VAPE Magazine February 2016 by Matt Schramel

Mod: Scatola Atomizer: Cascata Calivapers Wear

FEB 2016

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letter from the editor:

All Good Things …

I’ll never forget early 2014, when Matt (Schramel, our owner and publisher) asked me to come on board at VAPE. I was teaching English in China, and this was nothing new; Matt had asked me to do several editing projects over the years. However, what was to happen next was new. An idea for a vaping magazine stuck, and before we knew it, we were the No. 1 international magazine in our industry.

NEWS, BUSINESS & CULTURE VAPE Magazine is the only international vaping industry focused magazine with more than 35,000 readership in the United States, Europe and Asia, where vaping professionals find the latest news, products and trends. EDITORIAL Editor in Chief Alyssa Stahr content@vapemz.com 800-958-6427 x2 Executive Editor Laura Batty

It hasn’t come without its ups and downs, like any job, and now that I’m stepping down as editor in chief, with this being my last “official” issue, I want to highlight some of the amazing times I’ve had over the past two years.

Social Media Manager Eric Vonheim Art Director Van Avanzado

The best week of my life, hands down, came at the end of my life in China, with a tour of 14 e-cigarette battery, device and e-liquid factories in Shenzhen. The Wingle Group took me on this whirlwind tour that culminated with a night in Hong Kong and the industry’s first-ever China issue published in the United States. Even though I’m fairly well-traveled, nothing could prepare me for the flight in—I felt like I was flying into a James Bond movie. I made lifelong friends on that trip, and it was fitting that my time at VAPE would end with another Wingle Group trip to the Moscow Vape Expo in December. Another “highlight” was traveling to a conference in Amsterdam last spring with almost 103 temperature. Thank goodness for voice recordings, because I could barely see straight during that conference. Our trip to Paris for their show last year was another hit, along with my special trips to Albany, Ga. and Greenville, N.C. to visit a nicotine plant and an e-liquid bottling facility, respectively, on home soil.

Graphic Designers Joe Buehner, Laura Camp, Matt Ritzenthaler Director of Photography Ezra Zuniga Webmaster Axel Gillespie Contributors Steffanie Atkins, Nick Bessette, Norm Bour, Cynthia Cabrera, Steve Ceaton, Nick Green, Erin Hedrick, Tim Klerekoper, Patricia Kovacevic, Shawn McCarthy, Chris Mellides, Leigh Oates, Susan Oser, Tony Ottomanelli, Tyler Price, Ian Silver, Arvid Sollom, Maria Verven ADMINISTRATIVE Chief Executive Officer Matt Schramel Co-Owner/Vice President Jon Laverde Executive Assistant Erin Hedrick ADVERTISING Mike Schramel, mike@vapemz.com 800-958-6427 x1 Jon Laverde, jon@vapemz.com 800-958-6427 x4 Jacob Barger, jacob@vapemz.com

I can’t thank the wonderful people I’ve met along the way. I dedicate my last issue to you. Thank you to Cynthia Cabrera, who always comes through with a column and a bent ear; thank you to GrimmGreen for becoming one of our first columnists and always answering even the most tedious of reader questions; thank you to Steffanie Atkins for constantly making me laugh; thank you to Gregory Conley, Paul Blair, Julie Woessner and the countless others I’ve interviewed who continue to fight; thank you to Norm Bour and Susan Oser for also being one of the first writers on our team and always coming through; thank you to Dman and Anton and the entire Wingle Group team; thank you to all of the shop owners and events organizers who always come through with an interview; thank you to my art director Van who is the best teammate in the world; thank you to the entire VAPE team for producing such a wonderful product; and thank you to my dad, who is the inspiration for all of this. Vaping would’ve given you a chance. I did all of this (and will continue to do so every day in life) for you. Happy reading.

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/ VapeMZ

Tim Artz, tim@vapemz.com China-based advertisers contact Wingle Group Electronics LTD +852 51759256 dev@winglegroup.com CONTACT Advertising sales@vapemz.com News news@vapemz.com New Products newproducts@vapemz.com Employment jobs@vapemz.com VAPE Magazine is wholly owned by Starpixel Marketing LLC 2230 Highland Hill Dr., St. Peters, MO 63376 info@vapemz.com 800-958-6427

table of contents Columns 16 Let’s Ask GrimmGreen 22 Mastering the Vape Space 26 Vaping From the Outside 45 Crowd Chasers 112 Tech Reflect 115 Techin’ Geek 118 Safety First

140 VAPE Talks Shop: The Vapor Store

50 Aaron Cericola of Parrot Vapors Talks

143 Vaping 101: The Questions

53 Black Reserve Rolls Out Red Carpet with

Everyone Asks

Features 18 Six Vaping Trends to Watch in 2016

74 Essex E-Liquid Founder Talks ‘Premium’

24 Which is Better, Premium or

E-Liquid, Being in Business Since 2012

and Upcoming Regulations

Standard E-Liquid?

31 Where Do European Countries Stand

Events

78 Business to Business Done Right

On Vaping Products?

36 The Office of Management and

82 Moscow Vape Expo Encompasses

Budget Listens to the People

38 Knock, Knock. It’s the FDA Calling.

Departments

Harm Reduction Fight

95 Vape Foodies Support Local Charity 98 Second Next Generation Nicotine

65 VAPE Pictorial 120 Mods on Mods 126 The VAPE Meet Scene

130 Just in Juices 137 VAPE Vixen

2015 Events Circuit

89 VCC Midwest Continues Tobacco

57 Scenic Vapers

134 The Juice Judge

Lifestyle-Based Brand

62 2015 Vaping Year in Review

29 A Year-End Reflection at Christmas Time

118

Connections, Future of E-Liquid

Delivery Conference Returns with

Engaging, Informative Information

102 Second Annual CECMOL Brings

E-Cig Industry Leaders to China

42 Lack of Regulation Education

106 VPX NOLA

125 O.C. Vapers Meet

Sparks Frustration

44 A Sociological Response:

Is There a Vaping Documentary Curse?

46 Nighthawk E-Liquid Fosters Military Roots,

Southern Flavor

137 14

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columns

By Nick Green

Photo by Metal Jeff

What’s the best flavour? I use Spider Venom by Vapemunki, but want a change with still as much flavour hit. - Ciaran Hickson Hey there! In the world of juice and e-liquid the term “best” is a hard one to nail down. Taste is a very subjective thing. What one person likes, another might find repulsive. Kinda like asking “what’s the best soda?” Everyone enjoys something different. The best advice I can give here is to go taste some juices and see what you like. Find a local brick and mortar store and see what they carry. Chances are if you walk in and say “I really like Spider Venom juice, what do you guys have that is similar,” they will be able to lead you in the right direction. Some of these brick and mortar stores have tens of dozens of different flavors available for tasting. Try as many as you can. You never know, you may walk out of the store with a brand new favorite e-liquid. - Grimm

I have been vaping for about four months now, and love it! I just recently got into sub-Ohm with a eGo One, and want to get into rebuildables. I read the three steps to rebuilding an atomizer, and was wondering what are some good beginner mods and RBA’s to start with? - Chris Wise Hey there! There are actually a lot of great atomizers and mods out there. For a more entry level mech mod I would take a look at the Sage or Beacon, both from BeyondVape.com. They are authentic mech mods that are both pretty reasonably priced. One of my favorite mech mods around is the Shotgun from EmitVapor. It’s a bit pricier, but it’s very fiddle free and easy to use. For atomizers, there is a Chinese company named WoToFo that makes some very nice and very reasonably priced atomizers. Both their Troll and and Sapor atomizers work great—nice easy decks to build on and an adjustable airflow for tweaking your vape to exactly how you want it. Hope that helps out! - Grimm

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Features

By Tim Klerekoper, Ph.D.

