Looking back at 2021 - CFG Perspective

A long time ago...

When I took the inventory position in May of 2019 at Cape Fear Games, it was based on the fact that I had some experience with and a passion for disc golf. Heath Newton, the owner of CFG, disc golfer and gamer extraordinaire passed me the torch of delivering in the disc golf section of the store. In my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined where we would be at the end of 2021.

The journey has been incredible as 2020 created unique challenges for everyone in disc golf and by the time 2021 rolled in, we were ready to do just about whatever it was going to take to show our local golfers (and visitors alike,) how amazing this sport is and how much is out there.

We expanded our racks, live streamed Discraft Retailer Mystery box openings on Twitch and Facebook, and endured all sorts of shipping delays and re-vamped timelines on new releases. Discmania started making their own discs. We added AGL and expanded the offerings from the Dynamic Discs, Latitude 64 and Innova Factory Store. MVP Discs became a hot commodity as James Conrad won Worlds.

I planned my days and weeks around restocks and limited edition drops, including ordering Dynamic Discs from home on my computer at 6 am. (Ugh. Hated that.) During this year I placed store orders from the store, my home, the teepad of 16 at Arrowhead, a parking lot in Greenville, NC (after a round at DEPC,) and Chico’s Mexican Restaurant in Greenville during lunch after my daughter’s ECU Graduation.

And I loved every exciting minute of getting that plastic.

Hitting the Brand

Here are percentages for all things disc golf from our vendors, noting that specialized vendors like Zuca Carts, Bushnell Rangefinders, and GripEq Backpacks accounted for almost 4% of total sales. Here’s the rest of the breakdown:

I think I’ll do a follow-up post later this month to cover each of the vendors in a bit more detail. Without losing all of you in a whole lot of numbers, here are the top discs from each vendor. Keep in mind, the Bendy James Volt is the only disc we received from MVP Pro Shop, so it’s not on the list below. We got 80 (two package orders of 40) and yes, we still have some left at the store right now

We sold…

• 49 full-size portable Disc Golf Baskets and 26 mini Baskets
• 245 Starter Sets
• 318 Backpacks… and that number doesn’t include starter or over-the-shoulder bags.
• 1636 unique items in the disc golf category

Chain Gang

We sponsored 4 local players, including:

Darcy Barlow – 7 wins in FPO (Pro Open Women) during 2021

Brian Parker – 3 wins in MP40 (Pro Masters 40+)

Deron Webb – Tournament Director for Leland Open, instrumental in plans for developing a new DG course in Leland. He also won the 2020 ECO Tour in MA40 and spent 2021 learning a lot in MP40.

Hope Brown - 3^rd place FPO finish at Discraft Presents: Spike Hyzer's Bark Buster Bonanza XI

We also sponsored the Azalea Am, Azalea Open, and contributed to the Leland Open. We donated to NHDGC Junior League, Jacob’s Fundraiser, and auctioned items off for Eden Village Fundraiser.

 

 

Just a few more items

• Vendor sales increases compared to 2019: Discmania - 885%, Dynamic Discs - 407%, MVP Discs - 383%...
• Prodigy Discs is the outlier here with a 3243% increase as we were phasing out in 2019, but brought it back in 2020 with a better and wider selection of discs for players from a variety of skill levels.
• We added our listing to Udisc Stores so that more disc golfers could find us if they were visiting or new to the area.

Inside Circle

None of this would have been possible without a team looking out for all of you and learning more every day about all things disc golf. (I do ramble on about it quite often.)

What we learned about our in-store team

• Flippin Phil is awesome and might be more recognizable in Wilmington than Ricky. He should have his own spin-off channel on YouTube soon, I think. He’ll help you find what you’re looking for, when he’s not on the course…in which case, he’ll tell you to come by and see him later at the store.
• Dalton knows a thing or two about disc golf too, and plays regularly.
• Michael was coaxed into a starter set, but added a few more to the bag.

            (You’ll see all of them soon in the review of the Axiom Paradox on my YouTube Channel.)

• 
  Megan, Ella, and Aly have soaked up the disc golf talk and if you’re looking for something particular, they’re on call…literally. I think they’ve pulled more discs to hold for customers over the phone or Facebook IMs than about anyone.
• Shane (back of house) is the Tilt Roller King. (Flippin Discsmas Day 2)
• Kerry (back of house) will buy just about any disc if it’s purple.
• Richard (back of house and Tilt Review Video) can be talked into playing about any time, even though his ideal window is 60-75 degrees. He also likes bragging about his MVP discs and throws the wrong way (left-handed, LOL.)

We even took a field trip to Arrowhead for a night-time round with the Goblin Gang, where we proved that we can all go glow, but no one’s going Pro. But we had a great time and that’s what Disc Golf is all about.

We look forward to taking on the challenges of 2022 and whatever the next big thing is for us as we look to grow Disc Golf in Wilmington and beyond.