Most popular brand of ball in your area

[Tony]

What brand(s) of ball do you see on the lanes in your area?

For me, seems like Storm brands and Brunswick brands are the two seen the most.

[vdubtx]

Lots of Storm/Roto Grip and quite a few Motiv and Radical starting to show up. Also 900 Global as there are several staffers in area.

[Blomer]

Storm/Roto Grip as well.

[mc_runner]

Storm/Roto, with a decent mix of Brunswick, DV8, Motiv. Not much Columbia, Radical, 900Global or Track.

[larry mc]

my area its storm , i throw a little of everything

[Crash]

Storm/Columbia.

[AlexNC]

Lots of Storm and Columbia at my current house. Hammer too.

[BrianG]

Storm/Roto-grip but I have been seeing a lot of people throwing Motiv & DV8 lately.

[Jessiewoodard57]

Storm/Roto-grip mostly with a few Brunswick

[Kells]

Storm/Roto are the most popular but I definitely see a lot of EBI brands around here, C300 and Hammer especially

[NewToBowling]

I can't easily identify balls by just looking at them. There are a lot of novice players who still just use a spare ball but from what I can tell Storm/RotoGrip are still king. Not to many if any from Motiv/DV8/EBI, etc

[Jaescrub]

Lots of storm and DV8 balls around here. Mostly older balls as well. I think every league year my team is the only one with new equipment but that's mostly because I won a bunch of new. Balls and gave them all to my teammates ha ha ha.

[jab5325]

I'd say well more than half of my home alley has at least one Storm ball in the arsenal.

Other popular brands are DV8 and Hammer. Not too much in the way of Motiv, Brunswick, Ebonite and Columbia.

[Amyers]

My old house was mainly Storm/Roto but it's gone and so is the proshop there. The other proshop's in the area are focusing on Brunswick and 900 Global now so seeing more and more of that. Radical seem s to be getting a little more popular here lately.

[scottymoney]

Mostly Storm/Roto in my area. But that's what is pushed by most of the pro shops.

Me being someone that has to be different I am one of the only to be throwing Motiv.
Recently got my brother a Motiv ball and he loves it. So the Motiv number may start growing as guys have been seeing him have a bit better success than with his old ball. Not that it is the ball manufacturer being any good but knowing him as a bowler and fitting what he needed helped.

[MongooseDog]

A lot of motive. Ebonite as well (because the local house pushes the crap out of it).

[Aslan]

I'd say a slight edge to Storm/Roto at my previous (Tuesday league) center.

At the AMF house, seems like more Hammer/Ebonite/Columbia/Track which is what that house and all the bowlers that recently switched houses due to their's closing are used to buying. The pro shop only sells EBI as did the former center's shop.

At my Monday League house...hard to say. That pro shop sells a little of everything.

It's too bad the companies don't release their sales data...but if they did I think you'd see that Storm/Rotogrip controls easily the largest market share. Brunswick/DV8 is probably second, especially now that their Radical line is finally showing some promise. EBI is probably 3rd...mainly because of the Hammer brand having so many loyal followers and their aggressive sales efforts. Motiv would be 4th simply because they're a tiny player overall. They have a lot of momentum and are starting to get a loyal following and have made good sponsorship decisions. 900Global would be 5th...but now that they are essentially owned by Storm...it doesn't matter.

After that...very minor players led by probably Seismic, Lane #1, AMF, Pyramid, and LaneMasters. Essentially all the players that don't have the sales to dictate PBA registration.

If I had to GUESS at market share (nationally speaking) by brand; I'd guess:

Storm: 19%
Brunswick: 14%
Hammer: 12%
Columbia: 11%
Rotogrip: 9%
Motiv: 8%
DV8: 7%
Track: 5%
Ebonite: 5%
Radical: 3%
900Global: 2%
AMF: 2%
Seismic: 1%
Lane#1: 1%
Pyramid: 1%

If you break it down by company;
Ebonite International: 33%
Storm Products: 32%
Brunswick International: 24%
Motiv Bowling: 8%
All Others: 3% (total)

I'm not a big fan of EBI, but with one of the older brands (Columbia) and one of the most popular modern brands (if not most popular) in Hammer...the combination of 4 product lines with significant history behind them probably still gives them a slight edge in market share as a company. However, that has been dwindling and will continue to dwindle as Storm and Brunswick continue to release better products.

Motiv has the most momentum, taking over the Storm, Rotogrip, DV8 youth movement. But Brunswick's Radical line is finally starting to bear fruit...and even if Motiv doubled their market share...it's unlikey they could break into the top 3. They have only one product line and all the major players have 3-4.

Based on product evaluation...and someone like Rob who tests balls as part of his BTM duties might have more insight into this...but I don't see Brunswick going anywhere unless something really negative happens as a result of them technically being for sale. But I do see Columbia continuing to lose market share. EBI seems to rely greatly on brand loyalty and less so on product development and marketing. And while "Hammer" is still a dominant brand...the ole timers loyal to Columbia are dying off. But it's just too big with too much history and 4 significant product lines...so I don't see it going anywhere overall (EBI).

