Naming convention cancelled; moved to online only.

[BillFleming]

Somehow they are still having trouble growing, selling, and keeping talent. The newb/casual is the market that matters. They don't want a 500g D2 Max with no artwork.....they want a "cloudbreaker" or a "ozone raper"....something with some flare,name recognition, and artwork.

Exactly. I know Paul McBeth throws a Luna, I know Nate Sexton throws a Firebird, I know Paul Ulibarri throws a Raptor.....etc. But, what does Kevin Jones throw? I'm sure I've heard what he throws, but I have no clue. And when I step into a disc golf store.....I know what McBeth, Sexton, Ulibarri throw and can take a look at those. KJ????? I know he throws Prodigy, but that's it.

I was tending a pop-up store for Spinners at the Memorial Fountain Hills location 2021 and had a couple show up at my tent. They asked me (as close as I can recall)..."our son took up disc golf this year and his favorite player is Drew Gibson. Do you have something called a Buzz that we could get him. I think that is what he says Drew uses.". Those parents buying their son a disc remembered he was interested in a Buzzz....how much do you think they would recall if their son's favorite player was KJ and their son had mentioned a M3 300? Maybe they would remember it...maybe not. It's not as catchy as Buzzz.

 

[ray1970]

When someone comes out with something called a Shank, a Griplock, or an Earlyrelease, I'm stocking up. I know exactly where each of those fits into my game.

Although, I'd probably play better when I can buy a Parkjob and a Oneputt.

 

[araytx]

This is the same old Hydrox vs. Oreo issue. One was created first. One has sweeter creme filling. One gets less soggy in milk.

Yet for some reason the other is the one that has survived the test of time and is the popular cookie. Oh -- could it possibly be the name. Oreo (a nonsense word btw), (unlike "hydrox") just doesn't sound like something from a science class that I hated. Marketing and naming can definitely be a factor.

 

[Emoney]

This is the same old Hydrox vs. Oreo issue. One was created first. One has sweeter creme filling. One gets less soggy in milk.

Yet for some reason the other is the one that has survived the test of time and is the popular cookie. Oh -- could it possibly be the name. Oreo (a nonsense word btw), (unlike "hydrox") just doesn't sound like something from a science class that I hated. Marketing and naming can definitely be a factor.

In Prodigys case they used Discmanias "oreo" and called it "oreos"...then made the flavors numbers instead of chocolate or banana

 

[ray1970]

Wad this back when bread cost a nickel?

 

[txmxer]

It seems that Prodigy is missing the boat in many areas.

Naming convention isn't working for most. People have latched on to an apparent QA issues (flashing). The stamps are ugly. The area that really fails is not supporting your local stores. This is the place where people can get hands on and where someone can make a personal recommendation.

 

[kw83028]

In the end, I don't hate their naming because I don't get it, I hate it because the vast majority of customers don't get it.

D2, D2V2, D2Max, D2New, D2Pro, D2Signature. 6 different discs

As a retailer, this was the most frustrating. In my experience, in the years of carrying Prodigy, most of Prodigy throwers that came in here (including die hards), didn't have a clue about any of the differences. People walk in and buy a D2V2. They come back and complain that it flies nothing like the D2 that they lost. I have to explain it to them. They buy a D2Max even though I tell them it's nothing like they're looking for. Of course, they hate it because it's nothing like the D2. They buy something that's not Prodigy. I don't know the percent of customers that moved on to something else, but it was a lot.

Whether it's easy or not, people didn't even care to figure it out. Arbitrary words are more memorable than letters and numbers. Especially when some of the numbers and letters don't line up across the board. "I throw an M4 but it's too fast, so I should go with the A4?" "I want a really flippy fairway like my M5 flies, so I should go with F5?" Those situations don't work.

I wonder where D2Signature, D2New, and D2Pro fit in to their flight chart. Is D2New just a D2V3 replacing the D2V2 which replaced the D2 and the D2V2 disappears? No thanks.

In the end, it was a pain having to describe a whole naming convention all the time. Words that have no meaning make more sense to people than Prodigy's attempt at lining things up.

 

[elmexdela]

prodigy never had it to begin with

i remember tryin a first run d4 which was moar os than the proto d1

but if you had the first run d1 that actually flew like a d1 was supposed to fly

actually i dont remember which was which but it was some confusing and stupid stuff along those lines

and lets not forget about their "x outs" for scribbling out the name of the disc and writing in the "correct" mold (gggt had sleeves of these)

they named their discs with this cool new classification system and then pulled an innova with their variance which made their names obsolete

 

[ballgolfconvert]

Everybody knows that the 3 means flat top and the X means more stable. And we all understand the difference between DX, Star, G*, Champ plastics.

