Again you have your opinion....do you really think that many rethink bowling balls are sold overall? NO...
You are basing off a limited perspective but I guess I don't know much in my position...I only see sales and know what sells...I guess they should bring back Rhinos and sell less...or maybe even the Gold Rhino Pro....
The market that is buying the lower end products are lower average as well the recreational...yes to an extent the name is irrelevant but in Brunswick's position, they are not going to go backwards because of a few older players that would probably end up complaining about there's too much of a certain color in the cover...
I'll give ya another example...the colors of the Intense Inferno were intended for a mid to lower price bowling ball...we had higher average pro shops in for a meeting...they saw that color and ranted about how great that would be for a higher end performance ball...Billy O tried to explain the colors would not look right going down the lane to higher average players...the marketing dept bought into and the ball sold horribly....
Umm.. The Gold Rhino Pro was the last in the Rhino line of High Performance balls. IIRc, it went with the original Blue Rhino and Black Rhino, which both were Urethane, then came the Purple Rhino Pro, Steel Rhino Pro, Teal Rhino Pro, then Gold Rhino Pro, which were all reactive resin. These are listed in levels of least hooking to hardest hooking. Each of the resin balls, along with Ebonite's reactive resin line stomped all over Faball, as they were late in the game and stuck to Urethane (They put out a Hammer 'Reactive', but it was too late as Ceramicore came into play by Columbia).
As far as cover goes, it wasn't just about the colour of the ball. The performance of the ball is what made these as good as they are, even to this day. Even people who ask about my Optyx think that it is a plastic ball, when it is a hard-hooking resin ball. They then finally believe me when they see me swing the ball from 13 out to 6 and watch it hit harder than a truck.
The colour of the ball is just the eye candy. The coverstock, ball motion, and reaction on the lanes (and yes, even in conditions from the early - mid 90s to today) makes equipment made back then sought after. We just can't find that type of performance in today's gear.
The sales gimmick about todays new oils ect is just that, a gimmick. Most bowlers are throwing bowling balls that are too aggressive and end up hurting the bowler after a game. Many of todays weaker bowling balls are far better for most bowlers over a three game set.
Agreed. I'd encourage any of you to look at the last 2 collegiate tournaments on BowlTV's youtube page. Look at how a lot of the men were lining up in front of the ball return, lofting the ball, and swinging from 23 to 12 and hoping it would stay right of the head pin. We all are not a Fagan, Mika, or Osku, who can loft the ball 10 feet to kill the hook. That will kill a rotator cuff or bicep easily. I kept wondering when some of them were finally going to ball down. with the exception of a few bowlers, most did not.
In a lot of cases, unless you can consistently control how your ball is rolling on the lane (and lofting and ball speed is not as consistent as people think it is), killing the 'dart and dive' hook, going down to a weaker ball, and playing a tighter line will get better results on the scoreboard, as well as physically save your game.
BL.
