Short week is over.

Thanks for the Birthday wishes!

Let's make these blogs a little longer...

This week, my blog focus is Serial #'s, Tooling and Plastics.

The addition of Prodigy Disc as a factory for Mint has been pretty smooth overall.  Aside from the Mint logo, the one firm brand rule we have is to use the Serial #. Everything else falls in line behind that number.

Example: AP-AL01-2017

Aka: Plastic-DiscRun-Year

That's how we operate.

It's how we order.

It's how we receive discs.

It's how we sell them.

To a degree, only using MVP since 2017 has kept our Serial # system very simple. I guess I could say, it didn't give us a reason to "test" the format.

Prodigy was the first time in years that Guy and myself had actually spent serious time debating if we needed to make changes.

Why? Well, Prodigy gave us some new toys to play with:

• A wider range of plastic firmness's. Hello MEGA SOFT!?
• New color patterns and plastics. See ELIXIR
• Access to Recycled Plastic. Yup that's coming too!
• Glow Baseline Plastic...

With MVP we have always listed firmness as:

• S = Soft
• M = Medium (alternatively our standard firmness)
• F = Firm

Historically we did have some inconsistencies though because the plastic firmness and swirl patterns weren't a part of the Serial # system we originally built.

A good example of this is Eternal Flex Plastic, which is really just Eternal Soft. We've listed it a few different ways on the stamps and discs since we rolled out this plastic.

When you look at M/Medium - we typically don't display this as a firmness outside of the product listing. Medium is the baseline for everything.

While MVP and Prodigy can both produce Eternal plastic, they do have different "baselines" for what Medium is. The reality is that MVP tends to have a firmer feel than Prodigy. When we launched in 2017, that wasn't really on our minds. Was it foreseeable? Sure, but not something we planned on.

So how do we deal with the firmness differences between each factory now?

Let's revisit our #1 rule - The Serial # is on every disc.

Sometime last year, we changed the printing format for the Serial # that we place on the bottom of each disc. Why? MVP started engraving the disc weight in a set spot rather than using stickers. So the Serial # had to move, and format wise it went from being encircled around the center sprue of the disc, to a more linear line format below the Sprue and Weight.

We also added the disc name to help not only our direct consumers, but our retail store and custom stamping partners as well. Many of these stores and event organizers can't keep up with a long list of Serial #s, let alone our disc names. We needed them to be able to sort and identify discs easier. The PDGA also had some policy changes, and they requested that companies make sure the model name is displayed somewhere on each disc.

So the name is now on every disc.

The image below represents how we have been embossing discs for most of 2024 and 2025:

Unfortunately because we DO NOT differentiate run numbers based on firmness or disc color/swirl, this current Serial # still doesn't tell you the full story.

Let's say you pick up a Swirly Firm Apex Lasso.

The Serial # would be AP-LS01-25

This number doesn't really help you tell if the swirl or firmness is "unique" or worth caring about.

It just tells you it is an Apex Lasso.

So how do we solve that? Do we add more letters to the Serial #? 

SW for Swirl? What about Firmness?

Well, we decided not to change a thing with the actual number.

At least for now.

Why?

We don't want to rush into changes that could have unforeseen impacts. The Serial # is a core tenant. We don't want to get that wrong until we know we are right.

The current system still allows dedicated fans the ability to find that run. It's just not as descriptive as it could be.

We understand that most casual consumers will never understand the Serial #.

It really only helps fans that are incredibly familiar with Mint Discs.

So after all that you did nothing?

Well...no. We are adding something, or at least trying to make it more consistent.

Going forward, the firmness of the disc will now be displayed on either the Disc Stamp or the bottom Serial # embossing("where" it is, will depend on the run).

Below is an example of what to expect on the embossing:

When it comes to color additives like Swirl, or well...things you can visually see, we don't currently plan to add that to the embossing.

However, things do change.

Right now we view Swirl as something you can visibly see, so we don't need to describe it further on the embossing.

However judging the firmness varies. Factories themselves change their baseline over the years. Our MVP plastics have been firmer and softer over the years because that's just how plastics are sometimes. The formulas and suppliers change. 

As we evolve, it might make sense to list the plastic name on bottom too, and not just AP for Apex.

Right now, we are trying not to get too far ahead of ourselves with it all.

Just take it run by run and be adaptable to the necessary changes we actually need to make.

We'll see where it takes us.

For now though, the Serial # remains unchanged.

Tomorrow's Topic: Factory Specific Tooling