Simple question here. Not sure if the answer is as simple though.

Are you allowed to throw balls in league before the official release date? I'm talking about non-staffers. I'm pretty sure it is legal, in terms of rules - as long as the ball is on the approved list. Talking more about if companies care. And especially if it is only 1-3 days before release.

In particular, does Storm/RG have a problem with it?

If usbc approved release date is only relative to sales.  So you or anyone else are good to bowl away with a new ball even if it hasn't "released" for sale yet.

That was my thinking. Not going to get into the reasons for this post, but I will say that it is an issue I've seen come up around here. I'm in Canada, but CTF rules follow USBC rules for the most part, but especially for equipment and such.

Once they are approved by USBC they can (legally) be used, regardless of when the company has it's release date.  I can't even imagine a company sending out a ball before it's USBC approval. 

Many staffers receive the balls slightly before the release date.  However, I've never heard of a company sending out balls before their USBC approval. 

I had issues in the 90’s with my leagues when I had a ball that wasn’t out to the public yet but was already on the approved list. It got really ugly quickly as some felt if they couldn’t get it yet, then it shouldn’t be able to be used. Some thought I had an unfair advantage. However, I had more people asking me questions about the ball I had though and that’s one of the things I liked, being able to talk about a brand and what made this different than prior releases. 

That's part of the reason why I've gone away from Storm/Roto in recent years as everyone is already using it. I like being asked about what I'm throwing and even been able to sway some people to give something else a chance

From my experience, Pro Shops can't sell early released balls to public before the official release date. If they are found to, they could actually get in trouble. The only reason they get the balls early is so they can display them to get the public's interest in the new ball so upon release date, they could have pre-sold 4 or 6.

Ok thanks for the replies. I have no problem waiting. Just figured why wait if you don't have to? Still curious why they send out multiples if they are just for display and really, what is the reason for waiting until the official release date? It's a bowling ball. There are limits to what they can do. Foolish if people think one ball is an advantage over others. Do other sports have "restrictions" like this? I've had softball bats early and never had an issue.

From my experience, Pro Shops can't sell early released balls to public before the official release date. If they are found to, they could actually get in trouble. The only reason they get the balls early is so they can display them to get the public's interest in the new ball so upon release date, they could have pre-sold 4 or 6.

I also would say, that sometimes the PSO will punch up the ball to drum up sales as well...I believe this has to do with if your pro shop is an authorized Storm, Brunswick, ect., shop.

Release dates are something they came up with to have all the distributors on equal footing.  That is the day distributors can start shipping.  In the past you would have distributors that were closer to the factories getting their balls sooner and balls would get to some pro shops before some distributors even got their shipment.  So it keeps the manufacturers from trying to time the logistics perfect for every distributor to receive them at the same time. 

You won't see production balls before the approval date.  Only small batches are made for testing and USBC submittal and are not engraved with the USBC approval.  There are fines from USBC if you are caught with balls released with the USBC Approved logo before they are actually approved.