Introduction
‘Tis the time of the year where are the companies start releasing the new line of Team Series discs. For those of you unfamiliar with Team Series discs, they are special stamped discs that cost a premium compared to a ‘regular’ version. The extra proceeds going to the pro as part of their salary.
Table of Contents
Team Series Discs
This year Latitude 64 did a special edition of the Grace with Kristen Tattar’s wolf stamp. As you can see from the picture on the left, it’s a really cool stamp. There was a small hiccup in the first few boxes of graces stamped, however. In the first batch stamped the original stamp at the bottom had the word “LUPUS.”
The “Controversy”
In case you don’t know Latitude 64 is a Swedish company. While most of the social media staff speaks English, there is a bit of language barrier. What they intended to do was give the scientific name of wolf which is Canis Lupus. They shortened it to “Lupus.” You can see how this could be viewed as problematic.
Latitude 64’s Statement
“It was an initial mistake from our side as we did not recognize that Lupus is a serious disease when making the stamp design. The idea was to have “Canis Lupus”, the latin name for wolf. We stopped the stamping process and changed the design so it’s just Kristin’s KT logo instead. A couple boxes of “Lupus” stamped discs was already shipped though, and you got one of them. They all fly just as good though. …”
The Community Response
Overall, the community response on r/discgolf and on the Latitude 64 has been generally middling to slightly positive. One Redditor SBRedneck said that he has lupus and really wants one. If Latitude 64 pivoted to use this as a fundraiser for Lupus, this would be a major PR victory for the company.
Conclusion
This wasn’t really that big of an issue. This was a mistake made by humans. Humans engrossed in the disc golf world focused on making a great product and tying it in to the Latin name for wolf. It was a mistake quickly corrected. Maybe you can get your hands on one of these limited discs. I think they look cool and maybe in the future Latitude 64 will do a run and donate the proceeds to a lupus charity.
