Are there too many bowling balls being released?
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- Опубликовано: 11 дек 2023
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The amount of bowling ball releases has gotten out of control. It's barely a few months after a new ball has been released, until it's successor is announced. Ball companies are pumping out non-stop releases and it's a trend that doesn't look like it's going to stop.
The question we are going to discuss in this video is, are there too many bowling balls being released now?
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bowling balls // bowling balls 2023 // bowling balls 2024 // bowling ball releases // new bowling balls // storm bowling balls // new urethane balls // hammer bowling balls // bowling ball review // pba bowling // pba bowling 2023 // new urethane rules 
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Every ball released skids through the front with more ease, picks up in the mid lane more and is harder off the break point than the previous ball but my average never changes 😆
That’s more of an operator error issue, than an equipment issue.
@@remoevans7847 Egh... A little more sarcasm and joking more than anything.
@@NathanMoist It flew over someones head.
When I was a kid we had 2 bowling balls,one for lanes with heavy oil and one for dry lanes
And the lanes went uphill both ways
@@Samuel-xs2yv I am still certain that the lanes dry up when i walk up to it and changes midway of each game from dry to wet and back without warning
I shot 846 with a beat up ragin inferno (2003)
The balls are all about the same
I shot my first 800 in 2006 with a 15 year old urethane orbit. Lmao
Nice set! Old is gold it seems :)
I am downsizing right now, paying attention to the balls that I am most comfortable with. Hammer Black Widow 2.0 Solid and Hybrid, and two Storm !Q Tours, one pearl and one solid. Being a house shot bowler, I don't need any others. Aside from keeping the ball I shot my first 300 with, my goal is to downsize my arsenal this year to a manageable number. I got caught up in the mindset of needing new equipment when what I really needed was to throw better shots!
Sometimes, throwing better shots is a better option than buying more equipment. Most bowlers don’t have the luxury of drilling tons of bowling balls every year, like sponsored PBA pros, so you gotta make with what you have.
I agree with everything you said. There is too much to choose from. I think I'm just going to have a strong solid, a strong hybrid, a ball for dry conditions, and a urethane,of course a plastic spare ball and that is it.
It's also the fact that reactive resin only last a couple of years before they start dying, but urethane seems to last way longer.
Yes and people are constantly talking about how great every ball is to get a sponsorship. It’s laughable anymore
Best time to buy a ball no is a year after release when it is on close out for $100
This is definitely the way to go.
My shop has used balls for $65 … drilled!!!
Exactly. eBay is your friend on that one.
One of the best bowling balls I ever had was on sale for $78 back in 2018 lol.
As a PSO, yes. As a consumer, very yes.
It is and has always been, a marketing scheme
You mention summit and tnt. Those are both solid covers and made to hook early and smooth. They made the peak and infused to use when tnt and summit hook to early. They compliment each other very nicely as intended.
Same thing with video games, like you said. Like when you said it doesn't matter if the ball isn't good enough, they can always release an updated one the next year. Gaming companies do this too, where they don't care if there are a few glitches, since they'll just release a patch later to be downloaded. Used to be with consoles they had to be ready to go out of the box.
Yes
I'm so glad you're covering this. It's like they're just recycling similar ones that have come out in the past giving them different names with little tweaks in the coverstock/cores. Brian Voss wrote about this a little while ago and how it's gotten so ridiculous. You can say the same about cars, skis, computers etc., etc., etc. Every few years there is a semi-big evolution change, but not every few weeks. I think it's a way to make $$ and it pushes people to buy the lates ball that comes out.
If one must even ask this question, then the answer is yes!
IMO, no one person don't need many bowling balls in theory. I think part of this is mental too because so many bowlers believe that they need new equipment to be a better bowler which is far from true. Understably, balls don't last forever but buy as a replacement.
But to get back what I was saying, all a bowler needs to do is LEARN how to bowl with the equipment they have instead of being one dimensional and make frequent ball changes. I have four balls that I had more than a year and I constantly work on my game and as of late, my average increase for both my leagues and by the end of the fall leagues (April '24), my average could be sitting at a little over 200 from 183 from '23 season. And that is with older equipment that I bought new which was newer fewer years back, thank you very much.
