No big cracking issues or dying issues by any Seismic ball that I have thrown or sold. In four or five years of throwing Seismic and representing Seismic. I've had more balls crack and replaced from other name brands, than I've had Seismic. Doesn't mean it was because of shell thickness(which Seismic is comparable to other top brands), or that one cover is better than the other in my opinion, because I am more practical, and understand that sometimes shit happens. The majority of the time cracking is caused by too much glue, dull bit, or drilled too fast. And all that can happen on any manufacturers ball.
Balls crack for many reasons, sometimes for no rhyme or reason or how, when and why. I've had a Storm and Brunswick ball crack while drilling, does it mean they suck? In my opinion no. Shit happens when things are mass produced, it's part of the process and a part of life. Does it suck that it happens? Sure it does, that's why companies have good or bad customer service. We've all had bad luck with a product in some way, shape or form. Whether it be from a bowling ball or smart phones. And we all know there's always problems with smart phones.
As far as performance issues, every bit as good as the other guys. They take surface adjustments well, and cover the whole hooking spectrum from short patterns to long ones. Work very well on your house shots, and excellent on the sport patterns. Very comparable to top brands.
As for longevity, I have almost 400 games on my Blackout. It's my second one, my first had over 500 games on it. My Aftermath, has almost 400 games on it, 75% of those games are from tournaments. Has been resurfaced numerous times, as a matter of fact it was just resurfaced yesterday, as I have a tournament this weekend. I've had the Aftermath at many different surfaces, from extreme dull, to highly polished and it still performs the same. Same with my other Seismic equipment, as I feel surface plays the best role in ball motion. I always change the surface of a ball to fine tune the motion I want to see out of it. Again, very comparable to top brands in this category.
Dying issues, or balls not performing are more often the case of using the wrong ball for the wrong reasons. You know, "get the strongest ball out and try to throw it on a house shot type of reasons." Or wrong layouts because the shop operator didn't bother to fulfill his duty of getting bowlers specs and putting the proper layout on the correct ball. As far as myself, I haven't had any issues with Seismic balls "dying" after prolong use. On par with other top brands.
Now whether these smaller companies will survive the long run or not, solely depends on how the company and representatives take care of their customer base. Yes, the product has to perform as "advertised", and appeal to the bowlers, but the strength is from the foundation of the company and the people behind it. In my opinion, and from talks with Ryan Press, Seismic is doing pretty darn good.
