[Prodigy] Prodigy Market Survey

[djcadence]

I have a F1 and I was using it in place of a firebird..but the firebird made it back to the bag, after the F1 started to get flippy!

 

[Disc Golf Chuck]

I found Prodigy's plastic to be very comfortable. My biggest concern with Prodigy is their consistency which has already been mentioned by a few. Why would I want to get used to a D3 or any Prodigy disc if I can't replace it with another of the same mold if I were to lose it when I don't know how it will fly?

I've never personally cared for fancy or cool stamps, but my teenage son absolutely loves the Westside discs just because of their cool artwork.

I also recently spoke to a large retailer of discs on the west coast who said that they aren't stocking Prodigy discs anymore due to their inconsistency as well as the way they are treating their wholesalers. One example provided was that Prodigy was selling discs to wholesalers and cut-rate prices. These wholesalers don't have a store-front presence and are essentially selling the discs out of the trunk of their cars. This setup allows some "stores" to sell discs without paying sales tax and without the added overhead of rent expense, etc. The retailer who told me this said he'd be surprised if Prodigy was still around in 3 years. I would tend to agree with him.

 

[TheOtherBill]

I have a 400 Pa4 that gets used most rounds except in the wind. I likely won't replace it though if I ever lose it, but it is the first 'premium' plastic putting-putter I have ever utilized, even though I bought it for up-shots.

 

[ScottyLove]

Voted ZERO because I carry only DD-Lat64-Westside at this point. Before that I bagged a lot of Prodigy. I liked the discs and could care less about names or stamps. I want performance which they had. Very popular in southwest and mid-Missouri though. The sold quite well there before I moved to Charlotte.

 

[Big Nasty]

I don't carry any in my bag. The naming convention doesn't bother me at all, but like others have stated my bag has been pretty well set so the molds that I have tried didn't make enough of an impact with me to replace an established mold. Pretty much the same premise to why I haven't tried much trilogy or MVP. Why throw something that is like a Destroyer when I can just throw a Destroyer? lol

With that said Prodigy's plastic is pretty freaking nice.

 

[kw83028]

Thanks for the responses so far. Pretty much what I expected. My personal experience with Prodigy was short. 3 D1's that flew completely different, so I never bagged another Prodigy disc. Kind of a shame because I really like the feel of their plastics

 

[Halcón]

If I had a dollar for every time someone mentioned their naming system...

 

[DG_Before_Breakfast]

I tried an F3 and M3, but never worked well for me.

 

[Streets]

If I had a dollar for every time someone mentioned their naming system...

I'll contribute. It's boring.

Also, I had a 300? PA4 in the bag for a bit, then I came to my senses.

 

[Halcón]

Also, I had a 300? PA4 in the bag for a bit, then I came to my senses.

I fondled a PA4, and it was too Magic-like to bother with. I have been wanting to check out a M-4, or M-5 though.

 

[Mr. Wick]

Prodigy has gradually taken over my bag....I love the plastic. Totally agree about the consistency problems some people have, some of the molds are all over the place....but if you know what you want and buy a bunch of them same weight, run color you are all good there.

Prodigy in my bag:
300 PA4, M3/2 proto, M3, M4, 400G H3, X1, 400 Proto D1x2, 1st run 400 D3, proto 400 d4.

They didn't have anything that could bump out my firebirds and eagles or kc aviars.

 

[Tjamesd]

From the sounds of most of these posts a lot of us would like some other companies to buy Prodigy's plastic blend from them!

 

[Brodysseus]

None.

I was never really interested. Might try a few since local hero Dana is on the team now.

 

[JSurmann]

I've got 4 in the bag currently, D3 Air, F7, PA1 and PA4. I had up to 7 at one time.

 

[Pbmercil]

Im interested in trying the h series and the X1. Outside of that the line has no appeal to me, and honestly i dunno that i will ever actually get around to trying those discs.

the fact that they even have any brand recognition at this point bodes well for their future. They basically built a brand overnight, which is hard to do

 

[BionicRib]

Its funny that people say they have inconsistent runs and won't buy them because of that. Hmmm I wonder how many of those people bag innova.

For the record I carry all innova and a zone.

 

[Puckstopper]

Zero. Never bought one and never will. Never traded for one, and very likely never will. Between the way they acted when they burst (limped?) onto the scene, the wild inconsistencies in their runs, and the horror stories I've heard about dealing with them when talking to two separate retail shop owners I'm very much over Prodigy. I'll be interested to see if they can turn things around.

Good Point. Boring stamps are a sure fire way to a disc/company to have a disadvantage.

It doesn't seem to be holding MVP back, and their Neutron stamps are about as boring as you'll find anywhere. I really think there are a variety of reasons to dislike Prodigy, as opposed to a single reason or even just a couple. Due to this you see 75% of the respondents to the poll not having a single Prodigy disc in their bag.

 

[The Last DJ]

I have zero. I feel like it's mostly because this is a newer company (one that did not exist when I started playing). Because of this, the bulk of my bag is Innova. I got to try out plenty of their plastic because it was available at the time I started building my bag. I've added Discraft, Latitude 64, and Gateway since then, but no Prodigy. I feel like many players don't try it out because of the names of discs (which are confusing to some) and the graphics (or lack thereof).

While the company does try to make it simple, naming your discs after letters and numbers isn't very appealing to most consumers. If you were a complete newb and your buddy asked if you'd rather putt with a P1 or a Wizard, you're going to want to throw the Wizard! Would you rather throw a D2 or a Thunderbird? An M3 or a Comet? I'm still not clear on what the numbers mean as far as stability and plastic blends but the names are as boring as can be.

Another reason Prodigy might struggle is because of the graphics. I teach art and art history and this week we looked at how color and graphics alter us psychologically when we're shopping. Prodigy's artwork is dull. Simply stamping your company's name on a disc doesn't make it visually appealing to buyers. We've all done it. If given a choice between two discs that fly identically, we want to have the plastic that is more pleasing aesthetically.

 

[bradharris]

I think the biggest issue is the lack of any real flight numbers. All we know is that lower numbers are more overstable and higher numbers are more understable. But that's not enough for us to put them onto a flight chart to decide which particular mold will fit best in our bags. It works well if, for instance, you want to try a brand new lineup of mids, you could get the whole line. But if you have a hole in that slightly overstable mid slot, you have no idea which M# fits that hole in your bag without doing a bit of research first.

 

[goosefraba1]

X1 and PA1 are the best in their lineup.... they don't sell as much because they are mostly too stable/overstable for rec players IMO.