quantity of 200+ discs is the 2nd highest on the chart. In fact, just over 14% of those surveyed own more than 200 discs!

HOW MANY DISCS DID YOU BUY?

Perhaps you are a player who thinks deeply about what you want in a disc, weighing the pros and cons of each purchase before pulling the trigger. But there are plenty of other players and collectors who have a fast trigger finger when it comes to disc buying habits. Some players only purchase a disc when they lose a favorite. Others purchase a disc in the hopes that it will improve their game. Others purchase discs to hang on the wall. In the end, how many discs did the survey participants purchase in 2019? Here are the results.

A good number of survey participants claimed not to have purchased any discs in 2019, but the vast majority made disc purchases. The largest column is the one that represents 10-14 discs purchased. That’s an average of about a disc per month, which sounds pretty reasonable for an avid player. You may find it interesting that 58 people claimed to have purchased more than 200 discs in 2019.

HOW MANY DISCS DID YOU BUY TO COLLECT?

Let’s take a moment to measure how many discs were purchased solely for the purpose of collecting. When asked how many discs survey participants purchased only to collect, these were the results:

About 46% of those surveyed said that they purchased absolutely no discs for collection purposes. Another Another 24% said that they only purchased 1-3 discs in 2019 to collect. That makes about 70% who are probably not serious collectors. However, there are a good number of people who purchased large numbers of discs and who primarily purchased those discs for collections.

WHERE DID YOU BUY YOUR DISCS?

There is one more piece of data we’ll look at in this run-down, and that answers the question of where the survey participants acquired all of their discs in 2019. Was it at a local pro shop? Was it online? Was it at a tournament? Here’s the results.

Survey participants could choose as many answers are applied to their situation. So most people picked several sources. The most common answer was “Local Disc Golf Shop” which means that the pro shops and individual disc golf stores out there are still a vital part of the market. It is hard to compare online shopping with the feeling you get when you walk into a store, hold the disc in your hand, and thumb through a pile of plastic.

Online shoppers are still plentiful with 4127 people saying that they’d purchased a disc from Infinite Discs. That might be expected since we hosted the survey. But the 3799 survey respondents also said that they’d purchased from other online retailers as well, like Disc Golf Center, Marshall Street, etc.).

There were 1319 people who claimed to have purchased from Amazon.com and a smaller number at 972 from EBay. Those larger online retailers are important, no doubt, but in this case did not look as popular as other specialized local and online stores.

COMING UP LATER…

In a future blog post, we’ll take a look at the responses to the survey which indicate what factors are most important to players when they make their disc purchasing choices. Is it rarity, stamp design, brand, or something else? Stay tuned, and feel free to leave your 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?

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