For That Sweet Smell Of Success, Some Try Scented Bowling Balls
Oscar Gonzalez raised the 12-pound bowling ball to his nose and inhaled deeply. "Mmmmm, black cherry," he said, before handing it to his wife, Maria, for a sniff.
The couple next sniffed a ball perfumed in strawberry as they appraised the inventory at the Action Pro Shop on Chicago's north side. Ms. Gonzalez liked that one, too, but after sampling other balls smelling of amaretto and banana, she wound up buying a $139 ball that had a cinnamon-apple fragrance.
Bowling has long been associated with certain less-than-splendid aromas: beer, hot dogs, vinyl, lane oil and nacho cheese. But there's change in the air.
For years, skilled bowlers checked out torque, gyration radius, back-end hook and other technical measures of performance before spending as much as $250 for a ball. Now, thanks to Storm Products Inc., of Brigham City, Utah, they're also considering whether their bowling balls should smell of peppermint, spearmint, orange or blueberry.
Other bowling-ball companies make clear balls, balls that look like eyeballs, balls with beer bottles suspended in clear plastic, balls that glow, balls with flashing lights, and balls with the image of Elvis Presley or SpongeBob SquarePants on the surface. But those are novelty products, not intended for competitive bowlers.
In the battle to win over the sport's biggest consumers, most companies rely on claims of technical superiority. Brunswick Corp., for example, the industry leader, says that its Activator brand cover stock -- made from a new urethane blend -- provides greater hook and versatility in various lane conditions than any other ball on the market.
But to nearly everyone's surprise -- including plenty of bowlers who laughed when they got their first whiffs -- Storm's scented balls are quite popular, according to pro-shop owners and others in the business, and they have turned the little company into one of the hottest players in an otherwise down-at-the-heels industry.
"People will mention a ball and say, 'Oh, yeah, that's the one that's pineapple,' " says Jim King, editor of Bowling This Month magazine, which calls itself the Consumer Reports of tenpins. The magazine notes the fragrance of each Storm ball in its product reviews. Mr. King says his reviewers refrain from comment, however, on whether they like one scent better than another, preferring to focus on how well balls knock down pins.
Like so many inventions, scented bowling balls came about almost by accident. In the 1980s, Bill Chrisman owned and operated a small chemical company in Ogden, Utah, where he made industrial-strength cleaners for dishwashers and car washes.
"Detergents all have fragrances in them," he says. "Usually something citrus."
An avid bowler, Mr. Chrisman constantly heard bowlers complain about urethane bowling balls that lost a lot of their ability to hook as they soaked up lane oil. Some bowlers were putting their balls in the dishwasher, others in the bathtub, to wash off excess oil. Mr. Chrisman bottled a detergent-and-alcohol formula, added a spruce scent, and began selling it in pro shops as a ball cleaner called U-Clean/U-Score. He scored a modest success. Once he had learned the bowling business, a friend persuaded him to try manufacturing balls.
In the old days, when Ralph Kramden was toppling pins on episodes of "The Honeymooners," balls were made of rubber. But today's balls are the product of technological advances, with particle-infused urethane covers that add traction on oily lanes, and dense cores -- of several pieces in some cases -- that give balls greater-than-ever punch when they smash into pins.
For all their fancy ingredients, the balls were still far too plain for Mr. Chrisman. Almost all of them came in blue, black or purple. And they all smelled like bowling balls.
"Most of the pro shops were very small," he says. "I'm not going to say they had a bad odor to them, but they were kind of musty. I thought if we put in a fragrance, people would go over and smell the balls, touch the balls, and read our name on the balls."
His first scented ball, released in the spring of 2000, was grape. A lot of citrus followed. Chocolate, which Mr. Chrisman thought would be a big hit, got mixed reactions. When a chocolate bowling ball sits too long in a bowling bag, alongside bowling shoes, the bouquet released when the bag is opened packs a mighty punch.
"Very polarizing," says Mr. Chrisman. "Licorice was the same way."
Science marched on.
"We've probably tested about 100 flavors," he says. "The latest one we tested was a beer fragrance. That ball kind of stunk, really."
The scents are added to the chemical mix as the balls are shaped. Each model gets its own flavor. The X Factor Ace is wintergreen. Atomic Charge is cranberry. Fear Factor is plum. Eraser Banshee is pi?a colada. Customers can't mix and match.
Shoppers definitely notice, says Bill Clark, the owner of Bowlers E.R., a pro shop in Des Plaines, Ill. But it's how a ball pounds the pins that ultimately clinches the sale. "If the ball doesn't perform, that person isn't going to care what it smells like," he says.
U.S. manufacturers produce more than two million bowling balls a year, according to manufacturers and wholesale distributors. By any count, it's a fairly small business that has been getting smaller as the number of league bowlers has slipped. League bowling peaked at about 4.5 million bowlers in the mid-1970s and has fallen to less than half that number now.
