Introducing Ballisdisc
About 18 miles north of downtown Detroit lies the city of Sterling Heights, MI. Several NFL, NHL, and MLB players were either born in
Sterling or attended school there. If you visit Sterling Heights you
might want to spend some time at the Sterling Heights Nature Center to
walk through its natural habitats. Looking for action-filled
activities? Check out The Full Throttle Adrenaline Park! Sterling is
home to the Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre (in case you want to take in a
concert). Sterling Heights is also home to a new disc golf brand, Ballisdisc.
Bobby (left) and Chris (Right), founders of Ballisdisc
Family Business
When your hobby is disc golf and the family business where you work
just happens to be a plastic injection molding company, it wouldn’t be
surprising that you think about making your own line of discs. That is
what happened to brothers-in-law Chris and Bobby (Chris married Bobby’s
sister).
After deciding to put their knowledge of injection molding toward their
love of disc golf, the pair formed a company and began working toward
the day they could produce their own discs. That was in February 2023.
In October 2024, Ballisdisc’s first mold was PDGA approved. The
Creedmoor OS would be there first release. The ‘OS’ stand for
‘overstable’, and how this disc lives up to that name! Ballisdisc gives
the flight rating as 9, 3, 0, 7! You read that right: it has a fade of seven!
After the mold was approved, there was still a lot of work to do. The
two founders had their regular responsibilities at the family business
and had to work on the disc in their spare time. They also had to work
around the regular production schedule for the injection machines. All
of that combined to delay the introduction of the Creedmoor OS until
earlier this year.
About the Creedmoor
This would be a good time to discuss the naming convention for
Ballisdisc’s molds, and the name of their company. If you are into guns
at all, you already recognized the name Creedmoor and probably figured
out the reason for the name of the brand.
For those who don’t know, Creedmoor is a type of gun cartridge typically
used for long-range shooting competitions. The name Ballisdisc is a
variation of the name for the science of projectile motion, ‘ballistic’.
In this case the projectile would be bullets. Chris and Bobby both
consider themselves gun enthusiasts and enjoy hitting the range. The
names they chose for their molds and company are a nod to their passion.
Latest Release
Their second mold was just released and it has a similar, gun-related
name: the ACP. Those initials stand for Automatic Colt Pistol, and it is
another type of cartridge. To see a blog explaining the history of the
ACP and its evolution, check out this blog.
The Ballisdisc ACP is an overstable putt and approach disc. Ballistic
rates the flight as 3, 3, 0, 2. It is available in their FMJ (Full Metal
Jacket) line of plastic, which includes a glow option.
Future releases for Ballisdisc include a fairway driver and midrange. As
of now the plan is the make them overstable. However, the will
eventually add understable discs to their lineup.
The Future of the Brand
Another way Chris and Bobby are looking to the future is with
sponsorship. Although they don’t currently have any sponsored players,
they are planning on offering team spots for next year. That will be a
good way to help spread the word about Ballisdisc and their molds. Check
out their website and social media to find out the latest on team
updates.
Chris and Bobby are excited about their place in the disc golf
world. They are already in a position to make their own discs. They can
also manufacture any additional needed machinery. The pair have already made their
own custom stamp machine from scratch! Having those abilities gives them
a lot of excitement and optimism about the future!
New Plastics
In addition to the aforementioned upcoming molds, Ballisdisc will be
experimenting with plastic blends and adding different colors to their
molds. They are also going to offer branded apparel in the future. Chris and Bobby are off to a good start and it will be fun to see where their disc golf journey takes them!
Chris is the tech and social media extraordinaire and Bobby designs and
machines the discs and molds.