I also use two piece bowling equipment like Lord Fields, Lane Masters and Legends.
I had major decision paralysis on what ball to buy this year and when i finally bought one i was still not sure if I chose the right one. Major FOMO set in. What if i bought the OTHER bowling ball? or the OTHER OTHER bowling ball instead? I think if they insist on releasing so many balls they should have more demo days at more bowling centers so you can better chose the ball for you. at this point it's like you have to buy two bowling balls and hope you match up with one of them and accept one of them you might not..
FOMO is very real. I just bought two new balls. But I look at so many others that look great and then see they get discontinued and think to myself should I get them before they are hard to find? Clearly I won't be using all of these balls all of the time so it doesn't make sense to get them. But FOMO and the collector but kicks in and I get the itch to buy them.
Planned obsolescence isn't just for electronics anymore.
Old bowling balls don't go obsolete just because a new ball comes out.
@@wintonmoy5560 Theoretically speaking, yes.
I probably get one ball every two or three release dumps. With exception of the NU Blue Hammer, which I felt was special and it was, it was my first ever preorder.
To your point on urethane. It has such a limited uses to a select audience that it wouldn’t make sense to make a lot of them. Everyone throws reactive ball but not everyone throws urethane. Companies have tried asymmetric and pearl urethanes and those tend to not sell very well (with the exception of the purple hammer of course)
What about The USBC rules about the hardness. You can't change certain rules. Lack of flexibility for bowling balls. You don't need ten bowling balls. You only need maybe max four balls (3 strike balls and one spare ball). It's overkill to bowl today. League don't need that's many balls. Tournament maybe??
Urethane is a lower price point, and you can't have the biggest demand on your cheap ball? They want to sell latest and greatest for highest price point, even if it is unjustified.
the amount of releases imo are for the pros and the "house shot kings" that feel after 10 games the ball is bad and they need to get rid of it
While I would agree that there are a lot of bowling balls being released, I think it's important to note that a lot of these balls aren't upgrades or replacements. You mentioned the Summit, which was released in June, and the Summit Peak, which was just announced. The Peak isn't an upgrade to the Summit, it's the same ball with a pearl coverstock instead of a hybrid. Releasing both balls allows people to acquire different characteristics from the coverstocks while having the same core they like. The Peak isn't an upgrade, it's just a variant, and I don't think there's anything wrong with having variants of the same ball. More variants allows people to flesh out their arsenals and fill gaps they may have.
Also, just because there's a lot of releases doesn't mean you have to buy them. You should know that almost any new release is probably going to be able to perform well for a long time. The only negative I really see to the amount of releases is saturation. There's so many balls on the market it can be hard to know which one you need, and often times many balls fill the same roles, adding further confusion. This can be combated with research though. Understanding differential, RG, and coverstocks makes it a lot easier. A lot of people don't bother to learn these things and buy the latest and greatest releases thinking they will help their scores. The reality is "Timmy Two-Hands" probably does not need something like the Storm DNA, because it will rip the boards off the lane and end up in the gutter nine times out of ten. On the flip side, "Tommy Ten-Board" doesn't need the NU Blue Hammer, it's likely to be too early or too weak. Just do your research and understand what you need before you buy it, and you don't have to worry about 90% of new releases.
Absolutely correct. To flood the market with balls is disappointing and does nothing rot the sport…
If only there was a ball that could clear the fronts with ease and still have that crazy back end motion
Most high end balls now can do that. It's a trick of finding a layout and surface adjustment. For example, mine I usually layout to have more backend, and start at 500/1500/3000. Then adjust the breakpoint by either going up to 4/5K, applying polish or going down to 2K if the ball skids.
BoB has latched on to the hype of HK22. It’s been pretty disappointing because it seems to have halted legitimate innovation of coverstocks. It claims to be the most innovative cover stock ever made. It’s certainly innovative, but it’s really just caused the same ball to be released repeatedly.