The Trilogy line-up uses the X designation as well for more stable plastic.

Discraft uses SS and OS. Pretty easy to understand.

Prodigy has used combinations of letters and numbers for both molds and for plastics and it's a complete mess. Beyond that it has no personality, and personality goes a long way.

If I was the one person who didn't know, then now everyone knows this.

Truth is that i understand Prodigy names just fine, however they never have seemed to have many disc in stock. I do love how those I've thrown fly and feel.I would love to try a bag with a complete beat in set covering each speed from 1-7. You should be able to cover every shot needed without changing much about the throw. Just plug in the numbers. Disc golf made easy right? Anyone try this? Does it actually work.

 

[Emoney]

In the end, I don't hate their naming because I don't get it, I hate it because the vast majority of customers don't get it.

D2, D2V2, D2Max, D2New, D2Pro, D2Signature. 6 different discs

Wow...I didn't even know it has got that bad!

Anyone that defends this type of scheme to name discs is flat out wrong...

I want Prodigy to succeed... more options the better. Just not sure why they haven't got this memo?

The 5 or so Prodigy molds I had in my possession had something like "D3-4" written on the rim...
... do they not remember what they molded?

 

[Moose33]

Wow...I didn't even know it has got that bad!

Anyone that defends this type of scheme to name discs is flat out wrong...

I want Prodigy to succeed... more options the better. Just not sure why they haven't got this memo?

The 5 or so Prodigy molds I had in my possession had something like "D3-4" written on the rim...
... do they not remember what they molded?

That is the dumb thing they do where they use a single number to denote the 3 digit plastic type number. So 4 is 400, but it's confusing for everyone.

 

[Emoney]

That is the dumb thing they do where they use a single number to denote the 3 digit plastic type number. So 4 is 400, but it's confusing for everyone.

Oh lol... I had no clue! I thought they were guessing what mold it was lmao

 

[Three Putt]

I haven't really been following this thread, but wow. I guess Dynamic signed some pros so we switched the default to bash Prodigy?

 

[Emoney]

I haven't really been following this thread, but wow. I guess Dynamic signed some pros so we switched the default to bash Prodigy?

I ask my buddy why he "supports terrorism" ,when I see Trilogy discs in his bag.



#Mericaplasticonly

 

[ray1970]

I ask my buddy why he "supports terrorism" ,when I see Trilogy discs in his bag.



#Mericaplasticonly

Lol. Those pale skinned, blonde haired terrorists from Sweden and Finland are scary people.

 

[wolfhaley]

I'm not a fan of Prodigy's chalky premium plastic. But I don't think this is the bash Prodigy thread so I'll stop there.

We'll I'm glad you said it and not me. I posted pics of some of my chalky ass Prodigy discs awhile back, somewhere on here. Apparently it basically only happened to me lol. I'm not here to bash them either, also won't be buying them ever again.

 

[kw83028]

We'll I'm glad you said it and not me. I posted pics of some of my chalky ass Prodigy discs awhile back, somewhere on here. Apparently it basically only happened to me lol. I'm not here to bash them either, also won't be buying them ever again.

Forgot about that aspect of shelf life. A lot of the 400 plastic that we had in the store eventually got a white chalky layer on them after a few months of sitting. Prodigy told me that it's the plastic breaking down and leeching. Could explain why after a couple months of sitting, nobody would buy them until I sold them at cost. It's been a while since I've carried them so I don't know if that was ever solved.

 

[Streets]

Don't Prodigy discs fade to white pretty quickly too? Wasn't that a thing?

 

[ballgolfconvert]

Don't Prodigy discs fade to white pretty quickly too? Wasn't that a thing?

The white chalkiness comes off with brake cleaner, but so does the stamp.

 

[dehaas]

They had a couple of runs that faded in color when exposed to sunlight. Apparently the UV protectant additive was missing.

To be fair though I've had a handful of Discmania S line discs that have done the same thing though.

The first couple months of Prodigy's existence did them absolutely zero favors. Plastic felt awesome, but like mentioned before there were growing pains. D4 protos not being much different than D1 protos in stability, there were some overweight protos that weren't legal, M1 proto wasn't beefy at all and got retooled, M3 protos that were too beefy and became the M2 instead.

I think any of those could've been handled with minimum pushback, but they hyped themselves up too much initially. Second coming of Jebus throwing promised CE like plastic with a stacked team built on promises of massive growth. They were initially marketed as pro level golf discs and failed in that capacity. Their players were winning at launch, but not throwing their plastic…which wasn't hidden very well.

They've got some nice plastic, and some of the molds are pretty decent, but right away expectations weren't met given the hype and a lot of people immediately wrote them off. That's just a big hole to dig out of, regardless of who you are.