Is That Sunshine in Your Pocket Disc?

Hand-made Pocket Discs are family friendly, colorful, safe and fun.  Indoor disc golf is just one way to play, but there are all kinds of games to try.  Use them at Wausau’s 400 Block Park, at your favorite disc golf course, your yard or even indoors.  Just be prepared for the attention they draw!

The Pocket Disc Story

Savanna Groft, a third grader at the time, was assigned a project at school. Her teacher asked her to crochet a round placemat as part of her handwork studies. Savanna’s initial efforts yielded a round disk, but because she had not added enough stitches, the disc curled under forming a small lip. This placemat of sorts sat on a table for over a year until a family friend, Chris Larsen, came over, and threw it. The placemat sailed across the living room and the Pocket Disc was born.

Phd Productions (P-H-D = Perfectly Harmless Device) was formed with the intention of making more flying discs. Because co-founders Chris Larsen and Patrick Groft wanted not only to make Pocket Discs but also to make a difference, they searched for a fair trade women’s cooperative to begin production of the discs. They found what they were looking for in the impoverished country of Guatemala.

The Mayas of Guatemala have been weaving and crocheting bright patterns for centuries

Fair Trade is good for everyone. These artists in Guatemala make beautiful Pocket Discs.

and bring a deep cultural talent for handwork to the Pocket Discs. Each village specializes in a few patterns. The patterns of a village are passed down with the generations. Through a veteran importer, Phd Productions found cooperatives of Guatemalan women to produce Pocket Discs.

In return for the amazing artistry that these women add to the Pocket Disc, the women are paid fairly and work under good conditions. Phd Productions is a member of the Fair Trade Federation and follows the Federation’s guidelines to ensure proper treatment of its workers. 

The money they make crocheting Pocket Discs and other hand-made products enables their children to go to school and helps keeps them out of poverty in a country in which 56% of people now live below the poverty level. The village of San Pablo, where many of our artisans live, has one of the highest rates of malnutrition in Guatemala, which as a country has the second highest rate of malnutrition in the western hemisphere, after Haiti.

Due to its versatility, the Pocket Disc has universal appeal from professional disc golfers to elementary school PE teachers. And they’re pretty! 

Here’s a list of parks to try out your new Pocket Disc in Marathon County, WI: