Huck It! A look at disc golf naming
About a year and a half ago I discovered disc golf. For those who don’t know, disc golf is played like golf but instead of hitting a ball, disc golfers throw shallow plastic discs about the diameter of a pie pan at targets called baskets.
For most of 2020 I’ve been playing a lot. A lot a lot. Three to five times a week over the past few months. There are a few reasons why I play as often as I do. In COVID times, it’s easy to play while remaining socially distant as so few people play my local course I often have it to myself. I find it deeply satisfying to throw a disc well — to have it fly exactly as I imagined in swooping arcs and sinuous s-curves. I also appreciate how playing the sport means spending time outdoors, the equipment is cheap, access to courses is often free or only a few dollars, and the community is friendly and encouraging.
Since I can’t turn my naming and branding brain off, I’ve been mentally cataloging how the sport’s brands present themselves, how they look and feel, and how they name their often large product lineups.
Looking at naming specifically, a couple of patterns have emerged:
Most brands make a lot of discs, so they use a lot of names. The average lineup across nine of the biggest and most established disc brands (Innova, Discraft, Discmania, Prodigy, MVP, DGA, Latitude 64°, Dynamic Discs, and Westside) is 42 discs. Innova Champion Discs leads the pack — they currently offer 86 discs.
When I first started playing I found the selection to be a little overwhelming. I harbored some skepticism as to why a company would make so many discs, each available in different plastic, and why I saw players with bags and carts stuffed with 25+ discs.
However, as I played more I started to understand why such variety exists, as small changes in disc design (and plastic) can truly affect how the disc flies and therefore which shot types it is designed for. Left to right, right to left, dead straight, over obstacles, under tree canopies, uphill, downhill, into a headwind, with a tailwind, through a cross breeze, and even to use as a roller — a shot where you get the disc to stand up on end and roll for hundreds of feet. So, not unlike ball golf where you have multiple drivers, fairway woods, a set of irons, specialty wedges and a putter or two — disc golfers benefit from a bag filled with options.
All the major brands use some kind of a naming system. Most brands use evocative names for their discs and a few use alphanumerics. Some brands have clear themes. Others are a mixed bag, and a few are all over the place. Innova is a solid example of a fairly tight evocative naming system, built around animals and beasts with a handful of outliers. MVP does a really good job being consistent with their scientific theme, which is wholly intact and very cohesive, as are the themes used by DGA, Dynamic Discs, and Westside.
Here’s how nine of the biggest brands in disc golf name their lineups:
Innova Champion Discs
Innova is the largest manufacturer of discs. They’ve been around since the early days of the sport, and make discs for a number of other brands. In fact, my first discs were made by Innova, a gift from my brother-in-law. Thanks Robert!
Innova has a tidy and easily expandable naming system based primarily on animals and beasts that correspond well to their disc type, e.g., Leopard, Teebird, Shark, Pig, Orc. It’s a solid, no-nonsense, and evocative theme that feels inexhaustible.
There are a few stray names that don’t quite fit the theme, though most are tangentially close: Destroyer, Corvette, Firestorm, XCaliber, Savant, to name a few. Fast, distance drivers have big, fast sounding names like Vulcan and Colossus. Slightly slower fairway drivers still sound fast without feeling larger than life, like Leopard, Cheetah, Banshee. Mid-range discs mostly feel speed-appropriate and smaller like Wombat, Mako, Wolf. Finally, putters feel smaller and slower still, like Pig, Bullfrog, Whale, and Colt. This level of intentionality with naming is likely helping customers navigate their portfolio.
Discraft
Discraft explores a few themes with their naming. As a result, their portfolio doesn’t feel cohesive. Many of their names are aggressive: Nuke, Machete, Avenger, Thrasher, Stalker, etc. They have some celestial names: Luna, Comet, Sol, Nebula, Eclipse, etc. A couple greek gods: Zeus and Hades. And the rest is all over the map: Ringer GT, Magnet, APX, Glide, Buzzz, Xtreme, etc. It’s a mess. There’s nothing about these names that helps me navigate their portfolio. While they make excellent discs, it’s hard for me to wrap my head around their lineup and remember which disc is which.
