[Vibram] Vibram Disc Golf Thread

[eegor]

What is going on with the Obex?

June 28 release. I still keep looking for any early opportunities...

 

[Titanic_Sinks]

I know I'm a youngin' when it comes to posting on these boards, but I'll try this anyway...My birthday is June 29th! Pretty good timing for an Obex shaped gift, is it not?

Seriously, though...I'm really hoping the Obex turns out to be a boon for Vibram. I want them to succeed, if only to show other "big companies" that disc golf isn't the ugly girl at the prom.

 

[TalbotTrojan]

In case anyone was wondering why you haven't seen the Obex approved for tournament play, Mr. Dodge pulled a few favors to get the PDGA to approve it on June 27th, right before it hits stores on the 28th.

 

[Dana]

Steve- any changes from the protos to the production run?

 

[zenbot]

How about a Vibram DG bag ?
With a modified Vibram shoe style bottom on it ?

That's a really good idea.

 

[cfair]

^^^

it has been suggested before but you would have to read through the first 150 pages of this thread to find it...

 

[Lewis]

Just curious why there was no Vibram love at the Beaver State Fling. I was really hoping to see Vibram discs for sale at the event since Vibram is a major sponsor of the tour. Was hoping to maybe see an Obex demo and just some Vibram goodness in general

I hear Vibram makes it difficult for retailers to be approved to sell their discs. The local shop I do most of my shopping at used to keep them in stock, but apparently they changed their policy and sent him a pile of forms to fill out so he could continue to sell their discs. Since Vibram wasn't among his best sellers, and since he didn't think the demanded information was reasonable or worth the hassle to fill out, he just stopped selling them. It's a shame, because I've had Vibram discs in my bag ever since they came out with the Ridge, and would be looking to buy an Obex, and possibly replace my lost Trak and Ascent, but it's much more difficult now that my local store no longer carries Vibram discs.

Maybe the hurdles to being allowed to sell Vibram discs are part of the reason why the TD at that event didn't sell them.

 

[eegor]

I hear Vibram makes it difficult for retailers to be approved to sell their discs. The local shop I do most of my shopping at used to keep them in stock, but apparently they changed their policy and sent him a pile of forms to fill out so he could continue to sell their discs. Since Vibram wasn't among his best sellers, and since he didn't think the demanded information was reasonable or worth the hassle to fill out, he just stopped selling them. It's a shame, because I've had Vibram discs in my bag ever since they came out with the Ridge, and would be looking to buy an Obex, and possibly replace my lost Trak and Ascent, but it's much more difficult now that my local store no longer carries Vibram discs.

Maybe the hurdles to being allowed to sell Vibram discs are part of the reason why the TD at that event didn't sell them.

This may be the reason my local "brick and mortar" vendor quit selling them. If it is, it's a shame.

 

[plastic cannon]

I was going to try and get Vibram in our shop, but after seeing everything they wanted from us we decided against it. Looks like we aren't the only ones having a hard time carrying their discs. Shame really.

 

[Dyoel182]

My local guy got 2 small shipments in before they cut him off and told him no more batches at the wholesale price. That being said I don't know anything other than hearsay.

 

[plastic cannon]

My local guy got 2 small shipments in before they cut him off and told him no more batches at the wholesale price. That being said I don't know anything other than hearsay.

They just cut him off?

 

[Dyoel182]

From what he says he got a small batch, sold those, got a slightly larger batch, sold those and was told the next batch would not be at the same wholesale price. He said it was now cheaper to get them from an nonlinear seller like everyone else.

 

[Dana]

I hear Vibram makes it difficult for retailers to be approved to sell their discs. The local shop I do most of my shopping at used to keep them in stock, but apparently they changed their policy and sent him a pile of forms to fill out so he could continue to sell their discs. Since Vibram wasn't among his best sellers, and since he didn't think the demanded information was reasonable or worth the hassle to fill out, he just stopped selling them. It's a shame, because I've had Vibram discs in my bag ever since they came out with the Ridge, and would be looking to buy an Obex, and possibly replace my lost Trak and Ascent, but it's much more difficult now that my local store no longer carries Vibram discs.

Maybe the hurdles to being allowed to sell Vibram discs are part of the reason why the TD at that event didn't sell them.

Most of the vendors at the BSF had Vibram for sale. The only discs the tournament/"TD" were selling were tourney stamped Innova and there were only a few molds at that.

 

[Flip it Flat]

I hear Vibram makes it difficult for retailers to be approved to sell their discs. The local shop I do most of my shopping at used to keep them in stock, but apparently they changed their policy and sent him a pile of forms to fill out so he could continue to sell their discs. Since Vibram wasn't among his best sellers, and since he didn't think the demanded information was reasonable or worth the hassle to fill out, he just stopped selling them. It's a shame, because I've had Vibram discs in my bag ever since they came out with the Ridge, and would be looking to buy an Obex, and possibly replace my lost Trak and Ascent, but it's much more difficult now that my local store no longer carries Vibram discs.

