Did that headline read weird to you?
You wouldn’t be the first person to think that …
Case in point.
Founded in 2009, NutSac began exclusively as a disc golf brand that specialized in simple, hand-sewn disc bags. Here’s what they looked like – and still look like more or less …
In 2015, the brand made the switch from small, six-disc bags to more mainstream men’s goods. Think canvas- and leather-made backpacks, travel bags, Dopp kits and wallets. You know: Hipster-looking gear for coffee–shop hopping, beanie-folding and forgetting to shave.
I have no inside information as to how the company’s doing. But with what appears to be a sizable, expanding product lineup and a fancy website, it feels safe to assume they’re doing at least somewhat well. And yes, tragically, you can still buy disc-totes on the NutSac site …
Carry one for these kinds of “side-splitting” comments:
- “Looks like you got some dirt on your NutSac.”
- “Way to bust out the ol’ NutSac in a public park, man.”
- “I’d give anything for a NutSac like yours – looks durable.”
Hilarious, right?
“Oral” is a generations-long name in my family …
So I get the appeal of a low-hanging, never-surrender joke.
But to build an entire brand around it?
D–U–M–B
NutSac is disc golf’s version of Bulls Balls’ Truck Nuts, which – if you’ve recently graduated from finishing school and have somehow forgotten – are these little (*big) monstrosities …
The difference between Bulls Balls and NutSac? Check out the Bulls Balls website. Now, do the same over at NutSac’s digital storefront. For as stupid as their products are, the first has clearly built its brand around the ridiculousness of what they sell, as well as the way they sell it.
NutSac, though?
It’s not SNL, Mad Magazine or Barstool Sports – it’s L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer and a painfully obvious knock-off of how man-purse competitor Herschel Supply Co. does business online.
The 2015 revamp should’ve come with a new image (and name) for NutSac …
It didn’t.
And because of it, now 15 years old, NutSac is forever stuck with a middle-school joke that won’t die. Also, though known for their durability, the bags hold next to nothing – avoid them.
The disc golf community isn’t laughing with you …
It’s laughing at you.
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Editor’s Suggestions:
- How to play ‘Ring of Fire’ in disc golf
- Disc golf: Ignore most anything under a 10 mph wind
- How many putters is too many for a tourney practice basket?
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I think I just found my golfing buddy’s Christmas gift!
And wouldn’t you know it …
The bag is $69.
The plot thickens …
With ALL due respects, you did good on the superiority and the mockery based on snap judgments and labeling of disc golfers who maybe play differently and see the game differently than you.
Well, bully for you.
But after 15 years or more of proudly sporting and lugging a double around on either shoulder with 13 carefully-chosen discs tucked neatly inside, I feel I need to call you on your many presumptions and ask who, exactly, are you helping here?
Certainly not the game, which has more than enough snobbery and arrogance to cover the spread. Bag or cart makers maybe who seem to be doing just fine. Or maybe yourself and your idea of what’s funny and what’s not. And, like you, I am appalled at the idiotic sacks slung below pickup trucks as simply not funny. But I can’t recall a single instance of someone saying the nutsac name was offensive and other than clever–certainly when it first came out. Since then, nobody notices, but rather admires the simplicity of the product, which did found a line that’s making more than you or I have or will at this game, I’ll wager.
The maker developed his product in Nate Sexton’s hometown of Corvallis and it was one of a kind and refreshing for it’s simplicity. Several manufacturers have copied the concept and market knockoffs and improvements I’ll assume successfully right this moment. And the point of the bag underscores an old message that “It’s not the disc.” It doesn’t matter how many discs you lug around, you’d best know how to throw them, like Calvin Heimburg with his Eagle that very few people still throw. In Nate’s club of origin, they had an annual club tournament of two rounds where you had to choose just one disc on the first round. Scores on the second round with full bags were infrequently better than with just the one disc. I mean, I get it. The delusion sells plastic which winds up eventually in the ocean for the most part.
But I’m not sure it’s good for the game. I’m pretty sure it’s not. But snap judge away or maybe think a little deeper next time. That’s what the game really needs, golfers quick to reflect but slow to judge. Your call.
Thanks for the reply, John!
Happy to have your comment live permanently at the bottom of this blog post for others to read …
It’s a difference of opinion that makes this whole blogging thing fun, as I see it.
Love the passion, as well.
Thanks for reading (and playing along), brotha 🙂