Image via Complex Original
Culture and technology have always overlapped. Believe it or not, cigarettes—the uniform bi-color cylinders packaged in tiny boxes—are the result of technological advancement. We look at cigarettes now, and don’t see much that we identify as technology, but that’s because we ourselves are products of the industrial revolution. Great advancements in manufacturing created a world composed of uniform pieces, replicated in exactitude ad infinitum. Those technological circumstances found an enduring companion in our need to inhale combusted tobacco leaves. In the previous wave of technological advancement national corporations took plant leaves, and pocket-friendly incendiary devices, and delivered them to the masses in what became a mark of contemporary culture. It was hip to smoke because it was hip to be able to carry around consumable totems of the power of society’s recent advancements. We needed thousands of years to figure out how to create on-demand pocket-friendly fire, and uniform products that could provide a unified experience across the whole world. For a cigarette smoker the future was tangible: Buy your brand of cigarettes in Milwaukee, New York, Miami, or Shanghai, pull out your always-ready pocket incendiary device, and you could have the same experience over and over again. That’s a big part of why cigarettes were wildly popular, it’s as much—if not moreso—about the concept as it is the experience. A pack of pre-rolled cigarettes and a lighter represent the cutting edge of human power in the previous century.
But, in today’s internet-defined world, technology has shifted the values of culture, and the power of the industrial revolution is banal. We live in a time where on-demand is more significant than universally available uniform goods, and smoking weed carries the kind of cultural capital that used to come with smoking tobacco. People today are not satisfied with mere consumption; they want to consume defiantly. Thus, the recent surge in popularity of vaporizers should come as no surprise; it lets smokers go where smoke can’t. While the underlying technology of vaporizers is not always cutting-edge, the application is. We live in an age of dissent, and the power to covertly blow a cloud of potentially intoxicating vapor in a movie theatre, a crowded public place where there are police, or even an airplane lavatory is truly revolutionary. Cannabis smokers used to get really high before a movie, but then invariably spend the second half of the movie un-stoned. Now, they can stay high for the whole movie. Cigarette smokers on long flights can now sneak into the bathroom and vaporize without being detected. Vaporizers are practical power in a time when our every step is marked, noted, archived, and potentially used against us. As technology turns more and more of our existence into a digital affair, vaporizers are bound to continue to become more popular, but plenty of folks are already making big business out of all the potential.
From prescient celebrities, to savvy entrepreneurs, to dedicated product development specialists, the vaporizer marketplace has created a promising crop of business opportunities. Some folks get by on products derived from pre-manufactured components coupled with solid marketing, some folks get by on thoroughly researched and designed products and let the marketing happen organically, and there’s everything in between. It’s anyone’s guess what the future holds for this growing industry, but no matter what’s to come one thing is for certain: Vaporizers are only going to get more and more popular. Below are a few of the biggest names making moves in this brave new world of combustion-less consumption.
Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg is most likely the most beloved (admitted) weed smoker in the world. While he may have won us all over regaling the ins and outs of a G-funk life in a laid back meter, his contemporary celebrity has taken on a more expansive significance. A father, a husband, an entrepreneur, and a hero of culture Snoop was the perfect partner for Grenco Science. In their most recent collaboration Snoop teamed up with the G Pen makers for the release of his 2015 album Bush. They created a customized vaporizer, packaging, and a plastic pod/pack of seeds combo for the botanically inclined fan. With an ongoing series of collaborations with one of the biggest names in vaporizing Snoop has definitely positioned himself ahead of the curve to remain the patron saint of lighting up, even though he’s removing combustion from the equation.
The Weeknd
In the last four years The Weeknd has gone from a Toronto artist who nobody knew to one of the world’s biggest names in music. With his most recent release Beauty Behind The Madness he went from a critically acclaimed emerging talent to a full on global celebrity. And what did he do with the first single on his record? Why, he put it in a vaporizer! While that may seem odd, or even farcical it’s entirely true. The Weeknd teamed up with PAX to create a branded vaporizer that plays his hit single “The Hills” when the vaporizer powers on. It’s tough to imagine something more futuristic than a digital weed pipe that plays hit music. These limited edition vaporizers demonstrate how a celebrity’s massive cultural capital can be used to leverage all kinds of products and campaigns. And in a time when music sales are slumping The Weeknd is capitalizing on his allure in a rapidly expanding market that overlaps music in a big way.
