How did Prodigy get so big so fast?

[the1discChallenge]

Of course, there have always been the two titans of disc golf, Innova and Discraft who started it all and as the sport grew, so did the amount of disc golf manufacturers. The one I can't figure out is Prodigy. They've only been in the picture for maybe 4-5 years now (I remember seeing the first release of Prodigy in my local leagues relatively recently) and they've got- and have had- a full line up of top touring pros, a full line of molds, baskets, bags, and apparel, but they're youngins in the disc golf world. I'm not totally up on companies and the marketing side of dg, but how did they grow so big so quickly? I just realized how young the company is recently and was curious how it happened.

 

[Pbmercil]

They recruited a super team of sponsored players for the first two years. They had a squad of great young players before they really had discs to sell. They used that big attention grab to instantly get a ton of exposure and some decent market share.

 

[Halcón]

You want big fast? Look at "Trilogy."

MVP has also grown quite a lot in their 6 years since two young DGR bros started messing around trying to make a better Wizard.

Prodigy began in the beginning of 2013, so it's only been 3 years.

 

[TYVEK]

Prodigy came onto the market with a bang (a very well strategized release) and caught peoples attention. but I feel that after the first year or so they have sort of plateaued and are not making nearly the headlines that they were when the came out. they are still growing, but now it seems more quietly and slowly. it will be very interesting to see how their company continues to do over the next few years. I don't consider them to be a "big" company though, at least not compared to innova, discraft, and latitude.

 

[allinpflop]

In my travels prodigy seems to be very regional in nature.....some towns (not surprisingly usually ones that have a sponsored pro) have lots of players throwing it but in many areas almost no one throws it.

 

[ilmcgee]

Prodigy is pretty new in this area. There is only one store that has more than a handful of their discs. But when I did see racks of their products that day, I was pretty impressed. Nice range of colors and it all felt pretty good, don't know their plastic types. One question, the M5, WTF?

 

[Snaques]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I understood that they got number of big name players on board by making them owners instead of just paying some expenses. That kind of potential will get even the top guys interested.

I'm actually not sure if the players were there already when the company was being created or if the shares were given to them at the signing.

The list of players they signed, created a huge hype eventhough they didn't have a full lineup of discs. Now that they have the product and the name, they can afford to let go some of the sponsored players and have a more balanced setup between marketing and disc sales.

 

[vasco da neumi]

… One question, the M5, WTF?

at first i had problems with their names as well. but i think it's far more intelligent than anything else. m is a midrange, where m1 is the most stable, m2 a bit less, and so on. m5 is really understable mid. same system for drivers: d1 most (over)stable, d2 a bit less,… etc. so what are the flightcharacteristics of a prodigy f1 and f7? yep, f1 is the most stable fairway they have and f7 the most understable.
while not perfect their names are way more informative than calling discs atoms, pigs and leopards.

 

[ilmcgee]

at first i had problems with their names as well. but i think it's far more intelligent than anything else. m is a midrange, where m1 is the most stable, m2 a bit less, and so on. m5 is really understable mid. same system for drivers: d1 most (over)stable, d2 a bit less,… etc. so what are the flightcharacteristics of a prodigy f1 and f7? yep, f1 is the most stable fairway they have and f7 the most understable.
while not perfect their names are way more informative than calling discs atoms, pigs and leopards.

No problem with the naming system. Why does it have the weird rim? It has a channel on bottom of the rim that you would have to clean out all the time.

 

[Moose33]

Everybody has a dud or two, that's like their Wolf to me.

Weird disc, weird execution, still seems to sell to someone.

 

[heartman]

You want big fast? Look at "Trilogy."

MVP has also grown quite a lot in their 6 years since two young DGR bros started messing around trying to make a better Wizard.

Prodigy began in the beginning of 2013, so it's only been 3 years.

Lat64's been around for 10 years now, Westside 4-6yrs, and Dynamic Discs built their following through a strong retail following. Not as similar a way of doing it compared to Prodigy (although their marketing as "Trilogy" is brilliant, and the established fan base they already had was the way to go IMO rather than just "BAM starting a company now buy our discs")

Give Prodigy another 7yrs, and it'll be interesting to see where they're at.

 

[VictorB]

Dynamic Discs built their following through a strong retail following

Not to mention that DD ran a yearly tour (the dirty dozen tour, don't even know if they still do it) and brought their crown gem tournament up to national level, the Glass Blown Open. They got a reputation of treating players well long before they even probably thought of making their own disc line. Once they decided to do that, a lot of people immediately bought in simply because they have a great, player friendly reputation (I know I was one of them, bought Judges the second they were available)

 

[Broken Shoulder]

No problem with the naming system. Why does it have the weird rim? It has a channel on bottom of the rim that you would have to clean out all the time.

Similar to the Discraft Deuce.
M5 is the only Prodigy disc I bag, and the groove in the rim has never been an issue to me. It's a good understable mid.

 

[flowinowen]

Prodigy seems to be very popular in the south - Tennessee especially. I moved before Prodigy started, my bag might be very different if I didn't.

 

[Horsman]

To me Prodigy has been on a decline after their first year in existance. We like a lot of other retailers bought into them right away and caught the initial wave of sales coming from everybody wanting to get their hands on the new plastic but since that time we have since cut all ties with prodigy and dont sell their products anymore. We did one full order with them years ago and it took us over a year to sell half of those discs. In that time we had constant nagging on the side of Prodigy and some of their sponsored players to keep ordering more plastic because its so amazing and everybody loves it, even though we could show that that was not the case. It is most likely because it is a regional thing and here in the midwest we dont see too many prodigy throwers out there.

 

[DatRedDude]

at first i had problems with their names as well. but i think it's far more intelligent than anything else. m is a midrange, where m1 is the most stable, m2 a bit less, and so on. m5 is really understable mid. same system for drivers: d1 most (over)stable, d2 a bit less,… etc. so what are the flightcharacteristics of a prodigy f1 and f7? yep, f1 is the most stable fairway they have and f7 the most understable.
while not perfect their names are way more informative than calling discs atoms, pigs and leopards.

If they come out with a driver more stable than the D1 they screwed themselves? :\

They just have to keep making understable stuff at this point i guess.

 

[ru4por]

In my travels prodigy seems to be very regional in nature.....some towns (not surprisingly usually ones that have a sponsored pro) have lots of players throwing it but in many areas almost no one throws it.

I am from the same area as the OP, I rarely see a Prodigy disc around here. I see far more Trilogy and MVP.

 

[Cgkdisc]

If they come out with a driver more stable than the D1 they screwed themselves? :\

Could be called the D0h!

 

[wims]

I've never seen anybody throw a Prodigy disc on the courses around me. I guess there are *some* prodigy throwers around, but it seems to be a very small actor in the Norwegian market

 

[SD86]

Similar to the Discraft Deuce.
M5 is the only Prodigy disc I bag, and the groove in the rim has never been an issue to me. It's a good understable mid.

I never had a problem with the groove in the M5, either. It's more of a crease than an actual groove like the atrocity in the Innova Groove and Monarch.

As to the overall thread, I love seeing the different business models and how they work in this field. IMHO Prodigy started off by bringing in pros and then offering some really good looking plastics in good, professional-looking discs. They do need something to keep themselves in the top-tier, though, and I'm not sure what they'll do to keep the momentum going. Getting into the PIASs would help a lot.