The Growth of Disc Golf Manufacturers
I probably sound like a broken record by now, but I’ll say it again: Disc Golf is exploding around the world right now! What an exciting time to be alive if you love this sport. New courses are being designed and built every day, the PDGA breached 200k members, and now we’re seeing a new wave of disc manufacturers. The high demand for quality discs has created a great opportunity for previously smaller companies to grow exponentially, as well as allow for new companies to find their market. And the formula is working; I was able to catch up with Alan Barker from InfiniteDiscs.com, one of the biggest online disc retailers in the world, to explore how these companies did in 2022. Note I’m not talking about the ‘Big 4’, that is Innova, Discraft, or Lat64 (aka Trilogy), or DiscMania, just the ‘lesser known’ brands to emerge in the last few years.
You can look at the report below, but here’s a rundown for you. Out of the top 44-disc sales for 2022, there are over 20 new disc manufacturers, with a few manufacturers showing up several times. In the top ten you have Lone Star Disc, Gateway, and Yikun all with two molds, and Mint, RPM, Doomsday and Viking rounding out those top spots. Out of these six, Gateway is probably the most well-known, and not ‘new’, with the other five representing a true global presence, representing China, Europe, New Zealand, and the USA.
Infinite Discs top selling discs 2022 - non-major brands
Here in the states, Lone Star Discs is certainly in the limelight, making a huge splash in 2022, sponsoring players like Leah Tsinajinnie, Chandler Kramer, and most recently Nikko Locastro. The top selling disc outside of the ‘Big 4’ was the LSD Lariat, a controllable fairway driver, “That can be thrown on a rope. It has a shallow rim depth that makes it ideal for any player no matter their experience level”, according to the website. With the explosive growth, this seems like the perfect discs for the amateur player, with the flight numbers showing 9/5/-1/1. Control drivers were four of the top ten molds sold in 2022, with distance drivers, mid ranges, and putters equally splitting the other six slots. By these numbers one could argue that all you need in your bag are four discs, the Distance Driver, the Control Driver, the Midrange, and the Putter. But we all know we’re going to carry 5 variants of each!
I could write entire individual blogs about the other five companies in the top ten, and maybe one day I will, but not this week. The least known of these five however seems to be Doomsday Discs. They embrace an apocalyptic aesthetic and are outsourcing their molds to various manufacturers as they seek to carve out a slice of this ever-growing disc making market. Other notables are Viking discs, because they not only include the flight numbers but also a flight chart on every discs. Yikun is like the Discraft of China, with a dominating presence in both the Ultimate Frisbee and Disc Golf arenas. Mint has one of the coolest themed lineups, and their brief sponsorship of Nikko helped propel them into the mainstream. RPM has seen steady growth not just in their homeland of New Zealand, but across the world with their quality plastics and bird themed lineup.
Although they don’t show up on this list until #29, Though Space is worth mentioning here. Thought Space Athletics, or TSA, has been around since 2012. But it wasn’t until 2019 when they made their mark with what was, at the time, a very new and exciting stamping process that allowed for multiple colors and high detail under the leadership of Tony Graystone, a world-renowned graphic artist. On their website, they say this: “Thought Space Athletics has a long history in the design industry, and we pride ourselves on the quality of our graphics. Alongside the Thought Space Athletics brand, we work closely with some of disc golf's leading players and brands to produce tailor-made artwork for a wide variety of projects. To inquire regarding our design services, please use our contact form.” Add to that the fact that their plastic is of the highest quality, and their molds are designed for the amateur player, and you have a winning formula for success.
A notable absence from this list would be another rising star, Kastaplast. According to Alan Barker, “I’m sure we’d sell a lot more Kastaplast if we could order more, but we are limited on our quantities there”, he says. Indeed, with the popularity of the Berg alone would put sales in the top three for sure.
So, what does all this mean? For you, it means you have unprecedented access to the largest variety of discs to ever exist in the Disc Golf world. For these companies, it is an opportunity to help grow the sport and their brands. There are so many possibilities that it would take a lifetime to explore all these new molds. If somebody wants to hire me to do this full time, I’m all for it! But until then, let us all enjoy and explore the wonderful wide world of new discs!
