sabrefanpc
08-08-2004, 10:38 AM
I’ve seen allot of flaming between those who do and do not support Smart Parts, so here is my position. If you do not agree with it, THAT IS FINE BY ME. I simply don’t want to be flamed when I talk about Smart Parts!
I think that if you had to sum up the problems of paintball, it could be simply said the problem is a Smart Parts mentality.
Go ahead and take a deep breath and finish reading before you flame me.
The sport I like to use as an ideal sport is football (that’s soccer for most of you). In soccer, the companies that wish to grow in the sport do so constructively. Puma, Nike, Adidas- all of them sponsor youth teams everywhere. Now, I am not about to say that this is selfless. I still use the same type of Adidas cleats that I started wearing when I was a 5 year old football player. They get my money, but they earned it by showing me how great their product is, not by closing the market. Think of it in context to the Presidential Election. Football is a clean campaign, while paintball is all too often a smear campaign. Soccer fields are built in all corners of the world thanks to grants from these companies as well. They invest in their sport to ensure its future (as well as their own future) instead of the all too common paintball strategy of simply watching the sport from the sidelines.
In football, there is no shortage of “technical” advances. It may not be the same as in paintball, but when one company finds a new material to make cleats with or an innovative new jersey or glove or ball- the entire industry comes up with a spin-off. Obviously it is based on the original companies design, but the spread of the new technology is invigorating for the sport. The products generally become cheaper and more available.
The Smart Parts mentality extends beyond Smart Parts the company. Other companies follow this same strategy. But perhaps even more importantly, individual retailers and field operators are to blame. They focus more on making money off of players than the sport. I don’t care how much field owners charge for paint- I realize they have a business to run. But when slam fills on HPA and CO2 fills without scales cause injuries or death- the sport is dealt a blow as well. When loose enforcement of safety rules result in unplugged or bagged barrels and no goggles when there ought to be, paintball is once again relegated to an “unsafe” activity. Beside safety, in search of higher profits many stores and fields hire the cheapest workers they can. I think all of us have been to a field with apathetical refs. I myself have walked into a store and found it empty. I saw the back door swing open and two kids running the store came in and replaced the markers they had been playing with on the store shelf. To sell as new. I promptly left.
If the Smart Parts mentality is not changed, the future of paintball may be bleak. How paintball responds to this will determine the future of the sport.
I think that if you had to sum up the problems of paintball, it could be simply said the problem is a Smart Parts mentality.
Go ahead and take a deep breath and finish reading before you flame me.
The sport I like to use as an ideal sport is football (that’s soccer for most of you). In soccer, the companies that wish to grow in the sport do so constructively. Puma, Nike, Adidas- all of them sponsor youth teams everywhere. Now, I am not about to say that this is selfless. I still use the same type of Adidas cleats that I started wearing when I was a 5 year old football player. They get my money, but they earned it by showing me how great their product is, not by closing the market. Think of it in context to the Presidential Election. Football is a clean campaign, while paintball is all too often a smear campaign. Soccer fields are built in all corners of the world thanks to grants from these companies as well. They invest in their sport to ensure its future (as well as their own future) instead of the all too common paintball strategy of simply watching the sport from the sidelines.
In football, there is no shortage of “technical” advances. It may not be the same as in paintball, but when one company finds a new material to make cleats with or an innovative new jersey or glove or ball- the entire industry comes up with a spin-off. Obviously it is based on the original companies design, but the spread of the new technology is invigorating for the sport. The products generally become cheaper and more available.
The Smart Parts mentality extends beyond Smart Parts the company. Other companies follow this same strategy. But perhaps even more importantly, individual retailers and field operators are to blame. They focus more on making money off of players than the sport. I don’t care how much field owners charge for paint- I realize they have a business to run. But when slam fills on HPA and CO2 fills without scales cause injuries or death- the sport is dealt a blow as well. When loose enforcement of safety rules result in unplugged or bagged barrels and no goggles when there ought to be, paintball is once again relegated to an “unsafe” activity. Beside safety, in search of higher profits many stores and fields hire the cheapest workers they can. I think all of us have been to a field with apathetical refs. I myself have walked into a store and found it empty. I saw the back door swing open and two kids running the store came in and replaced the markers they had been playing with on the store shelf. To sell as new. I promptly left.
If the Smart Parts mentality is not changed, the future of paintball may be bleak. How paintball responds to this will determine the future of the sport.