Storm makes only midrange and high-end balls, ceding the low end of the market to its bigger rivals: Brunswick, of Lake Forest, Ill.; Ebonite International of Hopkinsville, Ky.; and Columbia 300 Inc. of San Antonio. In the high-end market, Storm and Brunswick both claim to be the market leader. Almost everyone agrees that Brunswick's unscented Absolute Inferno, which sells for more than $200, is the most popular high-end ball on the market.
"Storm's made a pretty steady climb the last 10 years or so," says Chad Murphy, brand manager at Columbia 300. He says his company could have added a scent -- it developed the technology about 15 years ago, he says -- but chose not to. "I think it's a novelty."
Ed Gallagher, brand manager at Ebonite, says his company also experimented with scent and "didn't think it was worth the effort." Brunswick says the notion of adding an aroma was discussed and quickly dropped. "I don't know if 'gimmick' is the right word," says Ron Addison, marketing director of the consumer-products group. "I don't feel like I'm losing any sales because our balls are not scented."
Until now, Storm has never claimed that scents affected performance. But Steve Kloempken, the company's technical director, says computerized tests indicate that the aromatic chemicals give Storm balls a bit of extra hook. "It's kind of like the cherry on the sundae," he says.
He says the aromatic liquid chemicals added to the vats of urethane had the unintended effect of increasing the tackiness or friction of the surface area, which resulted in a tiny bit of extra hook. He hopes to learn with further study whether some fragrances are tackier than others.
Storm's odors might not be strong enough to knock down pins, but some bowlers say the fragrances have occasionally distracted opponents. Others say the smells relax them, and they've gotten in the habit of inhaling before each throw. Tony Pe?a, manager of Action Pro Shop, says he especially likes the way the balls smell in his car. "It's like an air freshener."
One Sunday recently at Waveland Bowl in Chicago, league bowlers fantasized about the aromas they would like Storm to offer next. New car was most frequently cited, followed by French fry.
"I don't think I'd go for a ball that smells like fruit," said Ron Molizon, 64 years old, who uses an unscented ball. "Maybe if they made one that smells like crawfish."
带香味的保龄球
奥斯卡?冈萨雷斯(Oscar Gonzalez)把12磅重的保龄球举到与鼻同高，深深地吸了一口气。“嗯，是黑莓味道的。”他说道，然后把球递给他的妻子玛丽亚(Maria)闻闻。
在芝加哥北部的Action Pro Shop保龄球商店，这对夫妇又闻了一个草莓香味的保龄球，逐一对店里的存货品头论足。冈萨雷斯太太觉得草莓香味的也不错，但闻了义大利苦杏酒和香蕉香味的保龄球后，她最后花139美元买了一个肉桂－苹果香味的保龄球。