Motiv is sort of "stuck" at #4 because any company they would acquire wouldn't be enough to challenge the Big 3 in terms of market share. The only way to become a major player would be to buy Brunswick, but that's too big a price tag for a little guy. And they could be more likely to get bought by Storm than acquire Storm.

[Doghouse Reilly]

Motiv & Storm/Rotogrip from what I've seen.

[white_rabbitt]

Storm/Roto/DV8 and a lot of Ebonite that league bowlers get for free.

[Tony]

I'd say a slight edge to Storm/Roto at my previous (Tuesday league) center.

At the AMF house, seems like more Hammer/Ebonite/Columbia/Track which is what that house and all the bowlers that recently switched houses due to their's closing are used to buying. The pro shop only sells EBI as did the former center's shop.

At my Monday League house...hard to say. That pro shop sells a little of everything.

It's too bad the companies don't release their sales data...but if they did I think you'd see that Storm/Rotogrip controls easily the largest market share. Brunswick/DV8 is probably second, especially now that their Radical line is finally showing some promise. EBI is probably 3rd...mainly because of the Hammer brand having so many loyal followers and their aggressive sales efforts. Motiv would be 4th simply because they're a tiny player overall. They have a lot of momentum and are starting to get a loyal following and have made good sponsorship decisions. 900Global would be 5th...but now that they are essentially owned by Storm...it doesn't matter.

After that...very minor players led by probably Seismic, Lane #1, AMF, Pyramid, and LaneMasters. Essentially all the players that don't have the sales to dictate PBA registration.

If I had to GUESS at market share (nationally speaking) by brand; I'd guess:

Storm: 19%
Brunswick: 14%
Hammer: 12%
Columbia: 11%
Rotogrip: 9%
Motiv: 8%
DV8: 7%
Track: 5%
Ebonite: 5%
Radical: 3%
900Global: 2%
AMF: 2%
Seismic: 1%
Lane#1: 1%
Pyramid: 1%

If you break it down by company;
Ebonite International: 33%
Storm Products: 32%
Brunswick International: 24%
Motiv Bowling: 8%
All Others: 3% (total)

I'm not a big fan of EBI, but with one of the older brands (Columbia) and one of the most popular modern brands (if not most popular) in Hammer...the combination of 4 product lines with significant history behind them probably still gives them a slight edge in market share as a company. However, that has been dwindling and will continue to dwindle as Storm and Brunswick continue to release better products.

Motiv has the most momentum, taking over the Storm, Rotogrip, DV8 youth movement. But Brunswick's Radical line is finally starting to bear fruit...and even if Motiv doubled their market share...it's unlikey they could break into the top 3. They have only one product line and all the major players have 3-4.

Based on product evaluation...and someone like Rob who tests balls as part of his BTM duties might have more insight into this...but I don't see Brunswick going anywhere unless something really negative happens as a result of them technically being for sale. But I do see Columbia continuing to lose market share. EBI seems to rely greatly on brand loyalty and less so on product development and marketing. And while "Hammer" is still a dominant brand...the ole timers loyal to Columbia are dying off. But it's just too big with too much history and 4 significant product lines...so I don't see it going anywhere overall (EBI).

Motiv is sort of "stuck" at #4 because any company they would acquire wouldn't be enough to challenge the Big 3 in terms of market share. The only way to become a major player would be to buy Brunswick, but that's too big a price tag for a little guy. And they could be more likely to get bought by Storm than acquire Storm.

A perfect of example of overthinking the question, and quite an indepth although totally made up set of sales data on the bowling ball industry,all from a simple question asking what balls you see in the bowling center. LOL

[Tony]

The one brand I have seen a little of and would like to see more, and try one of their balls is Motiv. The guys using them that I have spoken to seem very happy with the overall performance of the balls.

[NewToBowling]

Funny that EBI's best known brand is Hammer and not Ebonite, their namesake.

Ebonite balls just don't have cache as Hammer and even Track

[Aslan]

A perfect of example of overthinking the question, and quite an indepth although totally made up set of sales data on the bowling ball industry,all from a simple question asking what balls you see in the bowling center. LOL

Thanks. Wait. Was that a compliment?

As I stated early on in the post, the bowling ball companies aren't public so it's nearly impossible to get any sales data. I'd love for someone in the BPAA or Pro Shops to step in and correct me or confirm what I said. And in the past, I've called for better quantitative data on balls from the companies Wouldn't it be nice to have a verified list of 300 games based on ball brand? Or ball type? Or sales? I mean, it would be difficult but not impossible...but I think ball companies would HATE the idea because people would go to that list rather than be loyal to a brand.

So yeah, thats my list...I stand by it, but I welcome anyone to step in and correct it since there's no data available.

I preferred to answer the question that way than just a one sentence of...."I like DV8....I see a lot of DV8. DV8 balls seem to perform well." If I wanted random qualitative assessments...thats what the manufacturer's websites and fake videos are for.

[dougb]

Here in the Bay Area of Northern California I see a lot of different brands. Storm of course dominates, but I see almost everything except for Lord Field and Lane Masters balls being thrown.

[Aslan]

but I see almost everything except for Lord Field and Lane Masters balls being thrown.
I knew there was one I was forgetting! It was Lord Field.