The Story of Shot Darts

Shot Darts has become of the most well-established brands in the world of darts. With a history that stretches back more than 50 years, the New Zealand-based company has built a global reputation amongst darts players of all levels in producing high-quality darts equipment.

Originally founded in 1970, then under the name of Puma Darts Products, the company rebranded as Shot Darts in 2009 and now sponsors some of the top PDC professional stars including the 2022/23 world champion Michael Smith, rising Dutch left hander Niels Zonneveld and the 2024 European Championship winner Ritchie Edhouse.

Shot’s tungsten darts range are all manufactured in-house at the company’s home HQ in Katikati. The brand’s ever-growing selection of eye-catching and intricately designed dart barrels are now exported to over 70 different countries, making Shot one of the most popular and widely-used dart brands in the world.

“My dad (John McCormick) founded the business in 1970 and he set out with the idea of being the biggest dart company in New Zealand,” Peter McCormick, the managing director of Shot Darts, recalled on the Weekly Dartscast podcast.

“In those days there was two dart companies in New Zealand. We started out initially making paper dartboards and then broke into making darts and then bristle boards.

“Dad set himself the goal of getting into the Australian market, and then reached further afield through the Pacific, then went into the US. Because of the company name and brand name being Puma, it was good in some areas, but not so good in the US and Europe.

“It wasn’t something that was really thought about, but there was another quite big sporting brand already called Puma who might not agree with us. Hence 15 years ago the decision was made to rebrand and that’s when the Shot brand was launched. Out of respect for the legacy and family we kept the business as Puma Darts Products, but we now trade pretty much everywhere as the Shot Darts brand.”

In the summer of 2023, Shot Darts pulled off the transfer coup of the then PDC world number one and reigning PDC world champion Michael Smith. It was an announcement which sent shockwaves through the darts industry and represents Shot’s biggest player signing to date.

‘Bully Boy’ had made history at the start of 2023, defeating Michael van Gerwen in the final of the PDC World Darts Championship and throwing a nine-dart leg in the match. Smith’s perfect leg in the final is widely regarded by darts fans as ‘the greatest leg of all time’ with his opponent van Gerwen himself going eight darts into a nine darter and missing the double 12, before Smith stepped up and checked out 141 to achieve perfection on the Ally Pally stage.

On Smith signing with Shot, McCormick said: “I knew we’d get some ripples through the industry. There’s a lot of excitement. The messages I had from different players, different businesses and even just fans from across the world was amazing.

“It was big news for the industry and the feedback from around the world blew me away. We put a proposal to Michael and jumped on what was planned to be a short Zoom call, and we ended up talking for an hour and a half. We just chatted about life for most of it, but we worked out pretty quickly it would be a really good fit.”

Darts is now a truly global sport, played all around the world, and Shot Darts is proud to be at the forefront. Their equipment is used by players of all abilities, from beginners through to some of the leading professionals on the PDC circuit. With their headquarters based in New Zealand, McCormick recently spoke about some of the challenges the business has had to overcome to remain at the top end of the sport.

“In the past, our core sales team worked some pretty unusual hours,” said the Shot managing director. “But with the addition of Shot Darts Inc in 2022, our US company with a warehouse and offices based in Dallas, Texas, we’ve been able to better service the North American market and put boots on the ground with a dedicated sales team. That was followed by the setup of a UK company last year, with a team based in-market, so we are growing rapidly.

“We’ve invested heavily in new product development and our state-of-the-art manufacturing, so you’ll see even more amazing Shot products being released this year. Worldwide, we have an incredible team. Many of our core staff have been with us for more than 10 years, and new team members quickly develop a passion for Shot and the game. We’re very privileged to work in such a fun industry. Our aim is to help players improve their game and enjoy darts just as much as we do.”

From March 20-23, Shot Darts will be taking over the Darts Corner website. Keep an eye out on the website and Darts Corner’s social media channels for some exciting daily deals on Shot darts products and the chance to win prizes.

The brand new launch from Shot will be landing on Darts Corner on March 24, which includes the first signature Shot darts for the 2024 European champion Ritchie Edhouse and much, much more!