I had a great idea this morning, to add all the new 21/22 ACL Approved bag makers and bag series to our speed scale list. After all, we do offer the only and largest cornhole bag speed scale list. And as I got half way done, made it to the “L”, I started thinking, have we finally reached a saturated bag market?
There are tons of new bags and new bag makers with copy cat duplicates and many that should probably not have pro stamps (we will discuss what we mean, further down) in the cornhole market! We may actually have more bags available than players, LOL And we are only talking about the ACL Approved bags. There are still many other bag makers that are not approved. When you factor in everyone, it’s easy to see why we keep referring to a saturated bag market.
The saturated bag market is here
There are so many new bag companies popping on the scene this season which is created the saturated bag market. People are seeing how much money cornhole bags are selling for and wanting a piece of the pie. Dusting off Grandma’s old sewing machine and watching a Youtube video on how to make a cornhole bag, because you can learn anything on the internet.
We all saw this coming and we all know who is to blame for the overpriced market. But, there are still some good companies out there who have been in the game for a long time and will continue to survive in this saturated bag market because they sell a great bag at a great affordable price!
One thing we are seeing more and more in this saturated bag market are makers copying overpriced hard to get bags. Most of us can tell the materials just by feel and it’s only a matter of hunting them down so you can make the same bag with the exact same specs and just add your own artwork. Then promote their bag as to be “similar” to the copied bag. And the best part, “we can get them in your hands faster than 6 weeks”.
Which is another topic that needs to be address and in our opinion, something that will work it’s way out hopefully this season. People need to stop waiting for these ridiculously overpriced bags that they think will be the bag that goes in the hole just because they saw a video of an ACL pro throwing 4 bagger after 4 bagger with these bags. Wake up, that guy can throw a 4 bagger with a set of corn bags but you’re not going to run out and grab a set of those, right?
Non-beneficial bags are flooding the market
Back to our topic of the saturated bag market and talking about some, what we consider, non-beneficial pro bags. Something I will never understand is that we have graduated from the duck cloth, same material and speeds on both sides, to a double sided bag that can have different speeds and play completely different yet people are wasting their time and efforts making a bag with the same or very similar speeds on both sides.
What good is a 5/6 bag?? I mean, why not just go back to a duck bag at that point? Most of us throw the slower side of the bag the majority of the time and flip it over to the faster side to push or dulldoze bags out of the way. So wouldn’t a wider range fast side be more beneficial? If you like to throw a slow side 6, the fast side should be 9 or 10, not 7.
But this may come as a result of a young company not understanding the actual market and wanting to make as many different bag series as possible. With 20 different bags, something has to sell, right? Wouldn’t it be a better business model to do the actual research and figure out what people want instead of just throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks? Your time and energy is better spent focusing on 4-5 great bags rather than 9-10 okay bags.
And look who you are in competition with. Not only is it a saturated bag market but also the amount of bag makers has doubled, maybe even tripled over the past year. Which now makes your job even harder to get your 10-20 different bags in the players hands.
More Pro Stamped Bags Than Pro Players
And if you think for a second that just because your bag in on the ACL Approved list that you can sit back and let that stamp go to work selling bags for you, think again. Let me just say, we are 100% ACL. We are by no means bashing them. The ACL just like anyone, will take your money if you are giving it away. What we fail to understand is why a new bag company would get their new bags Pro stamped?
Sure, everyone wants a Pro to use their bags on ESPN and boom, your brand takes off and you become a millionaire. If only it were that easy. Wasn’t that why the stamp was born in the first place? In our opinion, you should have the Comp stamp while you build your company and get your bags exposure. Save the extra initial fee and extra royalties, get your bags in players hands and grow it organically. Besides, most Pro players are either signed with a bag company or already have a bag they love. So unless you are willing to “Show Them The Money” most pro players won’t even pick up your bag.
Saturation could be a good thing
There is something good that can come out of a saturated bag market. It could help level out the prices. We are not by any means encouraging bag makers to steal others ideas for bags but by doing so and creating a knock-off cornhole bag for less would put the bag maker in a position to either ride it out and stick with their prices claiming to be the original or lower their prices to compete.
We have seen this exact thing happen when a certain company came out with an awesome idea for a backpack and then everyone and their mother copied the idea, had them made overseas for less and stole a chunk of their market. Granted it is lesser in quality but many don’t care because they are blinded by price first.
If you are looking for some new bags, we have you covered. We have the Largest selection of cornhole bags in stock and ready to ship!
