Clothing in Ultimate- Part Two

Nation,

Mr Haig brought up a very valid point regarding my last post. I created a poll asking for the best clothing company in ultimate, and I made a few errors. I didn't articulate exactly what I meant by "best" and I failed to mention a lot of ultimate specific companies (Breakmark, Fiveultimate, Daredevil, etc).

What I was really getting at was: Who will/do you want to do business with this year?

I fear that although the consumer wants to reward our ultimate businesses, we're finding it increasingly hard. The sport is getting bigger, and it is becoming increasingly more attractive to the larger non ultimate companies. More importantly, we're experiencing/hearing about many ultimate businesses which are not doing good business:

• Poor choice and style (Anyone tired of seeing the same mesh hats??)
  
• High prices and price gouging
• Poor quality
• Lack of communication
• Slow delivery times, Not honoring coupons, subscriptions or orders
  
• Lack of exposure and sincerity to help ultimate
  

With that list, how can the consumer be expected to "support the community"?

I've pointed out the bad. Hopefully other readers will be able to share some good stories about good service. Or start vocalizing what's wrong with our ultimate business.

____________________________________________________________________

Daredevil Discs and Apparel
Photo: http://www.daredevildiscs.com/index.html

Who's the Best Clothing Company in Ultimate Right Now?

Nation,

Think back to 2002.

Used to be that GAIA was king in ultimate gear. The company, based in Vancouver, seemed to have it all. Great logo, brand equity in the sport enjoyed by none other, key sales staff/agreements throughout the continent, and deals with the best teams in the land. Most notably, Furious George wore the cleats. uniforms and paraphernalia of Gaia.

Back to 2008.

The marketplace has changed, and so too has the place of GAIA. The current state of GAIA will be covered in a future post. All we need to say at this point is that their position in the sport has taken a hit. Competing companies like VC, Patagonia, Adidas, and other brands have taken serious junks of the competitive and recreational ultimate team market. The GAIA cleat, once the hottest item in the sport, remains the only ultimate specific cleat available. However, none of the best players seem to use it, adopting football cleats from Nike and the big boys of footwear. When someone pays for their cleats when they could get free cleats/discounted cleats meant for their sport, that's a bad sign.

So the poll question is:

• Who's the Best Clothing Company in Ultimate Right Now?

and building on that, why is that the case?