From what I've seen, Nu Line was like a lot of other companies in the late eighties that basically started with a guy "mixing stuff in his bath tub." The reactive coverstock was a happy accident. They were made by Nu-Line for a while until they couldn't keep up with the demand. Then Columbia took over production shortly after.
From what our AMF rep says about the "Epoxy Balls," they were created by the engineers/chemists, etc at AMF before they officially became AMF300. Because columbia wanted to revive the AMF brand they entered into an agreement where the new coverstocks would be used on AMF300 balls for something like a year, than they would be fair game for the rest of the company.
It makes sense to me, at least, to start off your innovations with a smaller subsidiary. GM did it for years. They would try something new with Oldsmobile, if it worked, it would than be used on Cadillacs and than be filtered into the rest of the company. Front-wheel drive started with the Toronado, was a success, and was than Put into the Cadillac Eldorado and popularized. Had GM started off with the Eldo, and it was a flop, than the Cadillac name would have been besmirched. (This was in the 60s when Cadillac was the standard of the world.) Better to let the lesser subsidiary take the fall than the flagship brand.
The same applies here. The Epoxy balls have been pushed back, and pushed back, and supposedly have quality control problems right now. If Columbia had put their name behind it, they would be responsible for the failings of th new technology. Now, if the balls come out, and they suck. Columbia doesn't take the fall. Now, the worst thing that happens is that AMF300, a "new" relatively untested part of the company can be used as a guinea pig. If it's a flop, than AMF300 fails, and Columbia can write it off. If it's a success, than Columbia can revive the AMF name and eventually use the technology in it's flagship equipment.
If Columbia had this option with the original TEC balls, they might not have dropped so far from grace when "TEC death" became the industry buzz word. If Columbia had owned and had total control of Nu-Line or AMF or whatever before the original Chaos came out, they would have had some time to do more testing and tweaking without sadling themselves with bad press.
Brunswick seemed to like to do everything in the opposite fashion. They had Brunswick Technology Ventures (Quantum). They used this as an expensive flagship brand. Here they tested out the new premium technology, sold it for a lot more money, and than let it trickle down to the regular Brunswick balls. Brunswick made great strides in coverstock technology with the Quantums. They messed around with the Helix and Double Helix. They introduced their first particle ball, the Jade Quantum. They also created some pretty potent reactive coverstocks. If I'm not mistaken, PK 18 first came out on the Violet Quantum and the Fire Quantum and was extremely successful. After that it was wrapped around the Zone core and the rest is history. Brunswick also used the Revolution line to experiment. If I'm not mistaken, Brunswick experimented with assymetrics and mass bias balls for the first time since the Phantoms, with the Revolution line.
It is always easier to experiment with new technology in a sub-division where you aren't going to stain the name of the main company itself. You can always lose a sub-division, but you can't always come back from a total PR failure.
Hopefully that all makes sense and isn't too rambling,
Mankow
