Anyone try the new Stealth bag at Infinite Discs?

[Modelyacht]

I put 4 discs in it during a warm spell, and fell in love with the idea of this bag with 4 discs. Super comfortable, minimalist design, and had a nice first round of the year. Way better than lugging around a bag with a dozen discs in it.

 

[Upper Park Designs]

I put 4 discs in it during a warm spell, and fell in love with the idea of this bag with 4 discs. Super comfortable, minimalist design, and had a nice first round of the year. Way better than lugging around a bag with a dozen discs in it.

It is a pretty good design, isn't it?

 

[asc349]

It is a pretty good design, isn't it?

This kinda bumms me out. It's a kick you in the nadz kinda world.

I know when you can get to a redesign of the focus you will crush this thing.

I have some ideas of your ever interested.

I have your Shift and Focus. Love them both

 

[da Crippler]

The price is great, the design is great for a small bag (especially with the water bladder) and I'm a huge supporter of Infinite. However, the tactic of using an overseas company to directly copy the design of another manufacturer is disappointing. :\

Unfortunately, disc golf retailers and manufacturers are not immune to greed. A fast growing sport like DG attracts weasels and con artists just like any other business. Most of these people are not your friends, their focus is always on the bottom line, and they have no problem stealing designs and misrepresenting their products. IMO, you can NEVER completely trust ANY businessman.

 

[MonkeyGrass]

If you send your plans and designs to ANY Chinese or Far East manufacturing facility, and this is usually the result. Only options in this economy are 1) Pay more for domestic manufacturing and keep your trade secrets and designs in house, or 2) Stay ahead of the rip-off artists. Option 1 often means higher costs and corresponding price points - bad for competing with inexpensive off-shore product. Option 2 requires a rapid pace of innovation and product design cycles - hard to do as a small company. It's a bad Catch-22.

This is by no means exclusive to DG products. It's everything.

In all honestly, the Focus has been kind of ignored for along time, and lots of user feedback has been posted about how to improve the bag. Infinite was listening, and reacted. And their bag is at a much more attractive price point - with useful features like a bottle holder - that folks have been requesting. It's not a pure apples to apples comparison IMO. They didn't just rip off the bag. They improved the design. And that's... capitalism. You bring an idea to market, someone else uses that as a base, and improves it. UPD seems clearly focused on their flagship models, The Rebel and Shift. Which is great, they are spectacular products and I'm sure make a decent profit for the company. The Focus has been ignored in favor of the Pinch & Shift - where UPD has focused (excused the pun, please) their energy and development for the last year or so. So the focus is a great design that kind of got "forgotten" by UPD in the new Shift/Rebel/Pinch/Draw product redesign cycle, and that left an opening for someone to pick up the ball.

I mean, I don't see everyone on DCGR bashing RDG and their *obvious* NutSac ripoff - the Gecko. They took what everyone liked about the NutSac, added a bottle holder, and everyone raves about how "great" and "cool" of a small faction disc golf manufacturer they are. When in reality (depending on how you look at it) they either 1) ripped off a popular, established design for their own benefit, or 2) took an existing product - IMPROVED IT - and then offered their version for sale.

the hypocrisy here is strong. Nothing new, lol that's for sure.

I mean, reading this forum, I get the strong impression that it's totally cool when one of "our" pet DG manufacturers steals someone else's design and improves it.

But, it's not cool at all when Infinite does exactly the same thing with the UPD Focus? Infinite is a bunch of "greedy weasels" and RDG is all pure awesomeness. Can't have it both ways, y'all.

Things that make you go - hmmmmm...

 

[ranger]

I always wanted a focus.

But I can't get over the fact it can't stand up. Can't really imagine how that works.

 

[Modelyacht]

It is a pretty good design, isn't it?

Just saw the Focus for the first time.

As much as I like the folks at InfiniteDiscs and think they're doing a great job.
Yeah, its a Focus knockoff. Sorry about that.

But as they say... "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

 

[Casey 1988]

I always wanted a focus.

But I can't get over the fact it can't stand up. Can't really imagine how that works.

Yeah they needed to put some V stand legs on the bag that can pop out to keep the bag from falling over. I have seen players use a stool to balance the bag on when playing. Other players used a V or similar type stand used for holding a gun up when hunting.

 

[Casey 1988]

If you send your plans and designs to ANY Chinese or Far East manufacturing facility, and this is usually the result. Only options in this economy are 1) Pay more for domestic manufacturing and keep your trade secrets and designs in house, or 2) Stay ahead of the rip-off artists. Option 1 often means higher costs and corresponding price points - bad for competing with inexpensive off-shore product. Option 2 requires a rapid pace of innovation and product design cycles - hard to do as a small company. It's a bad Catch-22.

This is by no means exclusive to DG products. It's everything.

