Steel Tip Games Are Enjoying A Resurgence

Retailers report steady sales of electronic dart boards and note traditional steel-tip games are showing a resurgence.

A new development is retailers stocking darts year-round, as opposed to seasonally, from autumn to early spring.

Dave Haraske, buyer for Ames Department Stores, Rocky Hill, Conn., says the market is quite healthy, adding that Ames does best with with its less-expensive models.

Similarly, JumboSports, Tampa, Fla., cites a healthy market as the reason it has expanded its assortment of products. Some of its most-popular brands are Accudart, DMI and Arachnid.

"The market is in a growth mode right now, so we're stocking a little bit more. We've expanded our assortment," says Dee Dee Prickett, assistant team sports buyer for JumboSports.

Prickett notes Jumbo has expanded both its selection of steel-tip and electronic games, while also doing good business with accessories such as shafts, points, tip replacements, sharpeners and score pads. Electronic dart boards constitute a healthy market for Jumbo, Prickett adds, with Arachnid its primary vendor. Dart World also sells well, she says.

"I think a lot of the retailers have found that darts in particular have proven to be, although a small category, a category they can do well with," says Brian Dower, national sales manager for Dart World, Lynn, Mass. "More and more retailers are bringing darts in as a category. We're not at the top of the list, but they realize that it's a category that they have to bring in and sell year-round."

Retailers say innovations are changing the way the game is played. The M-3 dart distributed by Dart World is designed to be the thinnest on the market. The Magna Tec is the world's first magnetic retractable-point dart, says Justin Voden, vice president of sales for Great Lakes Dart Mfg., Muskego, Wis.

"It's a steel-tip dart that has a magnet built inside it," Voden says. "When you hit the wire on a steel-tip board, usually your dart will bounce back and you won't score. But with this magnetic retractable system, it hits the wire and it clicks back so the dart will slide right into the board."

GLD also has darts with springs at the end of its shafts, so they bend out of the way of incoming darts.

"When a dart is in the board and the next one comes in, instead of deflecting the incoming dart, the one in the board will bend it right out of the way," Voden says.

Renewed interest in dart leagues has been beneficial, according to retailers. Some retailers also say more pubs are hanging their dart boards up again.

Steel Dart Use Increasing

In parts of the country where such pubs are concentrated, steel-tip darts dominate the marketplace. Since pubs use the more traditional steel-tip sets, players there usually select such sets when they decide to purchase the games for their own homes.

A perfect example is Atlanta, says Scott Mellon, vice president of sales for Games and Things, Knoxville, Tenn., which also has stores in Atlanta, Birmingham, Ala., and West Palm Beach, Fla. Ninety percent of its dart sales in Atlanta are steel-tip, while 90 percent of its Knoxville sales are soft-tip.

"There are more pubs and pub-type atmospheres in the Atlanta area," Mellon says. "There are very few places here in Knoxville where you could go and throw steel even if you wanted to. Everything in Atlanta is steel."

Dart World's Dower says steel-tip darts are catching up with the soft-tip market. "In the last year and a half to two years, the trend is at a point where steel-tips are catching up to soft-tips," he says. "I think more and more people are looking at the traditional game, which is steel-tip."

However, safety of steel-tip darts continues to be an issue.

"People are afraid of the steel-tip point and there was some resistance to putting those dart boards into homes, pubs and taverns," says Dower.

Some manufacturers design products to cater to both steel-tip and soft-tip segments of the market. Dart World is marketing the new M-3 dart for both markets. It is expected to retail from $19.95 to $59.95.

Dart World's products are favored by retailers such as Chick's Sporting Goods, Covina, Calif.

"They have all the different price-points for us to fill," says Chick's buyer Jimmy Chick. "They've got the soft-tip and the steel-tip, and I think their packaging probably has been the best-looking and most consistent we've seen."

Soft-Tip Market Leveling

Retailers report the soft-tip market is starting to level-off after two decades.

Arachnid Manufacturing, Rockford, Ill., which says it created the first electronic dart board in 1974, has responded to the changing market by focusing on new ways it can serve players, says Dee Brown, Arachnid's director of marketing. Most recently, Arachnid has been working on a magnetic dart board for younger players.

Retailers also have been creative to help keep their sales healthy. Games and Things has increased its displays, says Mellon. "It seems to be the more you show, the more you are going to sell."

Some of Games and Things' best-selling steel-tip darts are Power Point and Piranha, both by Dart World. Its best-selling soft-tip darts are the Ranger and Wildcat, both from Great Lakes Dart.

Power Point and Piranha also are among the best-sellers at Hit and Run Darts & Supplies, Atlanta, according to owner P.D. Thompson. The steel-tipped Hammerheads and Black Widows also sell well, he adds.

Most stores cover the spectrum with regard to price: A package of three darts at Games and Things runs from $5 to $180. There is a similar breadth in price for dart boards.

"They will range in price anywhere from $15 to $400," says Mellon.

Retailers also should be encouraged by a 1997 National Sporting Goods Association's sports participation report which states an all-time high of 21.4 million people participate in dart throwing. <replace>r</replace>



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