There are a number of things that really need to be thought through before the sport commits to some image on this topic. First, I'm a business manager, the tie and suit type. Second, the PDGA has been selling the ball golf image thing for disc golf for ten years now, and probably longer. Third, snow boarding.
Snow boarding is a stoner sport, and it's as mainstream as it gets. Instead of trying to look like skiing, they took on the bad boy image and integrated it into their marketing and business plan. Trust me, the guys making those decisions don't have tattoos, they aren't angry young men, they are business guys in suits who understand their market and demographic.
No ski resort tries to forego the boarding crowd (with a few rare exceptions). They embrace it and the money it brings. They sell merchandise and make thrasher courses for the young guys to rip it up. Simple enough.
Trying to make disc golf, ball golf is, IMO, a mistake. Make it what it is. Now, we are a little more complex the boarding in that we have a dichotomy. We have young thrashers, and old guys, and the two are very different. But as an old guy, and a businessman, I ain't interested in hangin' with ball golfers drinkin' martinis. I find them to be donkeys. Disc golfers are way more relaxed and way more tolerant IME.
Disc golf across the board has two things BG doesn't. First, we like that image of difference, embrace it, but second, we believe in taking care of our venues, ball golfers pay someone to do that. Don't hide the first, embrace the second. We like nature, we clean parks, we'd never dump a thousand pounds of fertilizer on a course, and let it soak into the ground water, we care about the world you live in. That's a powerful image, organic, and easy to market.
Back to the topic at hand. Pros as spokesmen. Let them dress as they will, and tattoo as they will. But no basketball player makes a donkey out of himself to the press. They understand, as well as an disc golfer does, that what you say, and how you act matters. How you look is your business. Rad clothes, fine, just conduct yourself like an adult when you are in the public eye. That will go a lot further than wearing a polo and plaid shorts. Then, when you do talk, talk about how disc golf gets you out in nature, away from manicured lawns, into trees and with animals. Talk about how the sport preserves the environment and how we want to convert people from high environmental impact sports to ones integrated into the woods. That message will carry with adults, and the younger players will see those cool clothes and buy the heck out of them.
JMO
