Issue 27 CHAMPS Show Magazine Sept October 2021

SPONSORED BY ISSUE 27 - SEPTEMBER/OCT OBER 2021

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Content

ISSUE 27 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021

Viva Las Vegas!

CHAMPS Summer Recap

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CHAMPS Glass Games Winners

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Tales From The Dankman: Excerpt 2

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Colorado High On Denver CHAMPS

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By Amear Moretall

By Amear Moretall

By Kevin Dankman

By Elev A Chun

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CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

Advertiser Index 6

1836 KRATOM 31 ABR 65 AFG 16-17, 53 ALTERNATIVE HEALTH 73 ATMOS 66-67 AQUA CLEAN 14 BDD WHOLESALE 32 BENTFISH TRADING 29 BLAZER 59 C4C 80 CANNABIZ WHOLESALER 81 CANDY PROS 43 CAVIAR 75 CHAMPS UPCOMING SHOWS 93, 110-111 CHOICE INSIDE FRONT COVER SPREAD EARTH KRATOM 60 EMPIRE GLASSWORKS 90 EXCLUSIVE DISTRIBUTORS 97 FLKR 27 GOURMET INNOVATIONS 96 GREENLANE 15, 41, 46, 64, 74, 76, 82, 86 HOMETOWN HEREO 39 KARMA HEMP WRAPS 19 KOI 105 KRAKEN KRATOM 55 KRATOM KAPS 47 KRAVE 71 LIFESTYLE MARKETING 108-109 MAHA-K 103 MEGA DISTRIBUTION 77 MT BRANDS 13 MY BUD VASE 40 OMNI VAPES 22-23, 61 OPMS KRATOM 62-63 PARTYNUTS 48-49 PIECE WATER 25 PILL WAREHOUSE 30 POWERHITTER 51 PURE HEMP 57 RARE 100-101 REMARKABLE HERBS KRATOM 102 REPUBLIC BRANDS 10-11 ROKIN VAPES 26 RYOT INSIDE BACK COVER SPREAD, BACK COVER SEAN DIETRICH 37 SMOKE HOUSE 2-3, 68-69 SMOKE ODOR 92 SMOKEZILLA 98 SOL TRADING 83, 87 SPRAY420 104 SPS WHOLESALE 106 STONED 89 STR8 BRAND 5 SUNSHINE JOY 99 SUNSHINE NUTRITIONAL 34-35 SWAG 44-45 SWEATLEAF 90 THC 78-79 TORO IMPORTS 50 VANDYKES 91 VAPOR TECH 28, 58 VOODOO 94 ZIG ZAG 18 ZION 84-85 ZION HERBAL 8-9

CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

Contacts

ISSUE 27 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021

Publisher

CHAMPS Trade Shows

Editorial Director

Kevin Dankman

Ad Sales:

Kevin Dankman Office 818-616-7424

Credits Writing:

Elev A Chun Kevin Dankman Amear Moretall

Photography: Sly Vegas

Cover Art: Sean Dietrich

Design & Layout: Sixxx

CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

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VIVA LAS VEGAS! CHAMPS SUMMER RECAP

By Amear Moretall / Photos by Sly Vegas

“The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting.” ~ Andy Warhol

If this quote rings true in your ears, you must have been ecstatic when you arrived in Vegas for the CHAMPS Trade Show’s Summer Show. I know that from all the people I talked to in the airport and hotel lobby, let's say the anticipation was HIGH! The smiles and activity were amazing. It was three days before the show, and they were already showing up!

Workationers at the pool and in the casino enjoying some well-needed R-n-R.

Sponsor: Hillside Glass Sponsor: Lipht

By Monday morning, Tuscany Hotel and Casino was a happening place. Vendors, Buyers, and Staff were all mingling around the hotel eateries and anxiously waiting for set up day.

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Photo by Jade Masri on Unsplash CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

VIVA LAS VEGAS! 20

Sponsor: Lost 8

Sponsor: Kraken Kratom

Sponsor: Kashmir

CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

Sponsor: Smoke Tokes

Sponsor: Vaporite

The names, faces, and companies there that morning were an aweinspiring list. The breakfast special was popular that morning; T-bone -NEggs for $11.99. I went nontraditional with Blueberry Pie and sausage and biscuits. I am not a breakfast eater, but I needed to treat my body... right?

The Show floor was so big. It was going to be a grueling week.

I can't begin to fully explain what it felt like that morning when the show opened. The best I can do is equate it to a monumental moment in the Marvel Universe. The Moment Tony Stark snapped his fingers and brought everyone back… Yeah, it was like that!

We may have lost a couple over the years, but the team is back, and the buyers showed up in droves.

Over 5,000 stores representatives were there to buy. Those 5000 influential individuals cover over 15,000 stores. You, my friend the "Qualified Buyer", are the true Hero of CHAMPS! Without buyers, there is no CHAMPS!

