MVP Lab Report – March 2022
Hey GYROnauts!
I am excited to present to you this long overdue March 2022 edition of the MVP Lab Report. The whole team has been hard at work with the rapid growth phase MVP has been going through, particularly the startup of our additional production facility. We have fully switched to our newly expanded electrical service, and several of the new machines are starting up now. On the product side of things, I want to highlight the updates of two longtime favorite plastics: Fission and Neutron Soft.
First, I want to summarize our progress on the production capacity expansion. The goal we set for 2021 was a 500% increase of pre-pandemic capacity. We actually ended up finishing 2021 with a 550% capacity increase over pre-pandemic figures, so we exceeded our goal by a significant margin. In fact, we’ve produced more discs in the last 12 months than the entire 11 year prior history of the company. We’ve been working hard on reaching the 1000% capacity increase level for the 2022 year, and we’re just about there. We should be operating at this new capacity level by 2022 Q2.
The majority of our molds have been made available to dealers in the last few months, with the exception of a few plastic variants of certain models. These remaining items should see a restock in the next release. It’s a pleasure to see our dealers’ shelves getting fully stocked again. With the onset of the spring season, we should at long last be ready to meet the extraordinarily high demand disc golf has faced in the midst of the pandemic and what MVP has faced with the World Championship of James Conrad (still a big cheers for James Conrad!).
On the plastic developments front, we’re excited to unveil the next generation of two longtime favorites: Fission and Neutron Soft.
Let’s start with the big one: our 3rd Generation Fission Technology. In my opinion, we have achieved the perfect balance between grip, consistency, and weight reduction capability. The release of the Fission Wave last fall was the debut of our 3rd Generation Fission technology, which has been followed by a restock of both the Fission Tesla and Volt in the latest release. Though, the most notable 3rd Generation Fission release has to be the debut of the Fission Reactor.
As far as I am aware, the Fission Reactor is the most GYROscopically enhanced golf disc in the history of the sport because of the fact it is a larger diameter midrange in our Fission Technology. Initial reports from our testers is that a 160-162g Fission Reactor has a similar stability to that of its 175-178g Neutron brethren, except with increased glide and distance. This is because the 160-162g Fission Reactor has a similar amount of weight in its rim compared to its 170s counterpart, so it exhibits a similar gyroscopic stability. However, the lighter weight allows it to more easily glide like lighter discs are known for.
With that in mind, I highly encourage everyone to consider the lighter weight Fission Reactor to compare to its heavier counterpart. It seems very unorthodox to be throwing a 160-162g midrange, but I think you will all be blown away with the ease of accurate distance you will experience with it. I personally still need to decide what weight(s) to carry in my own bag because this new technology behaves so differently than anything in the market up to this point. However, I expect to carry a broad range of weights in Fission because of the vast differences caused by the enhanced gyroscopic effect from the Fission Technology. To summarize the three generations of Fission Plastic:
-1st Generation – This is the “classic generation” that most of you are probably familiar with. This version of Fission has a softer plastic known for its great grip. The biggest drawback to this version was its inconsistency. It ranged from excessive “spaceship dome” to board flat, so this was the issue we wanted to address in the next generation. The inconsistency of this generation also contributed to a limited range of models that could be produced in Fission.
-2nd Generation – This version of Fission plastic achieved a greater level of consistency and could be produced in a wider range of models. However, the feedback we received was that the grip was not as ideal as the early generation. Therefore, the mission of our next generation fission plastic was to improve the grip without sacrificing the consistency that was achieved in 2nd generation.
-3rd Generation – This is the new current generation of Fission plastic which has the best balance of softer enhanced grip, greater consistency, and weight reduction capacity.
Now that we optimized Fission Technology to where it is now, we are finally planning to introduce a lot more molds in Fission plastic. The Fission Reactor, Fission Octane, and Fission Crave are currently in production, and more items will be following throughout the season. I know that many of them will be replacing many discs in my bag!
Neutron Soft has been on a hiatus for the last couple of years mainly due to shortages in the supply chain and technical limitations of the original formulation. Soft plastics specifically are surprisingly challenging to produce. However, with our ever growing capabilities, we have been able to pursue more options and we have finally settled on a formula that we feel is a great option. Both the Envy and Proxy will soon see a re-introduction in Neutron Soft plastic, which dealers should be receiving in their next shipment.
The specialty of Neutron Soft is its ability to absorb the impact of tree hits so that it doesn’t kick off the fairway, making it well suited for putters and midranges. This doesn’t necessarily rule out drivers for Neutron Soft, but it means we plan to prioritize Putters and Mids for Neutron Soft. On the other hand, Fission drivers also excel at their ability to absorb tree hits due to the softer nature of Fission plastic.
This concludes the March 2022 edition of The MVP Lab Report. Both of these plastics have been a long time in the making, especially our Fission Technology, but we couldn’t be happier with the progress of them and are excited with their re-introduction in the next release.