Discmania
Discmania has three lines: Originals, Evolution, and Active. The Originals line is all alphanumerics and quite tidy. I spoke with Discmania founder Jussi Meresmaa about their naming systems and process. Regarding their Originals line he said “We wanted to reinvent the game but still make our naming system universally understandable. My idea for the lineup was we have similar discs from ball golf: putter, driver, mid-range. Those clubs are universally named, like you have a sand wedge — that’s universally understandable. So I created this plan: driver: D1, midrange: MD, putters: P.”
Since there would eventually be a lot of different discs, for example drivers, they added a second letter and numbers to help players understand which disc will fly which way. In Meresmaa’s words “There can be like 16 different drivers in the game, so obviously we didn’t want to name them 1–16. Because that’s not going to be really useful for the user and customer. So that’s why we came up with this two-letter system for drivers, and one to five as a number.” For example CD is for Control Driver, DD is for Distance Driver, TD is for Turning Driver, and PD is for Power Driver.”
The numbers relate to disc stability, one being the most understable and five being the most stable. Without getting lost in the weeds of disc physics, overstable discs tend to follow the arc they’re thrown on, and when thrown backhand by a right handed player (the most common throw) they will turn left for the entire flight. By contrast, understable discs have a tendency to turn to the right as they fly before ultimately turning or fading to the left at the end of the flight, which is often described as being “flippy.” Their Originals line naming is quite clear when it comes to which disc is for what type of shot (drive, approach, or putt) and how stable or understable the disc is.
Discmania has two other lines: Evolution and Active. Evolution discs are themed by their namesake, evolution, with names like Essence, Link, and Instinct. The Active line is manufactured in China and is named after archetypes loosely related to China: Sensei, Magician, Mentor, Genius. Both lines aren’t as tight as maybe they could be, but each feels distinct. Each line is still growing, so they have a good opportunity to build cohesion as they unveil new discs.
Prodigy
Alphanumerics reign supreme with Prodigy. Their system is dead simple and similar to Discmania’s approach with their Originals line. Prodigy uses D for Distance Driver, X for Extra Speed Distance Driver, H for Hybrid Driver, F for Fairway Driver, M for Midrange, A for Approach, and PA for Putt and Approach. Each disc has a number attached to the name as well, e.g., H7 or A4. They use numbers one through seven to indicate disc stability: one is the most overstable, seven is the most understable. They use only two additional suffixes: “Max” for maximum distance drivers and “V2” for updated versions of a disc.
I like Prodigy’s approach here. They sell 37 different discs and it’s very easy to know exactly how each will fly and for which situation they’ve been designed.
MVP
MVP is all about science. It’s a complete and cohesive theme without any stragglers, with names like Dimension, Catalyst, Relativity, Volt, Reactor, Anode, and Ohm. They appear to reserve big concepts or theories for the distance drivers, the discs that go the furthest and are the hardest to throw well. And moving down the line, much like Innova, they do a decent job scaling back the amplitude of the names, all the way to putters with names like Ion, Atom, and Particle. Maybe the only outlier here is they’ve named a disc Tesla, after Nikola Tesla, so that feels slightly out of place relative to concepts and matters and theories, but overall they do a great job presenting a complete system for their audience.
DGA
I get the sense the folks at DGA appreciate a good surf session or sail on the open ocean as their disc naming system is nearly all based on oceanic and weather terms: Cyclone, Riptide, Pipeline, Tremor, Squall, and Breaker. There are a few outliers like Blowfly, Blunt Gumbputt, and Steady. Ultimately, they have a small portfolio and it feels solid from a naming perspective.
Latitude 64°
Latitude 64° feels a bit scattered. Tomas Ekström, Latitude 64° founder, kindly offered to send some thoughts on naming by email. When I asked Ekström about success and challenges he had this to say “naming a disc isn’t easy and finding a good theme isn’t either, so we’ve been struggling since the very beginning of our company.”
