Is your PSO very brand specific?

[Phonetek]

My PSO is awesome as I've said in other posts. One thing that I found with him though is he tends to try to push certain brands more than others. I told him I wanted to get the Hammer Rip'd and he was steering me away to Storm or Roto. Those aside from a few Columbia balls are what he has on his wall. He said if you watch the pro's most of them use Storm and Roto these days. He did say he'd order the Rip'd for me if that's what I wanted but he's not sure I'd really like it.
It's hard to imagine I'd be unhappy with a Hammer ball, I've had one in my arsenal since I was 12 yrs old. I've always done well and loved them. I wish all the reviews online for balls weren't all awesome ones. I haven't seen too many neutral or negative reviews on any bowling balls.

[boatman37]

My PSO has a few different brands on the wall. He did tell me the first day I talked to him about a new ball that he was a Brunswick something. Partner maybe? Not sure what it was he said but I would say there are more Brunswicks on the wall than any others. He has about 7 or 8 balls he uses but we bowled against him the other night and noticed he started out with a Katana (it was a darker red color). Not sure if they have any affiliation with Brunswick but he doesn't seem to be too brand loyal. He did mention a T Zone or Rhino for my spare ball.

[vdubtx]

Most pro shops are run by staffers from a ball brand. Around my area, the shops are mainly Ebonite as the owner has been on staff for a very long time.

[Phonetek]

So by them being a staffer of Ebonite they are basically supposed to try to sell Ebonite first? Out of curiosity if they had seen someone bowl and they knew another brand may work better for that person, would they still stick with Ebonite or sell them the one that would work best for that bowler? Just curious.

[djp1080]

My PSO is not brand specific. However, some brands that aren't as popular as others are more difficult to get I suppose. My PSO has all kinds of stuff on his top shelf.

[vdubtx]

So by them being a staffer of Ebonite they are basically supposed to try to sell Ebonite first? Out of curiosity if they had seen someone bowl and they knew another brand may work better for that person, would they still stick with Ebonite or sell them the one that would work best for that bowler? Just curious.

Since they are Ebonite staffers they really push the Ebonite brands which include Hammer and Columbia 300. Have been to their Demo Days and while some of the balls rolled pretty well, they weren't overwhelmingly amazing where it would make me switch from Storm/Roto that I have had the most success with.

They are really good people and want people to bowl well. I don't think they would purposely steer people to their brands if the person matches up well with another ball.

[Phonetek]

My guy will get whatever I want him to get I have no doubts of that, he is a friend after all. Do they get a little something extra for selling the brand they are staffed to from that company?

[Amyers]

MY PSO is a former PBA pro who was sponsored by Brunswick. We have a Staffer from Brunswick that bowls out of that alley predominantly and he drills for two WPBA pros and a guy that bowls in handicapped events that are all sponsored by Brunswick. So you can guess which brand he carries the most of lol. He will sell anything if you ask for it but if he's recommending it's going to be in the Brunswick family of brands.

PSO's get rebates from the manufacturers for a percentage of their sales if they sell enough and the more you sell the more you get. So it's generally more profitable to sell one family of brands. He has a deal with storm/roto now too so he's selling more of those than in the past but it's still mostly Brunswick.

[J Anderson]

My PSO is awesome as I've said in other posts. One thing that I found with him though is he tends to try to push certain brands more than others. I told him I wanted to get the Hammer Rip'd and he was steering me away to Storm or Roto. Those aside from a few Columbia balls are what he has on his wall. He said if you watch the pro's most of them use Storm and Roto these days. He did say he'd order the Rip'd for me if that's what I wanted but he's not sure I'd really like it.
It's hard to imagine I'd be unhappy with a Hammer ball, I've had one in my arsenal since I was 12 yrs old. I've always done well and loved them. I wish all the reviews online for balls weren't all awesome ones. I haven't seen too many neutral or negative reviews on any bowling balls.

The owner of my local pro shop has some sort of connection to Storm/RotoGrip. His store manager is a Brunswick staffer. I think one of his other employees is on the Motiv staff. I think they tend to make recommendations based on what they are familiar with, so Chris tends to suggest products from the Storm family, and Tim will usually give a choice from Brunswick/DV8/Radical. They do sell a fair number of Hammer balls.

[mattmc82]

The rip’d looks really nice and is the closest you can find to getting the same ball as a bad a$$ bad intentions or scandal. With that said there are many balls similar from storm, motiv, Roto grip etc