With all the industry hype and changing trends, it might be easy to lose track of the most important factor driving the vaping industry, which is the goal to produce an effective alternative to tobacco cigarettes. It is important to never lose sight of that objective. The vaping industry climate arguably can be described by the “pendulum” theory. At first the industry was all about not smoking. Over time, a small percentage of the industry headed left, and another small percentage headed right. On the one hand you have people trying to ban e-cigs, and on the other you have increasingly high wattage vaping with more and more powerful systems. Mind you, let’s not knock people who “chase clouds,” and we should also appreciate people who believe that reasonable regulation of the industry is important (emphasis on the word “reasonable”). It is crucial to remember, however, that the vast majority of the industry is still stuck smack-dab in the middle. Given this industry divide, there are six key industry trends will likely prevail in 2016.

Quality or “The latest”? When we shop for a car, most people compare manufacturers. They look for cars with a good track record and great ratings. They should look for the same thing in an electronic cigarette. Where was the mod made? What materials did they use? What kind of testing does the manufacturer implement? Of concern is what might be seen as a continuing trend of ecig manufacturers using their customers as guinea pigs. When a company can go from an initial product concept to putting product out to the market in just weeks, we probably should be suspicious. Companies that put out high quality products usually take longer to get that product to market, but in the long run it’s usually worth it. Another concern is the existence of a new technology bias—the idea that new is inherently better. A key example of this in 2015 was the movement toward temperature control. While the companies that introduced it can be applauded for introducing a great concept, there should still be critique about the way the temperature of a coil is determined (or not) as the case might be. Algorithms have their limits, and if you advertise you can “control” or “limit” the temperature of a mod, you’d darn well better be certain your measurement is accurate. Perhaps it should have been billed as “temperature guessing.” We should take a close look at products that are introduced before they are perfected, but having said that, we should look forward to the continuing development of that temperature-based technology.

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Features

Flavor and vapor are better than ever! In the early days of vaping it was all about replacing the amount of smoke a cigarette produced. The vast majority of vapers still want just enough vapor to replace a bad habit, yet we see a trend of those people walking out of vape stores with high wattage mods and tanks that go way beyond their needs. It makes as much sense as selling a Formula 1 racing car to someone looking for a four-door sedan! We do need to give a great deal of credit to coil builders for upping the ante when it comes to vapor and flavor. There was a period when a hand-built coil on an RDA could produce considerably better flavor and vapor than tanks, which is most likely one of the reasons tanks have trended towards better flavor and vapor is because the coilers set the bar higher for the industry as a whole.

Battery life is getting better, but at what cost? Cigalike products frustrate users for two reasons—first, is the tiny amount of e-liquid they hold and second is running out of battery power just when it is most inconvenient. On the other hand, there are box mods on the market now that weigh more than a quarter horse. Fancier coils and sub-Ohm tanks are requiring higher and higher wattage and more and more battery power, but at what risk? Use a battery incorrectly and you could pay a significant price. What does the manufacturer of the battery suggest? The answer might surprise you!

Safety should be non-negotiable. Nobody should be willing to take a risk that his or her e-cig’s battery will vent, so it is logical that consumers should not only purchase mods that have safety features on-board, but also mods that have been thoroughly factory-tested. Reverse battery protection and thermal monitoring with multiple safety backup systems shouldn’t be an option. Is your mod electronically and structurally safe? Another positive trend in the industry is the rising quality of e-liquid. In the early days you could order e-liquid from a nationally known company and get a plastic bottle with a handwritten label that gave virtually no information about the quality of the ingredients inside. Now, a great many e-liquids are produced with extensive labeling, in a clean-room lab under sterile conditions, and packaged with child-resistant caps. Many companies are also testing for potentially hazardous chemicals. The vaping industry should be proud of the fact that without having been regulated, e-liquid manufacturing is definitely trending toward safety.

Durability and longevity need some improvement. The quality of e-cigs in this industry varies widely. Repair rates can vary from onehalf of one percent to more than 40 percent! Consumers should reasonably be able to expect a lot better quality than that. Can your e-cig even be repaired? A lot of companies don’t even offer that option! Don’t even ask what happens when a mod is inadvertently dropped. How often are mods drop tested? Our industry has collectors and those who are into purchasing whatever the latest technology is, but most vapers simply want an effective, reliable system that lasts. A large segment of industry products won’t last more than six months. A good quality model might cost you a bit more at the beginning, but will save you a lot over the time you use it. It will be important to this industry to see a trend toward higher quality, more reliable models.

Political trends are challenging. Political trends in the vaping industry have been challenging at best. Many agencies (local, state, and national) have been critical of the industry, citing a combination of consumer claims, safety incidents, and medical studies. Given the relative novelty of the vaping industry (compared to tobacco), studies are still relatively limited in scope. An important step for manufacturers moving forward will be to look objectively at these critiques and assess where their products lie in relation. This way, any feature-specific safety and health concerns can be identified and changes can be made as needed. The upcoming year will likely see more of these efforts, along with an industrywide effort to better define standards for manufacturing and practice.

Overall, vaping industry trends are headed in the right direction, but there is a lot of work to do. Each individual vaper needs to realize that they are personally responsible for helping set industry trends. As a unified group, they can achieve vaping’s most important goal, while enjoying themselves in the process. Tim Klerekoper, Ph.D., is the founder of VaporForce LLC., and marketing director at ProVape, Inc.. He has worked in the vaping industry for the past four years. Klerekoper, who holds a theological doctorate, also serves as chaplain for several police, fire and federal agencies. VAPEMZ.COM

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Mastering By Norm Bour

the Vape Space

2016 Vape Industry Survival Guide This industry is going through a massive shift. And, that shift has just begun. Going back just a few years anyone and everyone could open a brick and mortar shop, and many did. Some chose to develop and launch an e-liquid company and even became prominent enough to become modern day rags to riches stories. But, those days are no more. Sorry if the boat has sailed, but there are other ships ready to be boarded. The bottom line is, the industry is not dead and will outlive most of our lifetimes. The biggest issue at hand right now: new regulations.

get in line; this law affects you. If you carry only pre-made and branded products, you may be exempt.