Founded in 2005, their lineup has grown quite a bit over the years. Ekström shared this thought on naming approach:
“In the early days I usually didn’t have a name on the disc before I could hold it in my hands. So after the first test throws I decided the name, just based on how it looked, feel and flew. For me it’s hard to name for example a driver, The Teddy bear, just because it doesn’t fit the profile and the use of the disc. So for driver I rather choose names that sound a bit “tougher” , Ravage, Riot, Mercenary etc. For Putters it could be a smoother name based on feel and touch. Like Pure, Fluffy or whatever :-)”
Looking at the lineup, a number of names are weapons: Mace, Caltrop, Dagger, Musket, and Claymore to name a handful. Others feel related to discovery, like Pioneer, Explorer, and Compass. Gems and valuable objects are another theme, used for their easier to throw discs: Ruby, Pearl, Jade, and Sapphire. The rest of the bunch feels related, yet mixed: Beetle, River, Sarek, Mercy, Pain, Anchor, Bryce, and Sinus.
Dynamic Discs
There’s a strong law and order theme here with Dynamic Discs. On one hand, there are some pro law and order names with Defender, Enforcer, Sergeant, Sheriff, Gavel, Evidence, and Justice. On the flip side, there are some names that celebrate lawlessness like Fugitive, Thief, Felon, Breakout, Escape, Getaway, Trespass, and Criminal. It’s a solid and unbroken theme, however it’s a bit too intense for me.
Westside
A Finnish brand, Westside incorporates Finnish history and lore into their naming theme. All the naming is drawn from the Finnish national epic Kalevala, a 19th century epic poem by Elias Lönnrot. Unsurprisingly, the theme is unified and heroic, with names like King, Queen, Warhorse, Shield, Maiden, Harp, Underworld, Stag, and Hatchet. There are some names specific to the Kalevala like Sampo (a mythical artifact) and Ahti (a heroic character). They’ve done a great job keeping the names and artwork in sync with the overall brand.
Bonus round: Kastaplast
Kastaplast isn’t as big as the nine brands I’ve included here, but they’re one of my personal favorites as their discs fly really well for me, their plastics are incredible, and I love an underdog. In fact, depending on where I’m playing and what the wind is doing that day, a third to half my bag is Kastaplast. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given their name Kastaplast, they’re Swedish and their name means “throw plastic.” I love that. Their lineup is small with 11 discs and while there isn’t a clear theme, the fact that their discs names are all in Swedish and are all four letters creates a bit of unity across the portfolio.
Jonas Lindberg of Kastaplast was kind enough to answer some of my questions about their brand and naming. Here’s some of what he shared with me: “Before naming a disc we look at its flight characteristics. Glide, overstable, understable, fast or slow. Then we try to find a name that in one way or another suits that type of disc. For example, an overstable disc may get a name that indicates power or strength. Like our Stål (Steel). However, words can also fit to a certain disc in a more far-fetched or poetic way. We try to stay away from some of the naming themes that are common at other manufacturers, such as weapons, monsters, fantasy, or animals (although we have named one disc after a bird).”
When asked about the decision to stick to Swedish Jonas said “The names in Swedish seem popular here in the Nordic countries, and they also seem to work abroad. One issue is how a name is expected to be pronounced in English. We don’t mind that the words aren’t pronounced as we say them in Swedish, but the names shouldn’t be impossible to “Americanize”. For our disc Göte, we predicted that it wasn’t going to be pronounced [jøːtə] or “joeteh”, but rather “goat”, and we thought it sounded cool both ways.”
I’d tend to agree, the names are pretty easy in English, for example: Grym, Rask, Falk, Lots, Stal, Kaxe, Berg, Reko.
In terms of meaning, they’re all over the map but I do agree the names do tend to fit the characteristics of the disc. I often throw a Falk, which is Swedish for falcon, and that disc glides forever, much like a falcon.
Naming in this industry is about what I expected, solid overall with some outliers. What struck me most was the amount and intensity of aggressive names, which is at odds with the portion of the community I’ve met — a mostly wonderful, open, and encouraging group.
A big thanks to Jussi, Tomas, and Jonas for generously answering my questions. When Americans can travel internationally again I hope to go to the Nordics to play some disc golf. Finland has 800+ courses! Sweden has 650+! In the meantime, I’ll be here celebrating the good shots and shaking my head, and fist, at the trees that get in my way the rest of the time.