保龄球一向与一些并不宜人的味道联系在一起，比如啤酒、热狗、乙烯、打蜡油和墨西哥玉米片的味道。不过，现在这一情况发生了变化。
以前，有经验的保龄球手在购买价值高达250美元的保龄球时，会检查球的扭矩、旋转半径、球道末端弯曲等技术细节；而现在，感谢美国犹他州Brigham的Storm Products Inc.，他们也开始考虑自己的保龄球应该是胡椒薄荷味、荷兰薄荷味、橘子味还是蓝莓香味的。
其他保龄球制造企业生产光亮的保龄球、象眼球一样的保龄球、发光的保龄球，以及表面有猫王头像的保龄球等。不过，这些都是标新立异的产品，而不是为保龄球参赛选手设计的。
为赢得这个保龄球最大的消费群体，大多数公司打出了技术这一王牌。举例而言，占据行业领先地位的宾士域(Brunswick Corp.)表示，其推出的Activator品牌保龄球的外壳材质为一种新的聚酯混合材料，与市场上的其他产品相比，它能让选手在各种球道环境下都打出更漂亮的钩球。
然而，令几乎所有人（包括许多曾嘲笑过香味保龄球的保龄球手）感到意外的是，据保龄球商店和其他业内人士反映，Storm Products推出的芳香保龄球大受欢迎。这家企业也因此从小公司变成一家炙手可热的专业公司，带动整个保龄球行业走出低谷。
和许多发明一样，芳香保龄球的出现几乎是个意外。20世纪80年代，比尔?克里斯曼(Bill Chrisman)在犹他州的奥格登市经营一家小型化工企业，为洗碗机和洗车店生产强力清洁剂。“清洁剂里都加入芳香剂，”他说，“一般是橘子味的。”
克里斯曼爱打保龄球，他常常听到球手抱怨保龄球粘上了球道的蜡油，使得球的弯曲性能减弱。一些球手把保龄球放到洗碗机或浴缸里清洗油污。克里斯曼调配了一种清洁剂，并加入清新的香味，开始卖给保龄球店作为专用的保龄球清洁剂，名字叫做U-Clean/U-Score。这种产品卖得还不错，对业务熟悉后，他的一个朋友劝他试著生产保龄球。
很早以前，保龄球是用橡胶做的。现在的保龄球是高科技的产物，用点注工艺制造的聚氨酯表面能在打蜡的球道上增加摩擦力，内部紧密的内核（有的球有几个内核）使球在击中球瓶的时候发挥出更强的冲击力。
即使如此，克里斯曼仍认为保龄球的设计太过普通，几乎每个球都是兰色、黑色或紫色的，而且闻起来就是一股子保龄球味道。
“大多数保龄球专卖店都很小，”他说，“我不想说他们的店里有股怪味儿，但确实闻起来不舒服。我觉得如果给保龄球添加香味，人们来买球的时候可以闻一闻，摸一摸，然后在球上发现我公司的名字。”
克里斯曼在2000年春推出了第一个芳香保龄球，是葡萄香味的。后来又推出橘子味和巧克力味，后者他认为会大卖，结果是毁誉参半。如果巧克力香味的保龄球放在球袋里太久，而且旁边还放著保龄球鞋的话，一打开球袋就会发出一股熏人的气味。
芳香剂是在保龄球成型期间放入的，每种保龄球都有自己的芬芳，X Factor Ace型号的气味是鹿蹄草味，Atomic Charge型号的是蔓越橘味，Fear Factor型号的是李子味，Eraser Banshee型号的是朗姆酒味。顾客不能随意搭配不同的香味。
保龄球店当然注意到这一新产品，伊里诺斯州名一位店主比尔?克拉克(Bill Clark)说道，但促进销量的最终因素是保龄球能否击中目标。“如果球用起来不顺手，再怎么好闻的味道都不会有人买。”
据业内的制造商和批发商称，美国的保龄球制造商每年生产200多万个保龄球。从任何角度而言，这个行业规模都不算大，而且随著保龄球职业选手数量的下滑，该行业也在不断萎缩。70年代中期是保龄球的黄金时代，约有450万球手，现在这一数目已经跌到一半以下。
Storm Products只生产中高端保龄球，把低端市场让给自己最大的竞争对手：美国伊里诺斯州的宾士域，肯塔基州的Ebonite International，以及圣安东尼奥的Columbia 300 Inc.。在高端市场，Storm Products和宾士域都宣称自己是行业的老大。不过大多数人都认同宾士域生产的无香味Absolute Inferno保龄球（售价200美元以上）是最受欢迎的高档球。
“Storm Products在过去十年有了稳步发展，”Columbia 300公司的品牌经理钱德?墨菲(Chad Murphy)说道。他表示其公司也可以给保龄球增加香味--15年前公司就开发出这种技术--但最后决定不这么做。“我觉得这是标新立异。”
Ebonite公司的品牌经理艾德?盖拉弗(Ed Gallagher)表示，其公司也尝试过给保龄球添加芳香剂，但“觉得不值得这么做”。宾士域表示，公司曾讨论过添加香味的提议，但很快就放弃了。“我不知道说芳香保龄球'哗众取宠'是否合适，”宾士域消费产品部门营销主管荣?艾迪森(Ron Addison)说道，“我不觉得我们的保龄球会因为没有香味就出现销量下滑。”
迄今为止，Storm Products从未声明香味对比赛表现有任何影响，不过公司的技术总监史蒂夫?克罗姆肯(Steve Kloempken)说，电脑测试显示，加入芳香剂能额外增加一些Storm Products保龄球打出的曲度。“就仿佛是圣代上浇上了一些草莓浆。”他说道。
他说，在聚氨酯中加入液体芳香剂产生了一种出乎意料的效果，能增强保龄球表面的摩擦力，使球增加一点点额外的曲度。他希望能够进一步研究是否不同的香味剂能产生不同的摩擦力。
Storm Products的芳香保龄球的香味可能还不足以击倒球瓶，但一些球手表示芳香有时能够让对手分心。另一些球手说芳香能够让他们感到放松，甚至养成了每次出手都要先闻一下球的习惯。Action Pro Shop商店的经理托尼?贝纳(Tony Pena)说，他特别喜欢保龄球在车里放著的味道，“就像是空气清新剂。”
最近在芝加哥的一场保龄球比赛中，职业球手提出了希望Storm Products进一步推出的香味。新车味是最热门的提议，其次是炸薯条味。
“我不想买一个带水果味的保龄球”，64岁的荣?莫里森(Ron Molizon)说，他现在使用的是无味的保龄球，“除非他们推出一种龙虾味道的保龄球。”