In almost every case, all HK22 pearl and hybrid coverstocks look identical. This is a bit less true when evaluating solid HK22 covers, but HK22 is designed to be clean and flippy. Not a lot of good solid, low diff, or low RG HK22 balls on the market. It’s not their wheelhouse.
If you could blind test the 3d offset attack, top speed, black widow hybrid, high speed, quantum evo response, theorem, and violent collision, you would notice a nearly identical motion from all of them. Thats just to name a few. You would find a few of them push their flare down lane an extra 2 feet due to core differences, but you will get the exact same motion.
It just seems like if you release seven asymmetric pearl/hybrid balls in a year, they should have some diversity. All of those bowling balls are fantastic pieces of equipment, but if you own one of them, you cannot afford another spot in your bag for the other.
For what it’s worth, I do believe SPI has been much better at diversifying their products than brands Brunswick in the last year.
You are so right!
I see the IQ 78/U taking off on the urethane end, as far as the pro/PBA scene. They also fail to market that the urethane hardness rule doesn't apply in most USBC events/leagues. So if your not a "pro" there is not really a need to upgrade to a new ball because of the new hardness rule. I think they wouldn't lose their current urethane market and could still benefit a lot more in sales of current line balls if this was known more openly. So my thought process is there reason enough to put such hype behind new urethane balls?
Some companies change cover stocks on the same ball with the same core to give you options for different lane conditions, no?
1)reactive
2) pearl
3) hybrid
4) urethane
5)symmetrical
6) asymmetrical
More options to chose with with covers and cores. So more different balls
I don't care how many they release the issue comes when they cancel a great ball! If they ever get rid of the Phase 2 or black widow 2.0 and many other bench mark balls then theres a problem.
There will be more urethane or urethane like balls coming out in 2024. Due to the rule change, there will hopefully be different approaches in core design in order to compensate for the harder overstocks.
These companies know what they are doing and what makes money. So they'll continue to make tons of new releases hooping we bite on the hype and FOMO. With RUclipsrs telling us how great every ball is, we can easily fall into the trap. I would like to see less releases and more specialization in the brands. Like maybe Hammer is the urethane and hybrid arm of Brunswick, and the other brands fill in other roles, Columbia 300 for symetrical pearls and spare balls, Radical for the innovatice new cores, Brunswick proper for the benchmark balls, etc. But bowlers have loyalty to brands so the want to contiue to foster this by releasing overlapping balls on each brand.
Along with the proliferation of all these releases there has been an explosion of ball review videos. Everyone is now a ball expert. I have been looking to buy a new ball and along with so many choices and so many reviews I have found that there is no t a lot of real world, practical information out there. They hype each ball as if we are all Jason Belmonte or think we want to be. In truth the majority of bowlers are league bowler and some tournament bowlers to a lesser degree. Many are not crankers that migrate the entire lane as the night goes on. Some as myself just want practical information as to what ball might be best on a typical house shot, from relatively modest angles, what ball to go to with an earlier hook and roll when the corners are standing and what ball to go to as the lines transition or burn up. Too many choices and not enough practical information.
The truth is that for a house pattern, it doesn't matter which ball you use. The pattern dictates your ball movement much more than the ball. The slight differences in balls matters a lot more for hard sport patterns.
Yeah right
bowling has exploded in 2023. I was really good 20 years ago and fell away from the sport. Recently bowling has become more interesting on social media and now its gaining popularity. If this train keeps moving bowling could actually be a sport that makes good money! I bought 4 balls this year and got back into the sport again.
I think it's just a spray and pray kind of way marketing balls. Also I don't get the hate on the TNT, I just bowled my first 300 with it, and I've been bowling for over 20 years.
Yes..to many..to similar..to quickly
What Are The Top Selling Bowling Balls Made Today?
Hy Road or Marvel.. My opinion. Iq Tour....
At the shop I work at, the Black Widow 2.0 series.
Chasing the magic bean.............................Ball manufactures know you will chase it........
For the consumer, no. The numbers haven't really changed much in the last several years. Most manufacturers have a pretty standard cycle for releases with few exceptions. For the proshop, yes. It is too much to try and stock and not worth while to do.