Sponsor: Just CBD

The Star power was massive. I am sure I missed one or two of the celebrities that attended. The ones I do know are all amazing. Floyd Mayweather Sr., Mike Tyson, Tommy Chong, STUNNA, Johnny from Toy Shack and PawnStars, Noah the actor who played Atreyu in the Never Ending Story, Afroman, and Pony Boy of Los Marijuanos.

The aftershow parties were off the chain, with the Seedless Crew throwing a Wednesday night event featuring Afroman's Birthday bash with Fortunate Youth Unplugged. With Thursday night’s VIP party with STUNNA x J B Papers Crew! Gucci Mane put on one hell of a show!

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CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

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Dungeon Smoke Shop and Smokers Discount were two of the four winners of $4000. Due to legal and tax preferences, the other winners chose to remain anonymous. CHAMPS Trade Shows awarded $16,000 to stores and another $15,000 to the Glass Blowers competing in the Glass Games. CHAMPS is most certainly the most generous show around.

$4,000 Cash Winner: Dungeon Smoke Shop

VIVA LAS VEGAS!

Continues On Page 33

$4,000 Cash Winner: Smokers Discount

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CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

SUMMER GLASS GAMES

Trouble The Maker The Wisco Kid

Speaking of the Glass Games, they had nine categories! The glassblowers came out ready to blow fire pieces to earn some extra cash and their entry into the Masters' Finals next year. Here are the results and some pictures from the show!: Continues On Page 36 FUME IT

UNIQUE

1st Place Shuhbuh Glass

3rd Place Nathan Belmont

FUME IT

UNIQUE

2nd Place Moose and Fire

1st Place Plug a Nug

FUME IT 3rd Place Hensley Art Glass

UNIQUE 2nd Place Indigenous Glass

CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

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SUMMER GLASS GAMES

Continues On Page 38

RAINBOW

SCARE ME

1st Place Windstar Glass

1st Place Shaggy Glass

RAINBOW

SCARE ME

2nd Place Slims Glass

2nd Place Jonny Carrcass

SCARE ME 3rd Place Smitty Glass

RAINBOW 3rd Place Solfire Glass

ALL-DAY LONG RIG 2nd Place Ford 20 Glass

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ALL-DAY LONG RIG 3rd Place Gus Glass

CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

SUMMER GLASS GAMES ALL-DAY LONG RIG

OUT OF THIS WORLD

1st Place Kaleb Folck

1st Place Nathan Belmont

MYSTERY COLLAB

OUT OF THIS WORLD

1st Place Sir Pyro / Fourwinds Flameworks

2nd Place The Wisco Kid

MYSTERY COLLAB

OUT OF THIS WORLD

2nd Place Clayball Glass / Tony Kazy Glass

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Continues On Page 42

3rd Place Kimmo Glass

MYSTERY COLLAB

PET ME

3rd Place Sko Eet Glas / Amorphous Symphony

1st Place Hicdogg Glass

CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

SUMMER GLASS GAMES

Continues On Page 52

PET ME 2nd Place Nathan Belmont

SHOTS 3rd Place Hicdogg Glass

PET ME

Ade Glass

3rd Place Smitty Glass Art

Sugarshack Glass

Waterhouse Glass

SHOTS 1st Place Kaleb Folck

MYSTERY COLLAB 2nd Place Paro and Fourwinds

Solfire Glass

Photo Credit: Wind Home

SHOTS 2nd Place Habitat Glass

Tony Kazy Glass

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Zombie Neil Glass

CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

SUMMER GLASS GAMES

Taffy the Grey

Windstar Glass

What a great return to business. We here at the Magazine want to thank everyone who attended for their hard work and great job creating an amazing show. See you in Atlantic City!

Nando Glass

902 Pizzaboy

MJ Meltz

Shuhbuh Glass

Music Man Glass Natrix Glass

NES Glass

Pieces of Art

5th Element Glass Ottone Glass

Smitty Glass Art Nathan Belmont Smir Glass Plug a Nug

Sir Pyro Glass SAF Glass Shaggy Glass

Phoenix Fire Glass

Sko Eet Glass

Shoeless Glass

Slims Glass

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CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

or reservoir. The high elevations and dry arid air could dehydrate you in a day without water. This would also allow us a day of making alcohol, hydrogen gas, and getting a full charge on all of our battery cells. This was also a place where we expected to see the most remnants of the local survivors.

First stop, the Oasis at Moapa Valley

Vegas to Denver is an Excerpt From an in-process working collaboration between Sean Dietrich and Kevin Dankman.

VEGAS TO DENVER… Excerpt #2

We had calculated about a 14-21 day trip from LVE's Compound to Denver. However, we knew from our experience before everything went to shit that the trail ahead would be a challenging and treacherous journey.

