We’re going to start taking the opportunity to focus on specific discs in specific plastic types on Fridays and call them “FOCUS FRIDAY” blogs. We may not get every week, but we’ll try to keep some fresh discs in the spotlight on a somewhat regular basis.
Our first Focus Friday feature will be on the C-Blend TOMB.
The TOMB has risen in the ranks of Infinite Disc brand best-sellers as it has garnered attention as a superb approach disc. We’ve found that more players, particularly among the Team Infinite roster, use the Tomb to drive or approach the basket in lieu of a traditional mid-range disc. That has appeared to be a trend in disc golf where smaller diameter, putter-sized discs are used instead of the larger diameter mid-range discs (think of the Discraft Zone, Westside Harp, Hyzerbomb Mortar, Innova Pig, etc.). The Tomb has joined those ranks for straight, precision approach shots. It flies surprisingly straight with minimal fade and with it’s low profile and flat top, it feels comfortable for longer throws.
The C-Blend (comparable to Innova Champion plastic) is a more durable plastic that fits perfectly into that role, able to take some abuse and keep its flight characteristics for the long-term. While we have seen it used for putting, the plastic’s texture lends itself even better to mid-range use.
Here is an old review video for the TOMB in general, so you can see it in action:
Give the C-Blend Tomb a try as a straight-flying mid-range option, especially when you need to thread the needle on tight fairways. We think you’ll love it!
USE THIS PROMO CODE ON THE INFINITE DISCS WEBSITE FOR 20% OFF the C-BLEND TOMB (offer good through Friday, the 11th of October)
FOCUS-C-TOMB
NOTE: promo and discount codes are used on the “shopping cart” page, before you click to checkout
Have you thrown the Tomb? Which plastic do you like best? What discs would you like to see featured in a future Focus Friday? Feel free to comment below!
Infinite Discs launched a line of discs in early 2018 in partnership with Innova Champion Discs. Since then, several molds have been introduced into the market. While some are very new and haven’t had as much time to earn a reputation or build sales momentum, a few are starting to stand out as favorites.
Here is a look at the top 10 best-sellers for the Infinite Discs brand so far…
It is probably no surprise that the Pharaoh has more than doubled the sales of any of the other disc models so far. It has been a popular distance driver and each run has had its own profile and flight characteristics, which makes it a fun disc to fill a bag for a multitude of uses. You can see a Pharaoh Run Comparison Log HERE:
The Exodus comes in 2nd place as a great fairway driver for players of all levels. It handles torque well and can be powered for long distances even with it’s smaller rim configuration. You can see a log of the Exodus Runs HERE:
In terms of momentum, the Sphinx is on a fast trajectory to catch the Exodus as it has become a fun favorite for new players who want a driver that is easier to keep straight, or for experienced players who love it for hyzer-flips and anhyzer lines. The Metal Flake Glow C-Blend edition Sphinx ended up quite a bit more stable than the I-Blend, earning it a spot even in the bags of power throwers who love to flip it out for impressive distances.
The Tomb is also a disc that has gained momentum since its release. It has become best known as an approach disc or small-diameter alternative to traditional mid-range discs. There are some players who have reported using it as a traditional putter, but with its flat top and low profile, it seems to have gained favor as a throwing putter in the premium plastic blends like S-Blend, I-Blend, and C-Blend. It can be laced down very narrow fairways with pin-point accuracy.
The Slab comes in 5th as a total utility distance driver. It is very overstable with a very flat top. It recently has gained a little bit of attention in the Jeremy Koling signature edition in “Concrete Plastic” which is a mix of metal flake and luster C-Blend.
Some of the newer models are yet to catch up with the 2018 releases, but the Emperor is starting to make a move as a more overstable distance driver than the Pharaoh. It is comparable to the popular Innova Destroyer. It will be fun to see what else catches on!
Leave a comment with your favorite Infinite Discs mold and tell us why!
Here at Infinite Discs, we love looking at statistics. The numbers always help tell a story of how the disc golf market is moving, at least when it comes to measuring how our own customers are responding to new discs or different brands. This week we thought it would be a lot of fun to make a video chart which shows actual movement of those trends through time.
Hot Distance Drivers
We know that distance drivers are considered the sports car of the disc golfer’s bag. It is one of the discs that almost every player feels defines them, their abilities, or their play style. It is one of those discs that players often swap when they feel like they need to revolutionize their game, so new distance drivers tend to get a lot of sales movement when they are first released.
