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(Originally, my personal disc golf sponsorship history was phrased a bit differently. Upon receipt of an email stating that a portion of this page sounded somewhat harsh, I rephrased some of it. I was unaware that it could be taken badly, but respect the opinion of the person who first pointed this out. This page is not and was not an attack on Innova, it is simply the facts of my sponsorship history.)
I get asked often, "Why do you throw Discraft golf discs?" In fact, I've answered that question so many times that I figured I could just give a short history here so that the next time I'm asked I can say, "Visit my website at..."
Back in 1992 I was sponsored by Innova Champion Discs. I think at that time they were doing a great job and had taken the lead in the golf disc market. I was an up and coming pro and they gave me a little support for my first few years on tour.
However, somewhere around 1994, for some unexplained reason they changed from a really good plastic in their discs to a really hard to grip, not so durable variety. My (and most other players at that time) guess was that they were saving a lot of money with the cheaper plastic and let's face it, less than 1% of the market is the touring pro. I'm not faulting them for making a business decision that increased their profits (I believe that capitalism is what makes this country great!), but it did make things difficult for professional disc golfers.
I have very vivid memories of the Fly-Mart at the 1994 PDGA World Championships where players were paying as much as $50 for discs that were made just a year before because the new plastic would not allow players to compete well. Unfortunately for me, with the training regimen I had set up for myself I was going through discs at an amazing rate. It got very expensive very quickly!
Right around that time, Jim Kenner at Discraft released the Cyclone and X-Clone in what is now referred to as the "Cyclone Plastic." This was a revolutionary breakthrough in disc technology.
As frustrated as I was with the cheaper, less effective plastic I was using, I still finished out the year because I thought it was the right thing to do. The following spring (I always take the winter off to let my body recover), I called Discraft and told them that I was interested in trying some of their discs. A box of 50 free discs showed up at my house the next day with a note that said there was no commitment needed from me. Just try them out and see what I think.
The following day I went out with Mike Randolph and threw them around for a while. He was already sponsored by Discraft and he asked me what I thought. The first thing I said was, "I'm going to set the World Distance Record with the X-Clone" (which I did 1 month later!).
I called Jim that morning and told him that I loved the discs, wanted to be sponsored by Discraft, and was going to set a record but I had one concern. That was the recent problem of the Innova plastic becoming difficult to handle and diminishing players' competitive edge. He said, (I'm going to paraphrase here) "I will always do everything I can to ensure that the discs players learn and use today will be the same in the future. Player loyalty comes before anything else!"
The quality of Discraft discs and the plastic that they use has never wavered, so I guess Jim was telling the truth.
Now that I've been with Discraft for a while and have learned a lot of the behind the scenes politics, I can say with certainty that I will always throw Discraft discs. I have 100% confidence that Discraft will continue to help support their sponsored players and up-and-coming professional disc golfers with their consistent, effective plastic. For these and more reasons, I believe Discraft will sit on top for a very long time.
I hope this didn't sound like a commercial. I'm not sure how else to tell the story because this is exactly what happened and how I feel. I respect the competition for a lot of what they've done, but there are a lot of other things that I don't respect at all. For example, Innova diminishing the disc quality at the expense of the pro disc golfer's game. I really do believe that not only does Discraft make the best discs, but they are by far the best people because they care about their players and the sport of disc golf as a whole. They ask what players need and try to provide the highest quality plastic for the pro and the recreational player to enjoy and utilize effectively even with a more expensive plastic.
The choice for me was really no choice at all!
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