In all honestly, the Focus has been kind of ignored for along time, and lots of user feedback has been posted about how to improve the bag. Infinite was listening, and reacted. And their bag is at a much more attractive price point - with useful features like a bottle holder - that folks have been requesting. It's not a pure apples to apples comparison IMO. They didn't just rip off the bag. They improved the design. And that's... capitalism. You bring an idea to market, someone else uses that as a base, and improves it. UPD seems clearly focused on their flagship models, The Rebel and Shift. Which is great, they are spectacular products and I'm sure make a decent profit for the company. The Focus has been ignored in favor of the Pinch & Shift - where UPD has focused (excused the pun, please) their energy and development for the last year or so. So the focus is a great design that kind of got "forgotten" by UPD in the new Shift/Rebel/Pinch/Draw product redesign cycle, and that left an opening for someone to pick up the ball.

I mean, I don't see everyone on DCGR bashing RDG and their *obvious* NutSac ripoff - the Gecko. They took what everyone liked about the NutSac, added a bottle holder, and everyone raves about how "great" and "cool" of a small faction disc golf manufacturer they are. When in reality (depending on how you look at it) they either 1) ripped off a popular, established design for their own benefit, or 2) took an existing product - IMPROVED IT - and then offered their version for sale.

the hypocrisy here is strong. Nothing new, lol that's for sure.

I mean, reading this forum, I get the strong impression that it's totally cool when one of "our" pet DG manufacturers steals someone else's design and improves it.

But, it's not cool at all when Infinite does exactly the same thing with the UPD Focus? Infinite is a bunch of "greedy weasels" and RDG is all pure awesomeness. Can't have it both ways, y'all.

Things that make you go - hmmmmm...

The People of DGCR did the same with the Gorilla boys knock off bag one with seat on here saying lets trash the reviews of the original listing of the Knock off on Amazon. The company had to pull its product from the shelves and wait a week to re list it on Amazon as a product again. Still gets bad reviews from people saying real posts this time about the bottom storage pocket not working right with the zipper breaking on that part. Well they have enough discs they need to use that bottom part as disc storage and can't when that part fails so quick. The only part I hate about the Knock off bag is from what I read on DGCR was way one guy from Las Vegas sent the original Gorilla Boy bag to the Manufacture Baglane to rip off the bag as at the time Gorilla Boy did not Mass produce that bag with the seat on it, now GB does. Baglane does this with purses from name brands while making its own designs for purses as well.

While others are happy about the Kestral bag, like the small NutSac but with a mesh and fabric drink holder and thicker/doubled up fabric to the bag and cheaper price by about half.

 

[ThrowBot]

Eyeballing pictures, the Infinite Stealth is not a 1-for-1 knockoff of the UPD Focus. The 4 main disc pockets are very similar if not identical, but all of the other pockets and bungies are unique.

Inifite offers a number of better features, IMO, like the dedicated towel clip(s) and the bottle holder. It looks like access to the hydration pouch is better, too. There's also (apparently?) a dedicated carry loop, and the mini pocket is in a different location. However, the mesh pocket on the Stealth looks much smaller than the Focus's pocket in that same area.

Overall I'm not ready to crucify Infinite for the similarity. If it was a direct copy then yes that's lame, but this is a unique offering. I mean, how many companies offer a product similar to the Innova Tournament bag? Correct answer: lots. The Focus itself isn't even completely original; it's basically a Camelbak design with 4 stretchy disc-sized flaps.

Now, at the $30 price point, I have other misgivings about the Stealth pack. Not sure what kind of quality you can fairly expect for that kind of dough. So the Focus might be a better bet in that regard. But, that's capitalism at its finest: you get what you pay for.

 

[Deej]

Just got one of these Stealth bags for Christmas, I think it's great. Seems to be made well and it carries just the right amount of discs for my game. I've only had it for a week, so I don't know if it will holdup but it is great so far.

 

[Surly Bastage]

I typically prefer to buy the original(and still hope to), but since the next version of the UPD REBEL may never get made I wouldn't mind Infinite Discs trying to improve on it.

 

[infinitedylan]

I said this somewhere, but I'll say it again here:

Just to clarify- Todd was the creator of the Stealth Bag and he actually didn't know that Upper Park Designs even existed. (We've never had a shift in this warehouse, never held one or even looked at one before making the Stealth bag.) He worked with the factory to create an ideal bag that he would like to use, focused around the idea of a camel back with disc holders. The Stealth Bag has a lot of things different about it from the UPD bag. It's in no way a rip off, just another version of a slim bag. That's like saying a Ranger Bag is a rip of of a Grip bag because it has two backpack straps and holds discs the same orientation. Can only one slim bag exist and the rest are knockoffs? That hasn't held true for any other "version" of a bag.

Anyway, just want to clarify where this came from. Thanks for checking it out! I honestly prefer the new Sling Bag that Todd designed, but that's just my taste.

 

[Brockness Monster]

Yeah, I am probably going to grab one of those Slingers soon for a travel bag

 

[Mr. Butlertron]

For the price of two discs this seems like a reasonable gamble. Ordered one, will report back with my findings. Worst case, it becomes a loner bag for newb friends.

 

[Split]

Looking into one for my casual rounds.

 

[Mr. Butlertron]

Used this bag for the first time yesterday, halfway ripped off the cup holder reaching for my rolled up towel within. Not a great start.