That is why we thought it would be fun to track the movement of some popular, established distance drivers side-by-side with new distance drivers as they entered the market during the past 11 months. The ten distance drivers that we decided to track include some new ones that only came out in 2020, but we wanted to see how much attention they might have pulled away from the more established discs. These are the distance drivers we chose to track:
Destroyer (always a hot seller) Wraith (another popular Innova seller) Shryke (a somewhat newer driver by Innova) Photon (a top-selling MVP driver) DD3 (the new 2020 driver by Discmania) Raider (the new 2020 driver by Dynamic Discs) Trespass (a popular driver by Dynamic Discs before the Raider) Pharaoh (a relatively new driver by Infinite Discs) Force (an old driver by Discraft which became a McBeth signature disc in 2020) Zeus (the first distance driver in McBeth’s own disc line)
This particular selection of discs lets us measure how Paul McBeth affected the market when moving from Innova to Discraft as his brand sponsor in 2020, how new discs affected other brands, how they compared to discs of their own brand (like the Raider vs the Trespass), how market hype can play into sales, and how availability may stifle the momentum of a new release.
The Percentage Animated Graph
This first animated graph is designed to show which disc was grabbing the larger percentage of the market through the movement of time from October 2018 through August 2019. That means that we take the total sales of these 10 distance drivers, add those sales together, and compare the percentages of that total that each one grabbed.
For example, the Destroyer may have been holding 40% of the total sum of sales for those 10 discs for a couple of months, but then a new driver comes out and grabs 40% of the total sales that particular week. That would make the Destroyer percentage drop, even though it may still be selling the same quantity as the previous months, simply because there is only 100% available for those 10 discs to share. This chart helps us to see which discs were grabbing attention at any given moment. The time line will appear at the bottom of the chart.
For your viewing pleasure, here is that October 2018 – August 2019 animated chart (click the play button to activate the graph):
You’ll notice that as the new 2020 discs entered the market, they grabbed a percentage of the sales for a moment, but sometimes didn’t keep that momentum, either because of limited availability or the hype didn’t last. For example, availability of both the DD3 and the Raider was fairly limited when they were first released and it took a little time for regular stock releases to give them a boost.
The Zeus went through huge spikes depending upon availability and the releases of the prototype (originally called the Kong), the first run, and ending with the August release of the limited edition Big Z Zeus– thus the spike at the end of the video when it grabbed a huge percentage of total sales.
You’ll also noticed that the Destroyer sales moved up as Paul McBeth announced his change of sponsors, while players and collectors grabbed his old signature edition before the end of 2019. It got another boost with the new Wysocki edition.
The Force sales at Discraft started to rise based on speculation about what he would throw, and then the announcement came of the Force as a McBeth signature disc. But then the Force died down as the attention turned to the Zeus, which as a disc in Paul’s own line, was grabbing more attention than the Force.
The Race – Total Sales Animated Graph
Now for a look at a chart that takes less explanation. This is very straight-forward. We totaled the sales through time, adding to the total with new sales from October 2018 through August 2019. This allows us to watch the total sales for that period like a race where the disc that sells the most by the end is the winner.
So, rather than comparing percentage of sales, we’re just adding sales for each separate disc. Will the slow-but-steady disc end up selling most in the end? Or will the spikes on new releases help boost the newcomers to the winning position?
For your viewing pleasure, here is that October 2018 – August 2019 animated race (click the play button to activate the graph):
It’s pretty obvious that the steady sales of the Destroyer kept it far enough ahead that even the spikes on new releases, including the Zeus, could not boost those newcomers to the lead. The Zeus finished in 2nd place, getting enough large spikes to push its totals up, but not high enough to take the win. The Wraith, even with it’s slow and steady sales, gave it the 3rd place title, with the Infinite Discs Pharaoh following closely behind.
We hope that you’ve enjoyed these animated charts. Watch them over and over and see what kind of analysis you can offer in the comments below.
When Infinite Discs first launched our own disc brand with manufacturing by Innova, we wanted to make sure that each run had its own identification. We’re aware that different runs of the same mold in different plastics and at different times can have slight variations. Because of that, we figured that players who fell in love with certain runs or who sought specific characteristics would appreciate a way to know which one they have, which one they want, etc.