How Would Your Shop Change? Imagine this: Your vape shop is no longer a hangout. It is no longer a fun place to be. It is a place to buy product, pure and simple. Devoid of any emotional connection, it could be as sterile and cold as walking into a 7-Eleven and buying a pack of cigarettes. Your biggest competition would not be the shop down the street, it would be online sales, which also is your biggest competitor now, in 2015.

We’ll not go into every nuance and possible outcome since many are still speculative and are covered in more details in other more in-depth pieces. Even so, there are certain aspects that will affect you soon, whether you are a shop owner, e-liquid company vapreneur or user.

Sampling and Other Regulatory Changes An almost for-sure outcome, sampling probably will not be permitted in vape shops. In a recent FDA update webinar hosted by VapeMentors and presented by attorney Azim Chowdhury, head of Keller & Heckman’s cigarette and vape legal practice, Chowdhury said that “sampling will not be permitted under the new proposed regulations.” According to Chowdhury, “sales will probably take place behind the counter and products may not be able to be displayed under the new guidelines.” Some states already have proposed, but not instituted new laws that would require special licensing. Indiana has such a law on the books, scheduled to take effect July 2016. Though the proposed regs do not address common sense concerns like clean room requirements, ingredients and labeling, flavoring restrictions and nicotine guidelines, they do state who is considered a “tobacco products manufacturer,” and the answer is “almost everyone.” If you build your own mods or carry your own house liquids,

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columns When your customers know what they want they may have less incentive to visit you. Their consumer dollars will go to less expensive online sellers. The reality is, these scenarios do not have to play out this way, and you can still have a fun and profitable venture. Can you have a cloud competition? Probably not. But, you can host events and bring in entertainment and offer education and guidance. The business will not go away, but it will be different.

•

More consolidation. Acquisition will be a key component in 2016 and beyond as the big players consume and merge with the smaller ones. What matters most to a purchaser? Marketing presence and posture, solid branding and a good consumer following.

•

Big business will play a bigger part. Big tobacco controls the e-cigarette and closed tank market, but have been less present in the vapor, tanks and mod market. They already know how to play the regulatory game and will be developing their own products as

Instead of tasting bars you would have other features or displays, though products may not be able to be used onsite. How that will play out is yet to be determined.

Predictions!

“Those who live by the crystal ball are doomed to die from eating broken glass,” is a quote referenced by many. With that said, here are some predictions for 2016 and beyond: •

well as buying the smaller players. See prior bullet No. 3. •

Consumers will be winners in this brand new world. They may have less selection, but quality will be high and prices may be low. That is the formula that drives most consumers.

There will be less retail shops, doing more. A few years ago shops grossing six figures per month were more common than today. The dilution of the business has made $100,000 months harder to reach, but the closing of the majority of retail shops is inevitable. The net result: less shops overall, but being more professional and profitable.

•

Fewer e-liquid companies. Period. But, there will be many using contract manufacturers. At my recent testimony at the Office of Management

What are your thoughts for 2016 and beyond? This information will be presented in more detail in an upcoming webinar hosted by VapeMentors. Be sure to sign up for the mailing list to be informed about the date. Norm Bour is the founder of VapeMentors, which offers online educational programs, services and resources for anyone in the vape space, including vape shops, online stores and e-liquid brands. He’s also host of Vape Radio, a podcast series that interviews the masters of vape and thought leaders in the vape space. Contact him at norm@ VapeMentors.com.

and Budget in Washington, D.C., I spoke about the effect of new regulations on manufacturers. I estimated that there were 8,000 e-liquid companies today, though no one really knows for sure. Most of these will go away. The big names will remain and new players will surface. Survivors will use third party giants like Molecule Labs, Purilum and JSPR since it may be cheaper than doing it yourself.

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SMAC KDOW N Premium Which is Better,

Standard E-Liquid?

By Steve Ceaton If you’ve been vaping for a while it won’t take long to discover there are two types of e-liquid on the market. There are standard e-liquids, and there are e-liquids labelled as “premium.” So what’s the difference? One of the main differences is price. The general price of a standard e-liquid tends to be around £4.99 for 20 ml, whereas you can pay £13.99 upwards for the same quantity in a premium brand. Premium brands tend to be slicker, with fancy packaging and cool names. You can tell a lot of work has gone into their marketing. If you look at premium e-liquids like Element for example, or Suicide Bunny, you can see they’ve spent a lot of money on their websites, branding and packaging. Brands selling cheaper e-liquids like Smokshop are more concerned with selling their juices cheap and less concerned with branding. In all fields of business there are two fundamental ideologies. You can stack it high and sell it cheap, or you can go for a perceived higher quality at higher end prices. Notice how I said “perceived” higher quality? That’s because higher prices doesn’t always equate to higher quality. For example, years ago I worked at a bread factory. I noticed that the same bread went into different packaging and was sent out to the same high street stores. The same bread that went into Tesco’s own brand packaging also went into Hovis, which at the time was considered a higher end brand, and was considerably more expensive. I was amazed by this and for the first time I realised we’re paying extra for the packaging and not the product. You’ll find the same process in most of the products we buy. You might not be surprised to know that a designer T-shirt can be identical to an unbranded T-shirt, but you’ll pay three times the price for the logo on the front. Most people seem to know this but still they’re happy to pay extra for the fancy logo. Why? Because designer logos are perceived as a status symbol. In fact, in 2011 a study was carried out to examine people’s reactions to designer clothing. Volunteers were shown pictures of a man wearing a polo shirt. The photo was altered to include no logo, a designer logo (Lacoste or Hilfiger) or a logo regarded as non-luxury, Slazenger. When the designer logo appeared, the man in the picture was rated as a higher status (3.5 for Lacoste and 3.47 for Hilfiger, on a fivepoint scale, compared with 2.91 for no logo and 2.84 for Slazenger), and wealthier (3.4 and 3.94 versus 2.78 and 2.8, respectively). So is this the same with premium e-liquids? Yes and no. Besides the fancy packaging and cool names, premium e-liquids claim to be a higher quality product. They claim to use only the highest quality, country specific ingredients.

