Forward Momentum (Day 8 of 365)

Let's kick off week two of the blog with a big announcement.

The Bullet is finally back!

We will be opening wholesale orders starting Wednesday(1/15) next week at 10am cst.

We are continuing with the trend of pre-orders for this release. Why Pre-Orders? I have a full explanation further below on why we are continuing with this process.

First, we need to talk about the Bullet release.

We will be releasing Soft Royal and Eternal Flex first. Initially this release will only be available through wholesale and custom stamping. 

Wholesale Accounts may also offer these as pre-orders starting on 1/15 at 10am.

The national retail release will happen in February at a date TBD. We have provided some estimated dates in the chart below though.

Truthfully, a lot of this depends on demand, shipping, winter weather, etc.

The dates we have listed below are also all subject to change. We are providing these as an added value to help keep all customers informed of our current plans.

We also really appreciate all the feedback so far on the new process.

Below is the expected release window for the Royal and Eternal Bullets:

Now let's talk a little bit about why we are shifting more pre-orders.

The truthful reply? The industry is pretty slow right now or at least compared to 2021 through 2023. The good thing is we can still grow as a business by focusing on not making more than we need to. We have been hurt in the past by making 1-2 years worth of product. This is one of the complications with out sourcing production. It is what it is.

Pre-Orders also work really well with our Serial # system.

Our distribution network has been centered around release dates and limited drops since Day 1. We do not keep every model and plastic in stock. Once a run is sold out, it is sold out. The Serial # system does not work if we keep making more of the "1st run" because it is popular. 

But let's be honest. Our old distribution model was not working great.

We struggled with communication for previous releases. If a new run was ready we were motivated to sell it as soon as possible. We are a small company, cash is valuable. This wasn't giving us enough time to work with wholesale and custom stamping customers and meet their demand. We were falling short.

The new pre-order system forces us to communicate our release plans and have a little more structure to this thing we call Mint Discs. We are already seeing a positive impact internally as we figure out how to build this new structure.

I have also gotten some amazing feedback from wholesale partners as well. Much of which has been put in place for this Bullet release and described in this blog.

We will be mixing in normal releases soon.

This is similar to how we released the Diamondbacks shortly after the Lobster release. We will continue to mix in small runs of other models. The methods by which we sell these small batch runs will vary from case to case but we will communicate it.

So what is coming after the Bullets? 

The reality is we have also suffered from not having every model in stock. The long term vision is to start having multiple models released in a month. Once you have 15+ models approved by the PDGA plus new releases, it can become very challenging to find the right balance for production. All of this is an attempt to reduce that challenge. We can meet demand better.

These things are locked in for sure as future releases:

• Bullets in a "mystery" plastic. It's not a new plastic. These just won't be announced until next month.
• Freetails in Nocturnal Glow plastic. Date and details TBD. This will not be a pre-ordered item at this time.

What we are looking at next:

• Grackles - What plastics should we do?
• Profits - Soft Royal for sure. Maybe Nocturnal.
• Alphas - Nocturnal 100%

Upcoming Blog Topics:

• 1/9: Thoughts on 2025 PDGA Rule Changes 
• 1/10: 2025 Heart of Texas Tour (HOTT)
• 1/11: Sprinkle Valley
• 1/12: Team Tryout 2025 Recap & 2026 Plans
• 1/13: Community Hero
• 1/14: Valentines Day