When we create a stock stamp, that run number and the run quantity (number of discs in the run) is displayed on the stamp at the bottom. With some of the limited editions and signature editions, the run number and quantity is not necessarily described on the stamp. But we still want you to know what you’re getting.
Here is a quick run-down of the runs that have been produced and ordered for the Pharaoh and the Emperor as of May 2019, for your reference:
THE PHARAOH
PROTOTYPE: Swirly S-Blend
Quantity 224
This run came out flat with a moderate fade.
RUN 1:
Swirly S-Blend
Quantity 800
This run came out relatively flat with a moderate fade. A few of these were released in Garrett Gurthie signature edition.
RUN 2:
Swirly S-Blend
Quantity 1100 (plus 88 “Test Run” stamp)
This run had more dome on the flight plate than the first run and slightly less fade for some players. Some of these were released in Garrett Gurthie signature edition with a new stamp.
RUN 3:
I-Blend
Quantity 1100 (plus 120 “Test Run” stamp)
This run was again quite flat, but more understable than any of the S-Blend runs.
RUN 4:
Metal Flake Glow C-Blend
Quantity 1000 (plus 79 “Test Run” stamp)
This run turned out very domey with a lot of glide and more overstable than the other runs. This run featured an XXL Alien Pharaoh stamp and also a bottom stamp.
RUN 5:
Swirly S-Blend
Quantity 1203
This run is once again flat, like the first run, with more color variety.
THE EMPEROR
RUN 1:
I-Blend
Quantity 850 (plus 27 “Test Run” stamp)
This run was the introductory run and had an early release with a unique stamp at the 2019 Las Vegas Challenge tournament. The X-Outs were released on the Ides of March as a teaser, with stock stamp following. This is a more understable run, though it still has plenty of fade for average players.
RUN 2:
Splatter S-Blend
Quantity 900 (plus 133 “Test Run” stamp)
This run turned out much more overstable than the first run and was made to release primarily as a David Feldberg signature edition disc for 2019.
RUN 3:
Metal Flake Glow C-Blend
Quantity 900 (plus 41 “Test Run” stamp)
This run has a nice fade that is slightly less than Run 2, but more than Run 1. It is released with an XXL Alien and also has a Garrett Gurthie signature edition stamp.
On the heals of his big win at the Waco Annual Charity Open where he threw a perfect -18 on his 2nd round, Paul McBeth has released his “In The Bag” video for 2019. Now you can see what Paul’s first year throwing Discraft looks like!
Thanks to JOMEZ PRODUCTIONS for producing the video and for capturing that great performance in Waco as well! Here is the video for you, followed by links to the discs that Paul McBeth is bagging this year:
Now, for your enjoyment, watch Paul throw these discs in his -18 round at the Waco Annual Charity Open. Obviously, he did not take long to adapt to his new bag of discs and makes great use of the different flight characteristics of his discs.
Infinite Discs conducted its annual survey of disc golfers in the beginning of 2019 so that we could once again take a look at the growth and opinions held by those who play disc golf. It is always fun to see the changing trends and to weight the opinions of a large group of players. Infinite Discs has been conducting the survey since 2014 and as always, we thank those of you who contributed.
While some of the basic information that we asked, like gender, employment, location, etc. may only be marginally interesting on their own, those answers also help to analyze more interesting data from the other questions. We will continue to publish those results and analysis in the coming weeks. For now, here are the basics…
6542 Disc Golfers Participated in the Survey This Year
Of those surveyed, 93.6% were male, 5.9% were female, and the remaining .5% did not specify gender. That result is virtually identical with the 2018 results, showing no change in the balance of male vs female players who took the survey. While that may not translate exactly into the percentage of total players (these are simply survey participants), it does represent a continued disparity between males and females involved in the sport.
Married vs Single
The majority of players who took the survey this year are married or with a domestic partner while 35% are single and 5% or divorced, separated, or widowed.
Age of Survey Participants
While it appears that the bulk of disc golfers still fall in the age range from 29 to 50, we must also consider that few youth would know about or participate in a lengthy disc golf survey. It would still be nice to see the numbers grow in that younger age group below 18-years-old. There is a lot of growth potential in the junior high and high school age groups.
