Today we’d like to introduce you to Levi Fisher.
Hi Levi, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story began in December of 2019. My job at the time was working for a company based in L.A. that ran food & beverage for numerous venues around the nation, as well as some large-scale music festivals. I overseen bar operations and helped with accounting, inventory, and spreadsheet creation. You could say I was the numbers guys!
I was off from work for a few months due to the slow winter season. I had started paying more attention to sports trading cards, a longtime passion of mine as a kid. An emerging college basketball player’s rookie cards had skyrocketed the collector market to heights unseen for some time and I took enough interest to begin buying packs and becoming more involved in the Facebook groups associated with card collecting. In a couple of these groups, there would be fun, live methods of buying trading cards from people. Essentially, you were buying mystery cards with the hopes that one, or more, of those mystery cards, would have a chaser card (a valuable collector card) attached to them. This would be signified by a piece of tape on the backside of the card with a corresponding number to whatever chaser card you had won. I watched and participated in some of these for 2-3 weeks before having an epiphany that would ultimately change the course of my life.
While watching a live stream late one night, an idea sparked. I had been playing disc golf for 14 years and throughout that time I had a tote full of discs that I had won from events and never thrown. I figured I could try to translate this Livestream gamification event from the card collecting pages into the disc golf pages I was already a part of. The first night, a few days after Christmas, I set up a makeshift area in my basement to make it happen. I sat on the floor, I used my phone to Livestream and wrote information on paper with sharpies for viewers. It sold out on the first night and I knew that I had something that would continue to succeed and be fun for my fellow disc golf lovers in terms of buying and collecting disc golf discs and items. Disc StaXX became the name, which is still used and ran today weekly through Facebook and YouTube.
This small idea went on to evolve into a full-blown business and disc golf store which has now been operating for over 2 years. A brick-and-mortar now exist on Lakeshore Drive in the absolutely beautiful Lakeside area of Muskegon. We have everything needed for disc golfers of all experience levels. It is an amazing sport that gets people active, brings families and friends together, and can be competitive for those looking for that side of the sport.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect.
Although I would love to say that things have been a breeze, that have not. COVID brought us a very large bubble of new disc golfers entering the sport, which was great for the initial takeoff of the website and online sales. Things have returned mostly back to normal now, which means a lot of those newcomers have either given up the sport or simply do not have the time to continue to put the time in they would like to.
Winter seasons are always hard for any business in Michigan, especially the lakeshore area. It is extremely hard for those of us who own businesses that are solely outdoor-based activities.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Fisher Disc Golf has now been in existence as an online retailer for more than 2 years. A brick-and-mortar is now open at 1949 Lakeshore Drive in Muskegon, MI. Whether a beginner or an experienced player, you will be treated the same when you come into the shop. We do our best to spread out over 40 years of combined disc golf knowledge to our customers and get them the best information to help them succeed, whether a recreational or professional.
Contact Info:
- Email: Fisherdiscgolf@gmail.com
- Website: www.fisherdiscgolf.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fisherdiscgolf/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FisherDiscGolf
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/FisherDiscGolf
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2n97i9G0V5UvVFZoKFmjdQ
Image Credits
Jacob Barnhard
Nathan Purchase