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China. But, does this make it inferior? Considering e cigarettes and e-liquid were invented by the Chinese, it’s unlikely. But, it gives us a sense of satisfaction to know our products are manufactured in our own country, and it’s perceived to be safer. Also, you’ll tend to find claims about the actual quality of ingredients on premium e-liquids. Such as this by Element: “Our ingredients are sourced from the most trusted names in the pharmaceutical industry, ensuring unparalleled purity and quality.” But Hangsen, who are a Chinese company considered to produce cheaper e-liquids state: “Hangsen is the only manufacturer of 99.7 percent pure natural nicotine and natural ingredients to create a taste sensation that is unmatched by quality.” So, these claims aren’t specific to premium e-liquids and are generally across the board with all e-liquids. So does this mean that premium e-liquids and standard e-liquids are identical? Not really, because the one thing that separates all e-liquids is the flavour. Premium brands know they can’t justify their prices on packaging and country specific claims alone. So the majority of their time is spent producing unique flavours. Standard e-liquids will look at the mass market and produce flavours they know are popular, such as tobacco and menthol. A premium e-liquid on the other hand will spend more time developing unique flavours and market them as high end. Suicide Bunny for example developed Mother’s Milk, which proved popular because it offered a taste sensation that you couldn’t find in cheaper e-liquids. So, which is better then, premium or standard? The answer to that purely comes down to taste. The quality of the product is pretty much the same, but the flavours are different. If you find a flavour to die for, created by a premium brand then it might be worth paying the extra for it. Most vapers have an all-day juice, and a juice for special occasions or fun, and this could be your premium brand. Me personally, I prefer tobacco flavoured vapes and you can find them in standard e-liquids at a fraction of the price. I might splash out occasionally on a premium brand if I’m attracted to the flavour, but generally I’m happy sticking with what I know and saving money in the meantime. The main thing to realise is the quality is the same, and most of the extra money goes into the packaging, the branding and the perceived higher status you’ll get from vaping a premium brand. But, if you’ve found a great flavour and are happy to pay the extra then that’s a personal choice only you can decide.

For example an American company like Element will claim their e-liquid is “American-Made: We stand by our quality manufacturing and hold our products to the highest American standards.”

Seeing as taste is so subjective we’d love to know what you think. Do you think premium brands offer a better vape? Or do you think standard e-liquids offer better value for money? Feel free to let us know and let’s settle this once and for all.

Whereas a British company like Generals Juices will claim “Our juices are U.K.-made, using only U.K. ingredients.” A cheaper e-liquid on the other hand will probably be made in

Steve Ceaton has been vaping for more than five years and works for Smokshop.com, one of the leading suppliers of e-liquid in the U.K.

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Vaping From the Outside

Once you do that, sit back, relax and listen. However, if you feel comfortable enough with the hosts and the chatters to participate, by all means, go for it. You might find yourself a regular of the show and a regular to the channel, while making some good friends along the way. However, don’t limit yourself to that one show or one channel. If you develop a positive relationship with chatters or hosts, ask about shows they recommend. Look into hosting possibilities, but allow yourself a few months to observe the chemistry and interaction of the hosts and chatters to make sure that it’s where you want to host and what you want to do.

Deconstruction of a Vape Show Host By Susan Oser

For those of you who venture online and have come across an online vaping show (whether it’s a podcast, VapeTV.com or vapers.tv), you probably have enjoyed one or two focused on D.I.Y., modding or giveaways. Perhaps, you’ve always considered how cool and easy it might be to become a host. As an online show host for vaping and non-vaping alike, there is a lot to learn and do when it comes to going on camera and hosting a show. It takes planning, finding the right equipment, getting music and marketing yourself, to name a few. However, though you need to be both host and producer, and it might seem a lot of work at times, it also can be rewarding and a lot of fun. Having said that, let me give you a list of some things to consider if you are thinking about becoming a vape show host:

Channels

Believe it or not, there are a lot of channels to choose from when it comes to hosting on a vape network or channel. Some have some names that you might know. Some channels are fairly new. Some have been around five-plus years. So, how are you to decide where you’d like to host? The best thing that you can do is surf around. Check out the browse preview to see if there is anyone who looks remotely interesting to you. If you don’t have that option, pick a channel name that sounds interesting and jump in.

Sponsors and giveaways

It’s important to remember that giveaways and sponsorships are marketing. They’re a great way for vendors to get their names out there to potential markets and buyers. That’s why it’s free, and it’s also why these generous vendors offer coupon codes. However, you have to make sure that you have a substantial number of people in the room, or else their sponsorships will not be to your benefit; vendors want solid numbers so they can reach the most people possible. Also, choose a vendor with whom you have a good relationship. Research who they are and find out what their goals are: are they in it for the money? To save lives? Do they have clean e-liquid? Are they activists in the community? You might also try the e-liquid yourself; that way, you’ll be able to gauge whether the juice is worth buying or giving away. With all vendors, paid customers are first in line for their goods. So there may be times a vendor offers to sponsor you, but becomes so busy that they do not have time to send giveaways. As a host, make an effort to maintain communication with vendors to find out exactly what’s happening in their world; make sure that they, as well as your viewers, are happy. Some vendors may like the idea of sponsoring you, then see how your show or channel works and decide you are not the right fit for their brand—or vice versa. Sometimes, this causes a revolving door effect. As a host, this can be frustrating. However, with every vendor that leaves, a new one can comes your way. Sometimes, you have to go through a few to find the right fit. There also are some vendors that will do giveaways, but are slow to send their prizes. Or, your winners might contact you after three weeks, letting you know they did not receive their prizes. Not only does this look bad for your sponsor, it also looks bad for your show (and maybe even your channel). Because this is a big frustration with most hosts, many decide to drop giveaways altogether.

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Most, if not all, vape shows emphasize content and talk about something related to vaping. It doesn’t matter if it’s e-liquid, product reviews or vaping activism; there always is something to talk about in terms of vaping. But, what if that’s not your thing all the time? That’s when you learn to find your voice and create a show that is unique to you and the audience who visits you. For example, some shows focus on hanging out and having a good conversation about vaping and other topics. Some have trivia shows, where the prize is vaping related. Some give away vaping products. Others use the host’s personal hobbies as a theme for the show. You never know what kind of audience you will draw or the regulars you’ll gain. Sometimes, that audience becomes a part of your show; other times, your commentary is the show. Sometimes, the best shows are unplanned, when you throw away the script and just be. It’s all a matter of what works for you.

Rules (if any)

Almost every channel has rules to follow. Sometimes they are followed. Sometimes they are just there to look good or for legality. Most of the time, they’re common sense, like no slander or drama, no talk of drugs, and sometimes not to do anything without permission of the owners or management of the channel. Some channels will have newcomers try out for the show by being a co-host, go on a probationary period for a matter of weeks or try out for a spot you’re interested in to see if you’re a good fit. For the most part, it works out. Sometimes, it isn’t meant to be. But that means you can still shop around for another channel that’s a perfect fit for you.

Social media

Advertising yourself online is key when it comes to being an online host. It’s best to create a Facebook page or group to promote your show, post updates and establish rules. Twitter also is one of the best ways to advertise your show in a few short sentences (it also gives your followers a chance to retweet and spread the word about you). You also can use LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest to get the word out, but it depends on your show and how active you are on those sites. Your best bet is to stick to the social media platforms that most vapers use regularly.