The incline in elevation alone would be brutal on us and the gear. The Jeep Hybrid would be a big help here.

Originally the Bowman Reservoir, the Oasis was a desert community that was civil and growing. We had been given a secret set of codes that would help give us free travel access through here and a few of the other watering holes. In addition, the CHAMPS Crew had community goodwill passes they had received from the neighboring communities on the trade route east.

We would have a clear path for a few days.

We had passes for Gunlock. For the Moonridge Academy, and we had the name of a local. We had GPS coordinates for a place to camp, if we came across anyone we had a name to reference that should bring us favor with the local clan.

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We picked up essentials like meatbars and some Sanispray as well as a new Blazer Product while visiting the Vegas CHAMPS Trade Federation Expo.

Max and Mark over at the Blazer booth, had torches for every occasion!

Even a high-pressure alcohol-burning flamethrower! It ripped right through mutated zombioids like a hot knife through butter. It was a great supplement to the old black and decker zombie wrecker technology.

Companies were inventing the necessities for survival at a fantastic pace.

We would be jumping from watering hole to watering hole. Every two days, we planned to hit a significant lake 54

CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

The night was eerie on the lake. Stars, that's all you could see. If you looked at the still waters, you saw them reflecting in it. If you looked up, that's all you could see past the silhouette of the mountains in the distance.

It was rather curious the lights flickered dark at exactly 12:10 am. Just moments later, the calmness of the water was disturbed on the beaches around us, like the moment in Jurrasic Park when you see the ripples. Something was coming.

We took this as a warning and began to muster the beachside supplies into the treeline and hide our existence. We stationed watches in shoreline blinds and by the vehicles which had been camouflaged and hidden.

If you have ever spent the night deep in the desert, you know how weird and eerie it is.

The sounds alone can drive you mad.

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It was well past 2 am when the first alarm got us up. Something or someone was on its way towards us, and they were trying to be quiet.

We caught her, she was human, healthy, strong, and intelligent.

She was a scout, sent to see if we were raiders or travelers. Their camp to the south had picked us up on scanners and with binocs. They were just trying to survive here.

We casually mentioned the name given to us days earlier as a friend in the area.She radioed on a secret frequency to a friendly crew to provide us safe travel through.

She would help us slip through and provide us a contact at the next watering hole Piute State Park in Utah. Her sister had escaped there and continued to keep in touch with her. She lived with a man she called Merlin.

If there was such a thing as smooth sailing on this trip, this next section was it. We rolled into Piute like regular travelers and were welcomed. We were swiftly escorted to a building with the words "WASATCH GLASS" emblazoned in glass across it.

Merwin was an old-school glassblower. I had known him well and visited his studio in the Wasatch Valley years ago.

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with a shakedown street from the classic dead shows. Everything was retail here. We set up a little art for sale booth to sell some of our adventure finds and art. We traded a few supplies and doge credits, printed some 16pg stories on an old press they had and passed them out. These would help bring news of the coast to the area. From there, we mixed in and checked out the scene, looking for a plug to get us to the CC.

We spent hours catching up, sharing knowledge and tech info. He would also provide us a safe escort and travel papers all the way to Red Rocks. They had partnered with other communities to create a safe and protected trade route. Once at RedRocks, we'd be able to get an escort to the convention center.

The inner city was the most dangerous area. They had too many places to hide...

Have you ever heard the expression, "Small World?"

In my head, I had this beautiful memory of RedRocks, Trey belting out my favorite tunes, the sound bouncing off the natural amphitheater of red stone. My picture in my head… Not how it looks today.

Tony turned out to be someone we knew, not from the industry but from life. I had imagined most of my relatives passed or gotten off the planet. I was wrong and never happier to be incorrect. When I saw him, my jaw dropped. His resemblance to his father was uncanny.

Today, it resembles the flotillas of Brazil mixed

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In the search for a logistics master, we were sent to visit a man simply called Tony.

The world shrunk that day, and our hearts were full.

CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

My cousin Anthony, Tony, Logistics manager, and coordinator for all of Denver.

This gave the whole team hope that our families on the east coast had survived.

Andy hooked us up with a military-style 15 person, 5 vehicle entourage to the Convention Center. It would stay with us until we left Denver.

There was a long stretch of inner-city we would have to traverse a perilous route with swarms of deadly mutated zombioids. It wasn't long before the caravan was swarmed by them. Luckily at our last stop, we had installed the new Blazer Flame Protection Flamethrowers to our rigs.

Fortunately, high-Pressure flames cut right through them. The only damage sustained was to the undercarriage and tires of the vehicles. We had spare parts and could repair it once we got to the safety of the convention center. The bad news was we lost 2 of our escort vehicles to booby traps.

