Catrina Allen is officially a member of Team DGA.
It seems like we’ve been waiting on this for an eternity, doesn’t it?
For DGA, this is a slam-dunk signing. Not only is Allen the seventh-ranked FPO player in the world, but she’s the reigning World Champion, as well. Considering the fact that the company acquired Andrew Marwede’s services in December, things are on the up and up in Santa Cruz.
As was the case with Marwede, DGA landing Allen means a few key things:
- For the first time ever, DGA is about to get tons of lead-card exposure.
- Smaller manufacturers should be taken seriously in upcoming off-seasons.
- Being the face of a brand is clearly a selling point for top-tier professionals.
Now that’s all fine and dandy, but let’s be honest about something here …
Allen to DGA was a massively underwhelming move.
You know it. I know it. We all know it.
Nobody knows DGA’s discs
For starters, and this is partially the reason Allen’s presence will be big for business, most golfers know next to nothing about DGA’s disc lineup – myself included. DGA’s baskets are all over The States, but discs? Most DGA peeps putt with the Steady and bag a Hurricane, but man …
That’s about all that’s (kind of) common knowledge.
Again, no doubt Cat will move mountains to change this, but I wouldn’t expect a mad rush of disc golf fans to be eagerly awaiting the drop of her first signature disc with credit cards in hand. That’s not a reflection of Allen, either. It’s hard to move plastic when it’s relatively unknown.
If you’ve thrown the Buzzz for years and loved the Buzzz for years, when Chris Dickerson drops one of his own, you’re pumped to buy it. You’ll bag it. You don’t think about it. You just do it.
With DGA stuff, you’ve got to research it, pay for it, learn it, bag it and then buy backups …
That’s a lengthy sales cycle to start from scratch.
DGA isn’t (yet) a household manufacturer
Next, Allen’s 27-day “vow of silence” certainly built suspense as to who her new sponsor would be. But the longer it wore on, the more fans thought it’d be one of the heavy-hitter manufacturers they follow so closely: MVP, Innova, Discraft, Discmania, Infinite Discs, Dynamic Discs, etc.
It wasn’t …
It was DGA – the guys who had the foresight to buy the “DiscGolf.com” domain forever ago.
Fans have zero emotional connection with DGA
Who comes to mind when you think of DGA? Matt Bell, maybe? He bailed after two seasons to sign with a pair of even more microscopic sponsors: EV-7 and Thought Space Athletics.
The good news for Cat is that, from here on out, the name that’ll come to fans’ minds is hers. The bad news, however, is that means you’re probably starting out at a place that needs help.
Fans get attached to brands with which they have an emotional connection. The players are the ones who make that happen. DGA’s lack of a rich team history makes for “meh” announcements.
Even with Marwede in the mix, Cat’s now the player at DGA. She’ll do great things, but for fans that waited forever to know her plans, DGA as the end result was as anticlimactic as it gets.
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