Other important points to remember:

Despite the contrary, hosting on a channel is not a popularity contest (even if you are on a popular channel). It’s all about being entertaining, informational and, most of all, welcoming and friendly. Your biggest reward should be what you get out of it as a host, and whether the audience gained something from you in return. I know personally that it is for me. Don’t let the pressures of hanging out at other channels influence how you host or what you talk about. Learn from the shows in which you’re a member of the audience, and learn from what they do. Find out what makes their audience tick and see how you can improve on it. That’s how your change and grow every time you do your show—from openings to topics and more. Hosting should not feel like a 9-to-5 job (unless you are actually getting paid or are able to make a career out of hosting). If it does, you might want to find another channel or give yourself a break for a while. There could be times when life gets in the way and you just don’t have the time. That’s OK. Your audience will understand. Hosting shouldn’t be an obligation. At the end of the day, when the camera is turned off, every host has their own life with work, family and other offline commitments. You shouldn’t be any different. You are one of the many voices out there in the vaping community. It is up to you to be the name and face of vaping in a way that is comfortable to you. Overall, hosting should be fun, and it should be a great tool to teach others about what you know, and to show to world that vapers are respectable people. As long as you don’t let drama get in the way or get too involved in it, you should be OK. Remember: it’s an experience that can you use to help gain new friends, networks, self-esteem and more. Don’t do it because you want to be popular or for attention’s sake. Do it because you feel like you have something to say and because you want to. So, do you think you have what it takes to be a host? Are there any questions you’d like to ask? If you are a host, what’s missing for this list? What additional advice would you give? Contact me at angelwritercreations@gmail.com.

As far as how much you advertise, it’s truly up to you. Generally, more is better. However, you don’t want to come off like a spammer or someone desperate to get viewers. Instead, advertise a few days ahead of time, as well as the day of your show, so it can serve as a reminder to your audience.

Learn more about me and my knitted goods store on my website (http://www.angelwritercreations.com), and connect with me on Facebook and Twitter. In addition, I currently host a show on VapeTVLive on vapetv.com on Thursday nights at 11 p.m. – midnight EST. I hope you come by for a visit, and make sure you mention you read about this topic in VAPE. VAPEMZ.COM

Features

A Year-End Reflection at Christmas Time

By Cynthia Cabrera

I currently am on a flight connecting from Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas to Sacramento, Calif. to meet with the California Attorney General. It’s Dec. 3, and the Christmas season is upon us. I am desperately hoping this is my last trip of 2015, but I doubt it. When I return home, I’ll do some shopping, put up my Christmas tree, enjoy the Florida weather, and hang out with the friends I have neglected all year in service to my job.

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In 2014 (reasonably) I predicted that 2015 would be one massively busy legislative year (that didn’t even include dealing with the then still-pending “deeming regulations”), and 2015 absolutely tried to kick the vapor industry’s ass.

Features From February 2015 to November 2015, SFATA introduced 16 additional state chapters; most of them born from the sudden imperative a group of SFATA members in a particular state had to band together to fight a common enemy. Recognizing that members already were seriously overburdened by their businesses (and maybe to a certain extent psychologically exhausted by the looming fights) SFATA decided to make the formation of a chapter be as simple as possible; we removed almost every barrier to entry other than the most minimal. Legislative challenges were the worst in states like California, Texas, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. Other state chapters formed in areas where the threat of crushing vaping was not at the top of lawmakers to-do list and in those states, members were able to focus on growth and outreach. I logged more miles in the air than I did in 2014—and that’s saying something. I traveled to the state capitol in Texas and California to work with members there and held phone conferences with many other states, members, advocates and lobbyists to determine strategy. Even while attempting to address legislative issues in states that didn’t even have chapters, we also executed the best conference SFATA has had to date. We secured Mitch Zeller (aka Determiner of Our Fate) as our keynote speaker. That coup came about thanks to a wonderful relationship I had established with a contact at FDA. “We’re not your enemy,” she said to me at one meeting, “if you ever need anything just let me know and I’ll help you.” Director Zeller’s appearance at our conference marked the first time he had spoken at any vapor anything—ever. The exhaustion and sense of satisfaction I experienced after the conference was over is still vivid in my mind. That conference cemented SFATA as THE voice of the vapor industry and validated all the hard work we had been doing until then. The few naysayers and detractors that have their fun attempting to find fault with SFATA paid their conference fee to attend and be part of it just like everyone else. The whirlwind pace died down thankfully, as most legislative sessions ended in the summer, leaving a sliver of time for SFATA to prepare for elections in the fall. We held our firstever member-wide election resulting in a very different looking board, comprised of almost all new people. What an exciting and scary thing! Whereas our previous board had been composed of people who helped to either start the association or had been selected by those people, this new board reflects the membership needs and wants. The future of SFATA will be determined by a group of people with big stakes in the vapor industry who bring a high level of commitment to the organization.

Now, we almost are at the close of 2015 and I cannot wait to be home, but when I think back on 2015 I recall some of the great experiences I had that were cemented into fond memories: • The absolute blast I had at our conference when everyone in the room agreed to be part of my “selfie”—160 people sharing in my fun and loving it. • Hanging out with my California peeps, Mark Burton (aka Pinky), Doug Hughes, Stefan Didak, working hard, keeping each other company, laughing hard and ultimately enjoying a great friendship. • Slipping and sliding down the pavement with Schell Hammel as we made our way to the capitol building in Austin in a snowstorm and 22 degree weather, but sure that we would own the day. • Hanging out (in more than one bar) with friends old and new, from the United States, England, France, Brussels, China and Italy in more places than I can recall. • My 7 a.m. phone calls with Vicky Vasconcellos predicting what new crisis would hit the fan the fan that day. • Sharing a home with other industry advocates laughing and chatting late into the night while we solved the world’s problems. • Chris Hughes, Kim Templeton, Cheryl Richter and Will Cohen always there, offering support and my amazing chapter people—the most generous and gracious people I’ve ever met. • My biweekly calls with Julie Woessner of CASAA, a nearperfect professional alliance and a friendship I have come to appreciate greatly. • Sarkis Kaladzhyan surprising me with birthday lunch because I was in Los Angeles away from my family. • The absolute (and short-lived) euphoria I experienced after we defeated the dreaded SB140 in California’s legislature. • The warm and welcoming way people I’ve never met have greeted me. My job is hard and it is practically 24/7, but the friendships, shared struggle and (occasional) wins make it easier to do. People familiar with my workload frequently ask me if I enjoy my job and I am happy to report that I do. Soon I’ll be home and enjoying Christmas, my family and my pets. Knowing that I collaborate with such an outstanding group of people will make packing my suitcase again something I look forward to in 2016. We fight on.

Cynthia Cabrera is president and CEO of the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association, the leading and largest trade association dedicated to the education, promotion and continued innovation of vapor products.

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Features

Where Do European Countries Stand On Vaping Products? By Patricia Kovacevic

Over the past few weeks the U.S. vaping industry’s focus has been on the imminent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rule, which will bring, among others, electronic cigarettes and other tobacco-derived products under the umbrella of the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA). That the FDA rule is imminent we know from various FDA statements during 2015, confirming the urgency of this rulemaking, and also from the recently completed Office of Management and Budget/ Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs review of the rule—a mandatory step in the rulemaking process. Most domestic vape product manufacturers or importers need not look elsewhere for their 2016 business planning. However, numerous important industry participants, including supply chain actors such as nicotine suppliers and device manufacturers, operate at a global level and are closely involved with the European markets.