PAX
PAX is the result of James Monsees and Adam Bowen’s graduate thesis in Design at Stanford. What started as a good observation—tobacco was a massive industry basically devoid of innovation—has developed into one of the most widely recognized vaporizers on the market. With sleek, minimal designs, a simplified interface, dedicated and methodical R&D, and large sums of investment capital, PAX is exactly what you’d expect from two young men groomed to operate in the upper echelons of American business. Their company began in a partnership with Japanese Tobacco International, which recently ended when JTI traded their equity in the company for one of Monsees and Bowen’s early vaporizer designs. You couldn’t really pick a better origin story for a business poised for major success in the vaporizer market. PAX has all the connections of the tobacco industry, and their products are coveted by cannabis users. The founders are incredibly savvy, and the company has the resources of Silicon Valley, which is arguably the most innovative business district in the United States, if not the world.
As their CMO Richard Mumby told me, they focus on both design and marketing: “The designers behind our products' design come from the same schools as Apple product designers… Exceptional product development ensures an exceptional consumer experience, and the underlying science utilized in our products is critical. A premium brand such as ours can help redefine the entire category. Our alignment with fashion, music, and art is helping us contextualize our product, to introduce our brand to a new customer who wouldn't necessarily be exposed to vaporizers otherwise.” While most companies either focus on cannabis or tobacco, branding or R&D, PAX has all the bases covered and is prepared to reap the benefits of it all. The result is a small family of products perfectly tailored to a captive and eager audience.
Vapir
One of the oldest names in the game, Vapir started back in 1997. While most vaporizer brands are in the business of building and establishing a brand, CEO Hamid Emarlou says, “[Our] challenges revolve around creating the quality of vaporizers that our long-time customers have grown to expect from us, and then planning the go-to market strategy around delivering these products.” They focus on delivering a consistent quality across four products, and their company focuses on research and development. This careful approach is Vapir’s main strategy in an industry where marketing and R&D compete for market share. Emarlou says, “We believe the quality of the product will create brand equity and loyal repeat users.” Their collection of different products means that Vapir is not only looking to cash in on a trend, but also create a brand that’s known for vaporizing, regardless of what kind of vaporizing you’re doing.
As Emmarlou sees it, “Vaporizers are becoming part of everyday life. [They’re] necessities to leave the house with, just like your cell, headphones, etc.” And so, as this new piece of technology cements its place in our lives and routines, Vapir hopes to become a household name by creating the best products. And even though people are taking vaporizers everywhere the VapiRise 2.0 is geared toward at-home users with a bong-like interface that’s great for communal sessions.
Dr Dabber
Dr. Dabber is one of the newest companies building recognition in the vaporizer marketplace. Based in South Florida their brand is singularly explicit at a time when most other companies err well into caution. With the recent rise in the craze of dabbing (the dance), and the slow creep of gas-extracted, super-potent hash into mainstream America’s sphere of awareness, it’s only a matter of time before dabbing (vaporizing that super-potent hash) becomes parlance of the times. And Dr. Dabber is betting on it. Their products were born out of frustrated experiences as consumers, and according to their President Pantelis Ataliotis, they believe that developing a great product, and presenting it with, “High class low-profile” brand is the key to success.
Pantelis says, “We have been cut off by several payment processors like PayPal and Square, we are unable to advertise on Google or Facebook, and we’ve been turned down when attempting to sponsor mainstream events. We were told at the beginning by a lot of people to change our name to avoid encountering these issues but we disagreed, and decided to stay true to what we believe in. We aren’t about hiding what we are. That goes against everything Dr. Dabber is about.” With no shame in their game, Dr. Dabber is creating a product that fits right into the rebellious nature of vaporizer technology.
VapeWorld
Landlords have the most stable income. Businesses come and go, but the buildings that house them remain. In the internet age many storefronts have been replaced with websites, but the fundamental concept remains: Market share will ebb and flow, but the market itself will persist. When Aaron LoCascio started selling vaporizers from his dorm in 2005, they were largely unheard of, and his bootstrapped business relied on eBay to reach customers and facilitate sales. Fast forward 10 years and VapeWorld is an early contender for the landlord of the vaporizer market. They don’t make vaporizers, but they do distribute them.
Unlike vaporizer manufacturers whose principle task is innovation, VapeWorld is in the business of owning a warehouse and shipping stuff out, which is an aspect of business that pre-dates the industrial revolution. Notedly, they go further than your average distributor by running their own retail site, and providing a wealth of knowledge on vaporization, but in an industry defined by innovation, being a distributor is a great way to hedge your bets. With everything in one place to cater to the needs of businesses and consumers, VapeWorld will only grow as the market continues to grow and expand, regardless of which vaporizer is the most popular at any given moment.