I'm game for this, and I'm coming from starting out with Hammer in the Fab days, then switching to EBI for 3 years, then C300, then between EBI and Fab in the late 90s/early 2000s, and staying solely mainly EBI until they bought Hammer, then Columbia and Track. With that in mind,
1) Hammer. Hammer struggled a bit back when they were first bought. Though the Vicious and Blade series were good, they struggled afterwards. The Sauce series got everyone's attention for a split second, but when the BW series started, it exploded. Then they brought out the Vibe series, Taboo, and up to where we are now. Add in the fact that they pinched Jeff Ussery from PowerHouse to be the brand manager, they now have this swagger to their line that makes their gear popular.
2) C300. Last two balls of theirs I threw were the Pearl Quake (my first 300 ball), and the Pearl Pulse. The white dot was my first bowling ball ever (hey, I was 5!). I almost picked up the Boss Pearl, but got talked into a black 3-D Offset Hammer. Fast forward to now. The Omen and the Dark Encounter, the Omen, and the Vow are absolute killer balls, and given that they have most of the multi-brand reps throwing their gear more often than not, tells you that C300 is back on the way up. This outside the fact that Barnes is still making the shows, keeping the presence of the brand out there.
3) Track. I'm being a bit hard on C300's little brother, as Fagan is keeping this brand going and then some. About 10 years ago, I moved from Vegas to N. California, and lost my shops and reps with Ebonite, as everything in the area was Track at the time. So in looking for a pro shop to get established in, I was talked into a Track Animal. It was okay for about half a season, then the performance tanked badly. I was tempted to get into a Phenom Unleashed, but luckily I went searching around and found this new ball Ebonite put out, called the Total NV. Haven't looked at Track since, though I did throw their 515E Special Edition during a demo days event. Smooth rolling ball, but that was it. Nothing wrong with the brand; just that I'm not feeling it. I'm seeing a LOT of track gear being thrown, so that tells me they are doing something good.
4) Ebonite. I'm being a bit biased here, because IMHO, they are in some trouble. I love the brand; every ball I've had of theirs going back to the Turbo/X has been nothing but wonderful. I still keep my Optyx Formula 1 and TPC Warrior in my bag. But after Mika's ToC win, they've been in trouble. Where Hammer has concentrated on the product and getting it to the average bowler, Ebonite has been more about marketing, and being "all filler, no killer". They've abandoned the level of detail and getting down and talking to the bowler, in favour of marketing and buzzwords, and that is killing them. The Pursuit and Pursuit/S bombed, and they should have kept the Mission X to an overseas release. The Challenge is a killer ball, but they haven't had any star power to showcase it. Kulick is doing her best, but Jones has been bowling more overseas and is in a huge slump as far as the PBA goes. Plus add in the fact that they've been balling down to something in the mid-range series (isn't their fault, as that is what the shot may call for), so the Innovate and Elevate have been getting more time than the high-range balls. So they have no real presence out there, and it clearly shows in the videos they've been putting out. Something is just wrong here and Ebonite needs to figure it out.
All in all, in the past year and a half, there has been a HUGE shift in reps and quality of products. It's big enough that EBI lost two huge reps in CDB (she was dominating with EBI up to and after the PWBA folded), and Leanne Hulsenberg. I get my gear punched up at her and her husband's pro shop and it shocked me to see that she was picked up by Storm, and she was EBI for a good 15 - 20 years. With nearly every Storm/Roto Grip rep making the TV shows and winning, plus the onset of multi-brand contracts, and the shift of of pros from one company to another (Couch retiring, Webb shifting to Storm, finding his touch again, and winning), new blood getting on the two-handed train, Ebonite (not EBI) is finding itself a bit out of touch and needs to do something to get back on their feet. Otherwise, we'll be stuck with more fruit-smelling balls, and more people fed up with the 'major' brands (EBI, Brunswick, Storm/Roto-Grip), and will head to more of the independent/new guys coming up (900Global, Lord Field, DV8, Motiv).
BL.