As many of you know, the European legal system is very different than the U.S. legal system. When we speak about Europe we generally refer to the member countries of the European Union (EU), which was established in its current form by the 1993 Treaty of Maastricht, and which has subsequently accepted new members to a current total of 28 countries. Several countries on the European continent are not EU members, most notably Norway, Russia and Ukraine. In the EU, vaping products are addressed in an amendment to the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), although this directive confirms that vaping products are not, in fact, tobacco products. In spite of protests from a number of enlightened scientists and public health advocates, the respective TPD amendment was adopted in 2014 and imposes certain manufacturing restrictions and premarket notification requirements for vaping products. Clearly the bulk of the TPD addresses conventional tobacco products, however, Article 20 of the TPD directs EU member states to adopt national legislation on vaping products according to certain TPD principles.

So, what is happening in Europe; what will 2016 bring to vapers from across the proverbial pond, and is there anything we can learn from the European political process?

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Directives are legal instruments of the European Union that require transposition into national legislation of each member state in order to achieve a certain common EU purpose. Directives are not laws and are not self-executing. Furthermore, directives are not even like federal law in the United States—EU states still have to write laws consistent with the spirit of the directives to comply with the directives’ requirements. EU countries have until May 21 to pass national laws in the spirit of the TPD, and those national laws may impose even stricter rules on vaping products (such as advertising bans of a type that the TPD itself did not contemplate). It is not uncommon that the implementing national legislation differ substantially from country to country. To date only a couple of European countries have passed laws implementing, at least partially, TPD requirements on vaping products. The TPD was challenged by three very different plaintiffs—a government, a tobacco company and an electronic cigarette company—on different grounds, and the respective legal challenges were referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the leading judiciary authority in the EU, which oversees the application and interpretation of EU law. In the past, other directives have been challenged before the CJEU, however, it is not advisable to predict an outcome based on the Court’s track record. Suffice to say CJEU is also a political institution sensitive to the fragile internal balance of the EU. Litigation before CJEU does not involve public hearing

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market harmonisation measures, that e-cigarettes possibly cause risks to human health and that that product could —above all in the case of adolescents and young adults—develop into a gateway to nicotine addiction and, ultimately, traditional tobacco consumption.” (Note the entirely speculative nature of the so-called possible gateway effect; one would hope that the final court ruling would attempt to look into the best available science but that does not seem to be the case here). Also, with respect to vaping products in general, the Advocate General takes the position that the EU legislature was entitled to take the view that homogeneous rules at European Union level are required, rather than letting each member state address these novel products separately. of witnesses or extensive discovery, like, for instance, in a U.S. tort case. Since the 2014 TPD challenge the Court was silent until very recently, when an official of the Court—the Advocate General, again, an institution that has no equivalent in the U.S. legal system—issued her opinion on the TPD challenge. What was the gist of the relevant challenge to Article 20 of the TPD? In brief, the plaintiff argued that the respective TPD article on vaping products “represents a disproportionate impediment to the free movement of goods and the free provision of services, places electronic cigarettes at an unjustified competitive disadvantage to tobacco products, fails to comply with the general EU principle of equality, and breaches the fundamental rights of electronic cigarette manufacturers.” All good arguments under the applicable treaty, and certainly not a stretch giving the lack of true opportunities for interested parties to comment on, and influence the TPD outcome during the legislative process. The Advocate General role is based on relevant provisions of the Treaty on European Union and of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. In the TPD challenges, the Advocate General reviewed the submissions to the court and issued three separate opinions corresponding to the three TPD cases before the court, one regarding vaping products and two regarding conventional tobacco products. Her opinions are supposed to be impartial. The

According to a Dec. 23, 2015 press release, with respect to the TPD Article 20 challenge before the CJEU, Advocate General Juliane Kokott stated in her opinion issued that same day that “the new EU tobacco directive of 2014 was lawfully adopted.”

Why is this development important for our industry? While it still is possible that the CJEU final ruling would reach a different conclusion than the Advocate General, it is unlikely. Thus, the TPD is here to stay for vaping products. And so, all industry participants with business operations in the EU should watch carefully for new laws implementing the TPD in each member state, and promptly implement measures to comply with the laws of each country where vaping products are manufactured or sold. As always, the devil will be in the details!

In particular as to the special rules for e-cigarettes, Advocate General Kokott stated that “those rules differ appreciably in several respects from the rules for conventional tobacco products.” For example, the special rules for e-cigarettes provide for, inter alia, a duty to submit a notification with a six-month standstill period, specific warnings, a maximum nicotine content of 20 mg/ml, a leaflet requirement, a separate prohibition on advertising and sponsorship and annual reporting obligations. Those special rules are, however, relatively moderate, both in comparison with the rules for conventional tobacco products and by international standards, and are ultimately not disproportionate.“Furthermore, the Advocate General expressed concern that e-cigarettes are a novel and still relatively little known product and that “it is not manifestly wrong or unreasonable to accept, in adopting internal

Patricia Kovacevic, Esq. is the general counsel and chief compliance officer of Nicopure Labs LLC, the leading e-liquid and vaping device manufacturer of U.S.- made Halo and eVo e-liquids and Triton and G6 devices. Her expertise includes global e-cigarette and tobacco regulation, compliance and all regulatory aspects of marketing/media communications, corporate affairs, criminal investigations, FCPA, trade sanctions, privacy, product development and launch. Kovacevic serves on the advisory board of the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum. In the past she was a United Nations staff member and served on UN’s Public-Private Partnership Commission. Kovacevic is admitted to practice in New York and before the Supreme Court of the United States. She holds a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School (NY) and has completed the Harvard Business School “Corporate Leader” course.

Advocate General’s opinions are not binding on the judges, who will deliver their final ruling in the three TPD cases in early 2016. However, more often than not the Court reaches the same conclusion as the Advocate General, though sometimes based on different reasoning.

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Features Heckman, LLP. This was Chowdhury’s sixth visit to the OMB offices in the past few weeks, and he has represented several of his clients, as well as providing support for CASAA, SFATA and other advocacy organizations.

the office

Companies large and small came to the nation’s capital, including Vapor Shark, Five Paws and Molecule Labs to name just a few. Some individuals came as well, with no specific skin in the game other than to share their experiences.

Small Shops Have a Voice

management and

budget listens to

Deanna and Ron Marshall are not stereotypical vape shop owners. Neither of them owned a business before they opened Freedom Vapes in 2014, yet they now run two locations and employ 10. Belgrade, Mt., is not a hotbed of vaping activity, primarily because there are only 7,400 people that live there. This was Marshall’s first shop, which they opened in April 2014, but business was good enough to open shop number two in Bozeman, Mt., in June 2015. Their 40,000 resident population is still small, but they have just one competitor and lead the market. They started with just $3,000, no entrepreneurial experience and a shop with more empty display cases than products, but they made it work. If you think of the term “mom and pop” business, this is it. The Marshalls also have become staunch advocates and political activists, which was a totally new experience.

the people

“I was a truck driver and a former military man. Deanna was a housewife. We didn’t get involved with politics,” Ron Marshall said, “But when the government started to mess with our livelihood we had no choice but to get involved.” And they did, in a big way. When asked why they came to Washington, Deanna Marshall was succinct: “To save our store. We have 10 employees now and have our entire future wrapped up in this industry. We can’t sit around and do nothing.”