Maybe the hurdles to being allowed to sell Vibram discs are part of the reason why the TD at that event didn't sell them.

^^^^^^
I recently had two conversations with different shop owners that I do business with and they related the same story to me. One individual felt it was still worth it but still didn't like the hoops they had to jump through to get it. The other person flat out refuses to carry their product anymore, this person also said that they have screwed up nearly every order that they made and haven't sent them the right discs he wanted. I have been at a Pinnacle retailer that was out of the product for 3 weeks and they were stuck waiting for the order to come in. This hurts that shop owner because these people ultimately went somewhere else to get their stuff and probably won't return to that store for a while if they feel they can't get what they want.

Now when I was talking to these people I wasn't processing every little detail they told me but it seemed to be a very convoluted and complicated ordering process that irked these dealers a lot. The anecdotal thing they told me is Vibram is the most difficult company to order products directly from the source followed by MVP. Coincidentally, in both shops these were the least represented products on the shelves, which were dominated by Innova, Discraft and Gateway and to a lesser extent by Lat64/Westside and Legacy and ABC.

Now the one shop owner said that the only way for the shop to get away selling these is if there was a real high demand and even then they would consider going through a wholesaler before going through Vibrams process of ordering.

The problem I see here for Vibram from a business standpoint both in the short-term and longterm is if you make it difficult for the retailers to order your product and create what amounts to an exclusionary ordering system your going to see a direct correlation in reduced overall sales because retailers will sell what they can order easily without a hassle.

I hope that the powers that be at Vibram see the error of their ways because this can ultimately kill them in the long run. They have to make it easy enough for these shops to order the product and not have them jump through hurdles and make them order more than they need to just so they qualify for an order. I worked for 2 different companies that had a similar situation and frankly one's out of business and the other is hanging on by a thread now.

Most of us can remember when we first started buying discs, you bought what was commercially available and that's still the case. If Vibram can't get into these small shops they will begin to lose market share because people will not be exposed to them enough to consider it for purchase. It's hard to create a demand for something that isn't commercially available for people in certain regions if they can't play with it. I usually run into at least 2 people a week that are interested in these Vibram's I have when they see me with mine on the courses.

The first question they ask is where do I get them. I tell them they can go here or there but the selection isn't that good or the prices are too high. Ultimately I tell them the best deal they can get is to go online, then the kicker is...Well i want to feel them and see them in person if i'm gonna buy them.

There you have it, if it isn't available and Vibram makes it more difficult to procure them people will lose interest. Disc golfers can be fickle about this and with a totally new disc purchase that they haven't bought before they will want to get a tangible feel before purchasing. If it isn't there to see and feel your never gonna be on this customers radar.

Frankly, I find some of these business decisions are entirely counterproductive to the success of the company as it relates to their disc golf division.

 

[plastic cannon]

Excellent write up. ^^^ But let me just say one thing about it. My friend and I just opened a shop together and MVP was very easy to work with and get plastic from. It may be different for some, that was just our experience.

 

[maansmit]

Excellent write up. ^^^ But let me just say one thing about it. My friend and I just opened a shop together and MVP was very easy to work with and get plastic from. It may be different for some, that was just our experience.

I agree with this. MVP has always been very easy for me to order from.

 

[cfair]

I've heard it depends on when MVP are doing what. Often are easy but when they are busy or have a lot going on things get difficult. But MVP as a company is considerably smaller than most DG companies.

 

[Flip it Flat]

I've heard it depends on when MVP are doing what. Often are easy but when they are busy or have a lot going on things get difficult. But MVP as a company is considerably smaller than most DG companies.

I think this issue with MVP is more along the lines of what Cfair is stating. In my conversations with these people only one person brought this up. I think it may add up to turnaround time on an order and not necessarily a bad ordering policy. I didn't mean to rag on MVP in anyway.


I have a bit of a conflicted feeling here, I love Vibram as a disc producer and I respect those shop owners that have a store dedicated to DG and other retailers that carry a larger than normal amount of discs because they are doing a ton to promote DG in their communities.

I just find that this is not a conducive policy to increasing Vibram's market share while at the same time penalizing smaller retailers that want to sell their product but are finding obstacles to doing that. What I would kinda like to know is why Vibram chose this process and the reasons they have to go this route with certain smaller wholesale customers?

 

[plastic cannon]

I'm not sure. we were going to order something like 200 discs from them too. There is only two of us running our shop and we both love vibram discs. We just could not believe the hoops we had to go through. However, innova has been the same way with us.

 

[cfair]

*nevermind.