Wednesday, October 29, 2008

WINNERS AND LOSERS PART UNO...

Biggest winner today- Dye Precision
Dye decides to go out this past weekend with the new Rotor Loader. This loader is smaller, lighter more efficient than the now seemingly primitive Halos and other loaders of today.
Think of it as a hybrid civic and a Halo being a dodge v8 4x4 doing the same speed and going on the same highway. Go Green!

Biggest loser today-PSP
With so much riding on the acceptance of the sport and hoping for the abundance of more people to pay for new top of the line stuff, absolutely no media attention was involved accept Pbreserve, Warpig and Katspics for viewers to count on for news, pictures, journalism, sport stats and of course 4 dudes with handheld cameras taping what they can to play on youtube.
Lets look at the simpleness of the situation:
1: Scarcity promotes demand.
2: Population growth promotes demand.
3: Technology promotes demand.
The number one supplier of shiiiiit load of new, old, and rare paintball products and products that have stood the test of time to forge a gigantic surplus of trash and treasure is Ebay. They too have their own banner ad signifying the abundance.
With an overwhelming surplus, wouldn't this equate to LESS demand?
If there were too many diamonds like their worms in the earth, will they still be as valuable?
We know this, the demand to play is always up. What to play with, is not. A struggling industry should invest in awareness, not monopolies.
THIS:

SHOULD NOT EQUAL TO THIS:

We hope for the best of intentions for the PSP and produce a great show and promotion for the fans to watch and enjoy this great growing and ever changing sport.Not just a great DVD that will probably sell for 29.99

Monday, October 27, 2008

RUMORS AND TUMORS









This last Thursday marks the inaugural PSP's world cup of paintball in Orlando Florida. Thousands come to watch the best of the best compete for world cup supremacy to see who is top dog of the year in Xball format rules. Note that there is a 7-man format with different rules.
One thing I try to do is be a "fan" of paintball and went down the "guidelines" of how a person will go about in finding out news and reports. One, go on paintball.com. This is what a regular paintball weekender would do. We do believe that there people that normally buy full retail right? We should then believe that the players doing these events don't normally pay the full price allowed to really see profits.
I go on and as I do, what is see is "NPPL" another league that they too have their shot at a world cup of their own calling it-Commanders cup in San Diego starting Nov 14th to Sunday the 16th. So, it stopped there.

Now if you are a "fanatic or extremist" of paintball, you thoroughly go through pbnation. A paintball nation of enthusiast, pro, woodsballers and whiny wannabees and paintball tech-meisters. Please note that if and when you get on, there are the "familiars" who are people who just stay on the nation and write anything. This will be the 110 in the am to the 156 by noon, 186 by evening, then back to 100 in the late evening. This means this, IS the nation. The rest are readers who dont log on and come up with their own analyses and conclusions on what they want and so forth before they are called idiots or noobs.
Ok back to what was i was leading to. Now, this is world cup! I know because I usually go to play or debut new products for the next season. Also because I was part of this world, we believed the whole of America also knew which goes to the point of awareness. So you asked yourself, "That's not true allot of people new about WC paintball!" It's true' allot of US knew that there was a cup. But how many people did not know. And should we care? If this was so, did ESPN cover it? Foxsports? Where are the writers and Photographers? Where is media coverage? I'm not talking about pbnation, that is a forum. WARPIG, ahhhhhh good old WARPIG.
There is however one or two youtube vids by random camera men that showed our prestigious pro-cup.
There was a web-cast I might add. To the "US" crowd. I wonder how much of the public knew about this. I don't care about the people who are in the mix and watching. I care about the people who don't get to see our great sport of paintball.
ANDERSON "THE SPIDER" SILVA UFC CHAMP, AVID PAINTBALLER ON SPIKE DEMOGRAPHICS-10 MILLION PEOPLE ONE NIGHT


What i am leaning toward is the simple fact that we needed publicity like we had 4 years ago where there was a need to see and play with new stuff. Life was good then, even La soya was good then. (I meant as a celebrity)
Now we come to an age of having way too many things to choose from which prevents equity growth of certain brand companies. Wait, unless you-are DYE, KEES,SP and Planet. hmmmmm. Now wouldn't it be advantageous to just get more of the public to love the sport for being what it is and have more to sell than just the "US" crowd? Because "US" don't need new stuff, we have too much. In reality we bought too much stuff that we should not be allowed to pay full price for anything. (That is straight up the mentality). If i bought a new car every year or a new set of clubs a year, wouldn't we be.. wasteful? But if we can then so be it. However, we will get tired and we need the new player to take the place of the vicious cycle.

Reports pour in that leagues need to justify more financial "stimulus" from manufacturers to prevent the loss of the league and more policing on those who do not because they may believe they are riding the coattails of the league way too long. I remembered being called "bottom feeders" by one who cannot be named.
Then again, people may just look at them as the industry and forget the "tent people." This would make sense to capitalize on "shortness" of growth. Without Scarcity, their is no demand. If there is less to see then what you see is what you get.
If the "big tent" companies banded together and said screw the round table, is it justifiable? You see, the Kings of the round table need them to look like kings in front of us and keep us a bay. We contribute style and technology they will soon incorporate themselves and claim "original." Beware how you represent because they will knock you down a peg or two just to show your place in this world. I know first hand as Paintball Junkies, Kapp and Hybrid.

We should pay homage to less fortunate companies like AKA, AGD, http://www.warpig.com/paintball/tournament/LA_open00/gallery/MVC614S_JPG.shtml Liquid, Diamond Labs, Unique, Nexed, Worr, Diablo, ARMSON, ACI,Nelson to name a few. INDIAN CREEK!
WE SHOULD REMEMBER WHERE WE CAME FROM!

We were all smaller then.

Now if we can just have an improvement on fan base in the PSP and the NPPL we can see more growth as a industry. It would mean a smaller team based league. Note that the people who watch the NFL on TV or on the grandstands cheering and jeering is not necessarily "players." These fans buy 200.00 pro jerseys and anything that the athlete or franchise endorses, by way of media and other forms of marketing. I digress, what magazine now that does this for paintball? Gun Manufacturers will have to Annie up an additional 35-40k to have their gun be used at the event. An after market manufacturer including clothing will have to digest 8-10k.
If you are going to ask for more money, put it in away to have more paintball seen. A media group... wait, that was Dick Clarks role... I should look into why that went south.
ACQUIRED: Dick Clark has bought the broadcast rights to Professional League Paintball, an organized professional paintball league consisting of eight teams from major cities, reports Reuters. Additionally (and oddly), he's developing a celebrity paintball-themed reality show. "We are pleased to be at the forefront in producing what has become the fastest-growing leisure sport activity in the world," Clark said. "We look forward to taking the tiger by the tail and moving this marketing phenomenon to the next level -- television."

My thought: Its about control.

I'm not here to bash or praise the industry and leagues. I'm merely stating the facts, and the obvious.
I played paintball this weekend and had more fun than I usually do. The people who later decided not to play were people who stopped before they had a bad day. Good way to end the weekend I guess. I asked them about world cup and who their favorite team was and ask them about top players. (note I'm in California) 90% said "I come to play and i don't know who the best team is and no nothing of a World Cup." One guy said, "Hey, are you not Oh Pollack?"

ALSO ALSO ALSO!!!!Little John Marques aka Traitor, Hybrid, Contract Killer, just had his 4rth baby!! call the shop and show some love!