Words and photos courtesy of Norm Bour The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) passed its regulations on to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Oct. 23, 2015. That set the stage for the next step as the FDA tirelessly trudges on toward initiating new rules for the vape industry. We’ve been awaiting these regs since April 2014 when version 1.0, AKA the draft “deeming” regs, were released. Speculation has predicted that the final documents would be coming “soon” ever since.

The clock is ticking…

The OMB is, per Wikipedia, “the largest office within the Executive Office of the President. Its main function is to produce the president’s budget, but also to measure the quality of agency programs, policies and procedures and to see if they comply with the president’s policies.” In real-speak, it oversees the government’s spending and reduces wasted dollars like the NASA space hammers that cost thousands of dollars and the proposed bridges that lead to nowhere. During December 2015, the OMB invited members of the vaping community to Washington, D.C. to testify about the effects of the new regs. Most of the vape community knows these new rules are bad and could eliminate tens of thousands of jobs and force the closure of many vape companies. I was there on Dec. 8, along with VAPE U instructor and legal expert, Azim Chowdhury with the law firm of Keller &

Voting was the extent of their political experience prior to this trip, but in the past 12 months they have met with SFATA leaders, their two Montana senators and congressmen, plus took the initiative and contacted the OMB and requested a hearing. Last year they helped defeat Montana SB 66, which would have lumped tobacco and vaping products in the same category. With the efforts of the Marshalls and others they were able to keep the two categories separate, and vaping is now considered “an alternative nicotine product.” They also were involved in the new vape shop licensing requirement, which they found less restrictive than a “tobacco sellers’ license.” The variety of representatives that came to Washington is significant. From a mom and pop shop in a state with a total population of just over one million, to e-liquid companies and manufacturers that gross many times that. This is an industry with character and lots of heart.

Five Pawns Testify

Rodney Jerabek, founder, president and CEO of Five Pawns, and CFO, Rob Fitzgerald, were asked if they felt “heard” in Washington. “I was impressed by their reaction to us coming to D.C.,” Jerabek said. “And they seemed to appreciate that we took the time and had the interest to tell our story. I’ve been to FDA meetings and was received with arms crossed and did not feel welcome. That wasn’t the case here.” Five Pawns was part of a large group of almost 30 people that spent almost 90 minutes with OMB. Due to the limited

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Features Rob Fitzgerald, CFO and Rodney Jerabek, CEO, Five Pawns

Norm Bour (left) and Azim Chowdhury

window of time, many companies were grouped together, and Five Pawns was in mixed company that included Florida -based Vapor Shark, plus independent shop owners, doctors and psychologists who went for their own reasons.

“The regs as they are written are not achievable by 99.9 percent of the industry. We have six flavors with five different SKU numbers. If it cost a minimum of $3.3 million to get one SKU approved, that’s $100 million dollars just to get our products to market. That’s just nuts!” he said, and he’s right.

“It was a bummer we didn’t get more one-on-one time, but at least we got to share our point of view,” Jerabek said. Since the OMB was investigating one thing—financial impact—I tossed the ball to CFO Fitzgerald. He agreed that these meetings were not about the dangers or benefits of vaping products or whether they should be regulated as tobacco. They were seeking financial information from any that would share. Both agreed that the OMB representatives seemed genuinely interested in all the implications and financial impact and took copious notes. “We didn’t want to pull on any heartstrings or play any emotional games with them. This was about money, pure and simple, so let’s see if they get the message,” Jerabek said. How would the FDA regs affected Five Pawns business? That was the question and Fitzgerald, like many of us, was not 100 percent sure.

When asked about how they should prepare for the future and what advice they would offer other e-liquid companies, he said, “Start socking money away for the future, and plan for every possible scenario. It’s hard to play a game unless you know the rules, so until they are clear we just have to pay close attention.” As we are going to press there are still ongoing testimonies taking place. By the time you read this, and certainly within the first quarter of 2016, much more information will be revealed. Norm Bour is the founder of VapeMentors, which offers online educational programs, services and resources for anyone in the vape space, including vape shops, online stores and eliquid brands. He’s also host of Vape Radio, a podcast series that interviews the masters of vape and thought leaders in the vape space. Contact him at norm@VapeMentors.com.

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Features

Knock, Knock.

It’s the FDA Calling. The FDA’s Regulations Aren’t Final—Yet. But Smart Vape Space Business Owners are Gearing Up For What’s to Come in Early 2016. By Maria Verven The FDA is coming. Make no mistake. But what it means to vape business owners is a matter of much confusion. The industry has been collectively holding its breath since April 2014 when the FDA first proposed its “Deeming Regulation.” After they published their first draft last summer, the FDA received no shortage of comments; more than 135,000 vape business owners, vapers and advocates weighed in. In October, the FDA submitted its final version of the regulation to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the executive arm of the White House charged with reviewing the proposed rules. Industry advocates like Norm Bour of VapeMentors are meeting with the OMB to discuss the impact their proposed reg could have on thousands of small business owners, potentially putting many of them out of business. “The economic loss in this industry could be devastating,” Bour, founder and president of VapeMentors, said. “While we don’t have exact numbers, we estimate there are at least 7,500 retail shops and 8,000 e-liquid companies whose businesses would be negatively impacted if this reg passes as is,” he said. “Companies already are gearing up to challenge the FDA in court if the Deeming Regulation is finalized,” Azim Chowdhury, partner and head of the e-cigarette/vape business practice at Keller and Heckman in Washington, D.C., said. Chowdhury represents a number of stakeholders in the e-vapor industry, including the Right to be Smoke-Free Coalition (R2bsmokefree.org), an organization of major e-liquid companies that are challenging the law passed in Indiana that will effectively ban e-liquids beginning July 2016.

Still Categorized as a Tobacco Product A key principle of the FDA’s approach is that they will be regulating e-cigarettes and vape products as tobacco products. Initially, the FDA sought to regulate them as drug delivery devices, but in 2010, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Sottera, Inc. (NJOY) and other manufacturers, agreeing with the plaintiffs that e-cigarettes are not drugs if they contain nicotine derived from tobacco and do not make any disease or “therapeutic” claims. But, that decision also painted e-cigarettes and VTMs (vapors, tanks and mods) into the same corner as tobacco products, since most contain nicotine derived from tobacco and are not marketed as smoking cessation devices—nor should they be. “It’s still critical to not market your products as smoking cessation devices, since that would put you in the category of an unapproved drug,” Chowdhury said.

