Roto Grip Bowling Balls

Afterpay Available at BowlersMart
Afterpay Available at BowlersMart

Roto Grip started as Roto Star and has had a legandary past full of great bowling balls including the Cell, SD73 and others. We have a large list of retired Roto Grip bowling balls.


the roto grip story

Yes. This is the “About Us” section. But around here, we’re more concerned about you.

Everything we do at Roto Grip is done to put you in a position to dominate. We don’t create balls with the perfect balance of control and power so we can puff out our chests and pat ourselves on the back. We do it because that’s what you need to be a champion. We didn’t introduce two new game-changing rating systems because we got tired of looking at the old ones. We did it to make it easier for you to identify the arsenal that will guide you to victory. We don’t waste time bragging. We’d rather put that energy into designing equipment that will pass those bragging rights on to you.

Long story short, we make equipment that makes you your best. Because that’s not just your name up there next to your score. IT’S YOUR REPUTATION.

MAKING HISTORY.

Roto Grip has been a leading industry innovator since it was founded in 1955 by the Yetito family. Then, Roto Grip balls were unique in that they were pre-weighted with finger-weight and side weight, then marked with a four-point star. With this configuration, you could drill right over the four-point star, and you wouldn’t have to scale the ball on a dodo scale. The most famous of these balls was the Blue Polyester Roto Grip, which was very comparable to the Columbia Yellow Dot of the late 1970s and early 1980s. For many years, Roto Grip was a highly sought after brand with a reputation of delivering high-quality, high-performance equipment.

But as technology changed in the bowling industry with the introduction of new coverstocks and unique core designs, things also began to change for Roto Grip. The manufacturers to whom Roto Grip outsourced production couldn’t keep up with the rapidly changing technology, and the brand began to dwindle.

By the early 1990s, it was clear that the glory days of Roto Grip were now a thing of the past.

In 1997, Storm Products Incorporated purchased the brand name from the Yetito family and produced its first Roto Grip ball in 1998. Better known as “The Ball Banned from the PBA Tour,” the SD-73™ put Roto Grip back on the map as an industry innovator. From 1998 to 2001, Roto Grip’s main focus was the overseas markets, with only a few domestic releases each year. In 2001, it was decided that, with more marketing and research & development, Roto Grip could make more of an impact in the U.S. market. In the fall of 2006, Storm and Roto Grip merged their sales and customer service departments, unifying as one.

In January of 2008 Roto Grip made a giant industry splash with the introduction of the Cell™. In its first week of availability on the PBA tour, the Cell was used by four out of five TV finalists, an unprecedented feat that has yet to be repeated. And as if that wasn’t success enough, in November of 2009, Andrew Teall rolled the 15th sanctioned 900 in USBC bowling history using the Cell. To top it all off, the combination of the Cell and Cell Pearl™ helped Wes Malott earn PBA Player of the Year honors for the 2008-2009 season, including two televised 300s with the Cell Pearl during the PBA King of Bowling event to end that magical season.

As we fast-forward to 2012, Roto Grip has again reached a new level with the introduction of the Defiant™, again pushing the technological envelope with its powerful Paragon™ core and new, ultra-responsive MicroBite™ coverstock. We continue to erase boundaries and redefine the game with new, innovative equipment that puts our fans, followers and staffers in the ultimate position to succeed.