That's why I only buy Motiv.. They only have 19 balls out at this time. Quality over quantity. And the Tank is better than the PH.
Yes!
I don't understand the need to put out so many bowling balls. Are there really enough bowlers to buy them? Unless you are bowling in big tournaments such as Regionals or NEBA and SEMBA I can understand because conditions are much harder and requires something with more kick. I carried three Balls oily, med, and dry. That's good enough for me. I don't play a big hook I also don't roll it more than 13mph.
Way too many
If I remember correctly, Pete Weber used to bring only 2 balls to a tournament. Correct me if I’m wrong.
One other thing is the fact that many uses Urethane on tuff conditions. Yet, with all the specialized bowling balls out there, why even bother buying them if the urethane is the holy grail (which is not)? During the 2000's when I was most active within the sport of bowling, you could proudly look at the PBA stars and feeling you got the right bowling ball, as they where using the same bowling ball, or at least a greater variation of them. Today, as fast there's a tuff pattern, what do they pick? Purple hammer och Pitch black. Some brave heroes such as Simonsen tend to use reactive balls, but the majority goes for Urethane - which I find plain boring. Why bother with a Gem or any other type of bowling ball if Urethane "seems to be the solution of everything"? Aren't the pro's professional enough to combat these patterns any more without using Urethane? Or is it that they have become handicapped by a material, like there are no other options? I've seen so many bowlers, pros as avg league bowler throwing PB and PH and can't just get it right, yet they insist using it, ripping the pattern apart in the process - even if they have their bags full of other bowling balls.
I have seen in many PBA tournaments they have started to use a different oil pattern on each lane so you may be in urethane on the right lane but reactive on the left.
Companies releasing new products doesn’t mean consumers have to buy them all. Obviously there’s a market for new products or it wouldn’t be financially sustainable for the manufacturers to do so. Content creators that are not in the industry giving their opinions really holds no credence in the grand scheme.
Sometimes I wonder if the pros are actually using the ball that’s new?? I hockey players will use sticks that are many years old that have the cover of the newest stick
Storm has tried several different urethane balls over the years, and they all flopped. The pitch blue and fever pirch never took off. The fast pitch was ok, but was more situational than the pitch black. There isn't much innovation to be had with urethane, especially with "pearl" urethane balls.
The other companies, outside of motiv and their MCP covers, don't try urethane because they're under the umbrella of the 2 best urethane balls in market already.
I think it has to do with cover stock and core. They have added hk22 this past year and they added that to a lot of previously popular balls with different cover types. Also it’s a game of inches and these slight changes can be the difference you are looking for on a shot. Why are we complaining that there are too many balls to choose from??? Lol sounds like a good problem to me 🤷🏻♂️ Also if you got the money to spend on equipment and that’s what you like, buy as many as you like. When I get a ball I like I buy 2 and keep one to put away. If your confused, do more research. 🤷🏻♂️
To answer the urethane question.
When over 50% of league bowlers spread the disinformation that urethane isn't for house shots, then you have few urethane balls being produced. Furthermore most recreational bowlers don't like urethane shape. They like big backends and hook and things that sparkle.
But gone are the days when everyone had to put their name on their ball because everyone had the same ball.
Good point. Sometimes house shots can play tricky and urethane can definitely get you out of trouble on difficult nights. I think you're right. Urethane isn't always the most glamorous option so it can be hard to convert people.
I got off the "latest and greatest" new ball treadmill when I finally figured out that it's the archer, not the arrow. Yes, quality arrows ARE important, but so are lessons, practice and experience. I'm ow down to only 3 balls, all urethane with differing cores, coverstocks and finishes that provide me with low (double use as spare), mid and a high flare roll. I chose urethane because they seem to be a LOT LESS maintenance and last longer. And besides, it's my god given right as a left hander to roll urethane anytime, anywhere!
I think you should also be looking at the life span of the cover - new balls out of the box tend give you a few extra boards and as they get more games on them the do get weaker and it some cases they pretty much dead after 50 games , not all balls but some do for sure. Agree with the premise that there are too many and the general differences in releases are minimal , so yes way too many releases.