The Pitch Purple is a release that aims to modernize urethane and allow players to throw it longer. Generally, urethane balls carry oil down the lane rendering them useless after a few games. With the Pitch Purple, I saw half the carry down that I am used to throwing the Pitch Black. Other companies have made urethane that has revolutionized the sport. In my opinion, this ball offers similar overall strength but it still has a character all its own. We released the Fever Pitch not long ago and it was popular on the driest of dry lane conditions. But its kryptonite was that it lane shined in a matter of shots where other angular urethanes keep their surface for long periods of time. In my five or so games with the Pitch Purple, I saw very little lane shine. In actuality, the Pitch Purple is a unique shape that fits somewhere between a urethane ball and reactive. It has the early roll of the urethane and showed signs of having trouble getting the ball to face up when my angles were not open enough. If it saw any of the oil in the middle of the lane, it wouldn’t get to the pocket. To the adverse, it showed signs of reactive as well. It had more motion downlane than a urethane piece but would hook through the nose if I got it to the right too soon. It genuinely fit in the middle of a urethane ball and low end reactive. The Pitch Purple will be money on those patterns where you need to square up but the Pitch Black just is not right and where a stronger piece gives you an extreme wet-dry reaction.
To say that this is Storms version of a Purple Hammer is stretching the truth just a bit. Pitch Purple has a solid urethane cover that provides a different shape. It reads the lane sooner and has less angularity downlane which is what urethane is designed to do. I compared the Pitch Purple with the Pitch Black and this is where the Pitch Purple really knocked it out of the park. I threw the Pitch Black In the same spot as the Purple and it washed out. The next shot I tried to grab it with all I could and it got a lazy 10 out. I finally began to move back to the right with the Pitch Black where it would see the friction enough. In all I had the Purple a full zone more and this is due to the reaction it provides downlane. In sum it was no where near as strong as a Match Up Black Pearl which was 5 stronger than the Pitch Purple. In order from strongest to weakest for this comparison its Match Up Black, Pitch Purple then Pitch Black.
Finally for the end of the video I tried moving as far right as I could without letting the Pitch Purple read too soon. I was surprised at how much of a “urethane†reaction I got when I broke my wrist and played it up around 10. Shots before I was doing circles around the Pitch Black downlane, but with a simple hand adjustment it squared up and laid in front of the 1/3 like urethane is supposed to do. In all I am super impressed with this piece. More so than I was with the Fever Pitch.