Employment Status
While there were some different “other” responses in the survey which specified occupations like bartender, caretaker, lawyer, frolfer, professional disc golfer, none of your business, etc., most responses fell into the basic categories indicated in the chart. We see that 76.2% of those surveyed are employed for wages, while 8.9% are self-employed, 7.4% are students, and 3% are retired with the remaining falling in other categories. I supposed it is great news that the unemployed percentage dropped from 2.5% in the 2018 survey to 1.7% in 2019’s survey. The number of retired players also increased from 2.3% last year to 3% this year.
Most Popular States
We will reiterate that these results are drawn from those who participated in the survey. While it may not represent the entire disc golf scene, it gives a pretty nice snapshot of where there are more disc golfers. Plus, we realize that our survey is not shared nearly as much outside the USA.
For those of you who like a “heat map” of where survey participants live, here is map of the USA where the darker the state is shaded, the more people participated in the 2019 State of Disc Golf Survey. The lighter shaded states had fewer participants:
We also had a very healthy number of survey participants from Canada, Europe and Scandinavia. There was one survey participant from Africa.
Watch this blog for more 2019 State of Disc Golf Survey results!
The Stamp Wars 2019 journey has been a fun one, from the submission process in November 2018, to the voting in December, to the final sell-off of the top 5 designs in February. Now the end is near!
There are only two days left until March and that is when we’ll declare the winning stamp based on which one sold the most. Here is where the stamps rank right now, based on sales:
“Octo Catcher” is holding onto the lead, but at the moment of this posting is only 10 discs ahead of “The Man, The Bog, and the Frog.” We’ve also seen a lot of recent action from “Do Not Anger the Ents” which is only 15 discs behind 2nd place, and 25 discs behind the 1st spot. “Second Pressing” with its vinyl record design is 12 discs behind 3rd place, and “Shark Chainbuster” is taking up the rear.
The winner of this final round will be determined by which stamp has sold the most by Friday, March 1st. The winner will receive another gift card from Infinite Discs and will also show up on additional discs during the 2019 season.
Happy New Year! We are so excited here at Infinite Discs to see what 2019 will hold with lots of changes happening in the disc golf world. How will these changes impact the sales charts? Only time will tell! Today we will review the top selling discs of the final quarter of 2018. This report is usually influenced by the holiday sales deals and is a good review of the discs we wanted to stock up on in the offseason. So let’s get to the sales reports!
Like I said, the holiday sales influence the numbers for this quarter, and we can see that influence reaching all the way into the top 10 overall with discs like the Infinite Discs Pharaoh, Axiom Envy, and newly released Westside Maiden. The Discraft Buzzz bumped up to number 3. This may be just because the Buzzz is always popular around Halloween with the traditional Halloween Buzzz, but it is also noteworthy considering the Paul McBeth announcement that came out near the end of the quarter. It will be very interesting to see how that influences the numbers next quarter. If you aren’t sure Paul McBeth influences the sales, it is worth noting that the top 3 discs on this chart have now at one point in time had his signature on it.
All of the discs here have been on this chart before. The Infinite Discs Pharaoh made a pretty big jump up the chart going from number 6 last quarter up to number 2. The Discmania PD Freak and MVP Tesla returned to the top 10 after not making it last quarter. Again, it will be interesting to see how the Destroyer performs over the next year with Ricky Wysocki now featured as the signature on the stock Star Destroyer.
I think one of the biggest surprises of this entire article is the Discraft Undertaker jumping in at the number 9 spot. This disc has not been on the top sales list since it was first released. We can already see the Paul McBeth move influencing these sales numbers, and with his new signature series Undertaker releasing in January, the Undertaker may be a new staple on this chart.
Like the distance drivers, all of these discs have been featured in the top 10 before. The Discmania MD4 hasn’t been on the top 10 at all in 2018, so this one breaking in was a bit of a surprise. The Discraft Comet jumped up to number 6 which is the highest it has been in recent memory. Not to sound like a broken record, but it really looks like that Paul McBeth and Discraft deal was already paying dividends to Discraft before it officially began.
The Westside Maiden premiering at the number 4 spot is pretty impressive considering how crowed the Putt and Approach category is. This could be because of the unique holiday editions we ran in BT Hard Burst Moonshine plastic. I could comment on how the Discraft Zone breaking back into the top 10 might have something to do with Paul McBeth…but I will spare you all :).
And that does it for 2018! What will 2019 have in store for us? It’s going to be another fun year of disc golf, and we at Infinite Discs are excited to be on the ride with you all.
