Why does everyone sweat Storm bowling balls?? What makes them so popular? Is it the smell? It seems like everywhere I go, I see more Storm equipment than any other brand. WHY?

What makes Storm so special? That can only be answered by "you", everyone will swear about "their" brand of choice. Have you thrown any to form your own opinion.

I agree with righty 100%! I just think they're lines are put together so well it makes going from ball to ball really easy. Usually the trend is a solid..hybrid..then a Pearl (in no particular order). They seem to keep it simple and go with what works. I personally live the thunder and tropical line. Pretty much all I use on ths. I bowl leagues in two houses and one plays quite  a bit dryer than the other. I take the tropicals there and use my roads in the tighter house. They market really well and it doesn't hurt all the success they have had on tour in recent years. Oh..and they smell good . I'm biased though I'm a storm and roto guy all the way but I'm not blind. Other companies make great equipment as well. Storm Inc. Is just my choice.

Always been a Columbia guy.  First Storm was a NANO.  Didn't like it.  A lot of over under reaction.  Worked with it a while, rolled a 795 last summer.  It is a good ball, but I had to get the drill right for me.  Was looking for a replacement for my C300 Outburst.  Triied the Storm Modern Marvel.  Second game out of the box was a 300.  It became an instan favorite.  I am not in the habit of smelling my balls a lot, so the fragrance dosen't mean much to me.  The NANO is a very hard flip and the Marvel is a strong arch.  I use a lot of different brands.  I believe Marketing and price point have a lot to do with it.  Also they have a lot of big name pros using it, so I think they must give them a lot of incentives.

Actually Storm is kind of in the shoe business.  Dexter is making their shoes for them and doing a bunch of the sales and marketing.  I can't believe Storm is putting much of their resources in shoes.

There have been large ups and downs in the bowling ball business over the years.  At times Ebonite, Columbia, and Brunswick were on top so I wouldn't read too much into Storm's current position as one of the best selling brands right now. 

Since bowling balls are a very established business and there is really not much 'new' you can do it is really a matter of execution in order to do well.  Right now Storm seems to be doing a good job in many areas of the business; sales, marketing, and product development.  It doesn't hurt that a large percentage of national and international bowlers are throwing their equipment.

I personally liked it, but the Invasion can be considered a flop.

Agreed with the ease of piecing together an arsenal with their product line.

Also from a pro shop's perspective they (in my opinion) have the longest shelf life of any company out there.  Rarely do you see balls getting discontinued within a year of their release date.  Alot of the time you have balls in the product line for years before being replaced ie: Hyroad, Virtual Gravity, etc.

It goes back to the beginnings of the company.  It was run by bowlers, and they put a lot of guys on staff over the years to both get the message out, and get feedback on equipment.  They grew up in the resin era, and although Columbia and Track originally had better resin balls in the early mid 90s, Storm had some great break throughs with the Bolt, and El Nino that caught them a lot of the market by 2000.  Storm was further helped by Columbia and Brunswick business decisions.  Columbia basically bet the company on the epoxy ball which was a failure, and probably ultimately lead to their demise.

Brunswick went another direction with technology at the same time they opted to move to Mexico.  The Furys Wilds, and C System balls were not as good as the infernos and Zones they replaced.  Whether it was design, or quality control, who knows, but it made the decision for a lot of people to go another direction easy at the time. 

Ebonite has always suffered from the perception that their shells don't hold up without meticulous maintenance beyond what a lot of bowlers are willing to invest.

At the end of the day, Storm makes very good equipment, and nobody is better to their bowlers than Storm.