Luckily we only lost one of Tony's men, a tall fella they called Topdawg. A booby trap sheared of his right arm and leg, he bled out in an instant. The scent of blood drove the horde of mutants crazy and drawing them to him. He probably saved some of the other guys in his sacrifice.

Just like the old days, everything you needed in one place. In a miserable world where life is hard, this place was full of smiles, laughter, and comradery. We found a great source of clean oxygen at this show. It would help in our hydrogen production on the road as well as filling any other oxygen needs. Like the new torch, we just mounted to the Jeep x Jeep offroad vehicle.

It was a really encouraging visit. It gave us hope for family and the rebuilding of our great nation. We would leave at first light the next day, Rosemont Illinois was our next major stop.

As with the end of any show, it was a slightly sad moment when we started out into the rising sun on our next journey. I would miss having the old friends and family around, but this crew was now family. We were all growing together and learning together.

Once through the gates and into the freecommerce area, we limped down 14th St. to the Convention Center, you could tell Denver was coming back. There were people, and they seemed to be orderly and working on efforts to reestablish a government.

It was a sad sight to see the big blue bear had fallen years before. Most of the lower-level windows were gone. But you could tell they were still renovating and fixing the place up.

I was not expecting to be greeted at the security station by none other than Jeremiah Kern and his crew. They had teamed up with what was left of the old Chronic Candy Company to open the Convention Center and join the CHAMPS Trade Federation.

The Convention hall was jammed with traders and merchants. We had no pressing needs for our journey, but we thought we would check around and see if we could find any new gadgets or gizmos.

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CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

COLORADO HIGH ON DENVER CHAMPS

By Elev A Chun

Colorado features some of the most majestic mountains and beautiful vistas in North America. It is also home to one of CHAMPS Trade Shows significant B2B events. Taking place in the center of commerce at the Denver Convention Center, this is a unique and fun experience.

Denver… The Mile High City…

From the moment you get to Colorado, you can see that the green rush is as big as the gold rush was. Billboards, Busses, Trains, and Taxi's all advertising 420 specials. This town is definitely a counter-culture mecca.

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CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

Kevin Dankman Office 818-616-7424 Cell 706-380-1858

Ad Sales:

Country boy John Denver sang, "Friends around the campfire, and everybody's high." It sounds like he was a prophet!

This show is the last scheduled event of 2021. You can bet the vendors are gonna go all out for your holiday sales. Everything you could need for your shop will be there. Whether it be Atomizers, Herbal Supplements, pipe, bongs, or any number of other products your store needs, this is the place for you.

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CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

Another important tradition in Denver is the Goblet Grab portion of the Glass Games Event. The glassblowers bring in a Goblet that must be worth a minimum $100 Wholesale value.

They are all judged for the best ones and at the end of the show, the lucky purchasers of raffle tickets get to take turns picking the one they want. Luck can swing many ways, I saw a buyer with 2 tickets get the 2nd pull and the very last pull in the same event! I suggest all buyers take a chance on this game if you get there in time to buy a ticket! The artist will also be playing the game of Marbles as well as a best rig contest.

COLORADO CHAMPS

If you are a flatlander and have never seen the Rocky Mountains, this is definitely a way to workation yourself to another bucket list check!

Denver is full of hidden and apparent attractions.

The Obvious?

Buckhorn Exchange

16th St Promenade is a great place to spend time shopping, eating, and generally, people watching.

Hidden great place to check out? The Buckhorn Exchange.

Opened in 1893, it is the holder of Liquor License #1. It is the oldest bar in the state. Not only that, but it is full of the history of the old west. Now let me tell you about the food. Beef, Elk, and Many other exotic meals are still served here. I always start with some Rattlesnake Nachos and Rocky Mountain

16th St Promenade CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

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Oysters for the table. For some reason, I seem to usually have leftover appetizers… Not everyone likes to eat testicles and snakes.

Need a serene and relaxing walk? Take a walk or ride along the Riverwalk Mile and see the new walkable sustainable community. One of the largest of its kind, right in downtown Denver.

If you are a music fan like I trust many of you are, Lynard Skynard, The Doobie Brothers, and Modest Mouse all have events the week of CHAMPS! These Bands represent Decades of music and should fit many of our clientele's tastes.

But, of course, there are many more music venues and events; I just wanted to bring attention to a few I knew you'd like.

Riverwalk Mile

Now for the Sports Fans…

Bronco's vs. Jets and Rockies vs. Nationals are both available games, with the Jet's Game being a ½ Price Game! Denver is a city with a lot to do, so mixing work with pleasure is an easy task!

The greatest part of all of this?

You can write off most of it on your business taxes. So come workation with us in Denver and see some of the Best counter-culture vendors on earth.

See you all there! Sept 28th and 29th, 2021, at the Denver Convention Center!

Colorado Rockies CHAMPS SHOW MAGAZINE

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