How the FDA’s Reg Will Impact Businesses While there’s been a lot of speculation on what’s in the final reg, and the table of contents was even leaked to a trade association, there may be some surprises in store. “The Deeming Regulation won’t impose the types of guidelines you might think,” Chowdhury said. “It’s not going to have clean room requirements. It’s not going to outright prohibit any particular ingredients or set a maximum nicotine level in your e-liquids. It’s not even going to require the use of child-resistant packaging, ban flavors or prevent online sales. Those types of regulations and standards will come later,” he said. “The point of the Deeming Regulation is to bring all current and future tobacco products within

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Features FDA’s authority, and to retroactively apply the premarket authorization requirements to new products first marketed or modified after Feb. 15, 2007.” So in theory, anything that wasn’t on the market before Feb. 15, 2007 could be effectively banned until it’s authorized for sale by the FDA, unless it’s “substantially equivalent” to a product that was sold before this grandfather date. As of this writing, it appears that the FDA will require businesses to submit a premarket tobacco application (PMTA) for virtually every product and e-liquid they sell. Of course, the e-cigarette and VTM (vapors, tanks and mods) market has changed and improved dramatically since 2007, so this would affect nearly every business that’s kept pace with the market. “They’re taking a one-size-fits-all approach, at least in the proposed regulation,” Chowdhury said. “They’re subjecting all vapor products containing nicotine derived from tobacco to the same requirements that currently apply to cigarettes, without making any real distinctions from those more harmful tobacco products.” Mitch Zeller, J.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products said in a Nov. 10 news release: “The law is clear. The premarket tobacco application process is a viable pathway under which products can be marketed as long as the public health can be protected. As manufacturers seek to market new tobacco products, the FDA will remain committed to upholding the important public health standards under the law.” Under the PMTA process, manufacturers must demonstrate that marketing the new tobacco product would be appropriate for the protection of the public health. The FDA will consider the risks and benefits to the population as a whole, including both users and non-users of tobacco products, and will review the product’s components, ingredients, additives and health risks as well as how the product is manufactured, packaged and labeled. Since the FDA considers all tobacco products to be potentially harmful and addictive, the PMTA review also considers if non-tobacco users could start using these products and the likelihood that existing tobacco product users could stop using them.

Vape Shops, Listen Up Historically, the FDA has exercised relatively little regulatory control over tobacco retailers, leaving their surveillance and enforcement mostly up to state and local authorities. Vape shops that simply sell branded products and don’t modify, re-label or repackage products will not be considered a manufacturer. They’re off the hook in terms of the major requirements that apply to manufacturers, but still have to comply with retailer

requirements such as ensuring they aren’t selling to minors. They will also need to make certain that the products they sell comply with label requirements such as listing all ingredients and including requisite warning language. All tobacco products must be kept behind the counter, and sampling of e-liquid flavors will be prohibited. Consumers won’t be able to walk into a vape shop and pick up a device or try several flavors. However, sampling may possibly be allowed if the flavor samples don’t contain any nicotine. In the future, retailers will have to make sure they only sell products authorized by the FDA through the PMTA process and their shops may be subject to FDA inspection. But, the biggest issue for vape shops is that they won’t have many products to sell if the FDA’s regulation puts most e-liquid companies out of business.

Manufacturers, Be Forewarned. Any company making e-liquids or putting vape components together for customers will be considered a manufacturer. As defined in the Tobacco Control Act, a manufacturer is anyone who manufactures, fabricates, assembles, processes or labels a tobacco product or imports the finished tobacco product for sale or distribution in the U.S. Manufacturers will be subject to the adulteration and misbranding provision of the Tobacco Act. “Adulterated” generally refers to quality control, and e-liquid makers will need to develop a reliable process to ensure the product is made in a safe and clean manner and does not contain poisonous or deleterious substances. “Misbranded” refers to products bearing false or mislabeled package labels or products that are advertised in a false or misleading manner. Anyone creating or mixing and branding e-liquids will likely have to submit an ingredient list to FDA, including any flavors, compounds and additives such as PG and VG. “Ultimately, you’re going to have to identify the sub-components of the flavors because that’s really what the FDA is concerned about when it comes to e-liquid safety,” Chowdhury said.

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He advised talking with flavor suppliers now to let them know they will need to submit their flavor formulas to the FDA or be willing to provide their proprietary formulations to customers under non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). E-liquid manufacturers also will be required to test their e-liquids for anything the FDA considers to be a harmful or potentially harmful constituents (HPHC) when inhaled or absorbed. In 2012, the FDA published a list of 93 HPHC substances; while diacetyl is not listed, it could easily make the list when the FDA looks more closely at e-liquid ingredients. Ensuring the accuracy of e-liquid nicotine levels will also be critical. “We’re dealing with a very dangerous substance in its concentrated form. The biggest risk for companies is if an undiluted nicotine base escaped the plant and got vaped, it could kill someone,” Dennis Moore, a former FDA investigator and president of Chemular, an all-in-one solution company for the e-liquid industry that develops FDA-style batch records, procedures and QA checking processes for e-liquid companies, said. “Some version of the PMTA is probably going to exist, even though we’re all hoping for a lesser version than what’s been promulgated so far,” Moore said. “But no matter what FDA does and even if there’s a two-year window before you have to comply, adopting quality processes will not only give you some FDA compliance advantage, but some liability protection as well.”

to be smart and responsible, you’ll want to get the proper clean room facilities set up and begin the process of working with reputable laboratories and scientists to determine the levels of these substances in your products,” Chowdhury said. He said the FDA realizes that subjecting every e-liquid and vape product developed after Feb. 15, 2007 to the PMTA process all at the same time would pretty much shut down the industry. He expects there will be a two-year grace period after the rule is made final to submit a PMTA to the FDA. “That may sound like a long time, but two years may not be enough time for many companies to develop all the data they need to get through the PMTA process because of how high the standards will be,” he said. “Companies with clean room standards that register their facility, identify the safety of their ingredients, accurately determine the ingredients and level of nicotine in their liquids and use packaging that’s safe and doesn’t target minors will have a better chance of getting through the PMTA process.” The original Vaping Vamp, Maria Verven is partner and chief marketing mentor of VapeMentors.com.

Chemular uses a tiered approach with its clients, creating an overall quality manual and written processes and procedures. “We took the knowledge we gleaned from creating processes for multi-billion dollar drug firms and boiled it down to something doable for a vape shop or e-liquid operator,” Moore said. “So if someone claims they were injured by your product, you have documentation to show what you did and why it was as safe as possible when you released it.”

A Final Note Keller and Heckman also has scientific staff with more than 20 staff scientists, toxicologists and chemists, many of whom were formerly with FDA who represent clients in preparing protocols that meet FDA standards. “Although we’re probably some time away from seeing any specific e-liquid standards, VAPEMZ.COM

(Lack of)

Regulation Education

SPARKS FRUSTRATION By Shawn McCarthy

As many of you know, the FDA has proposed regulation that will regulate vaping devices under rules proposed for tobacco products, rules that were designed to make it virtually impossible to bring any more tobacco products to market. Moreover, the FDA wants to retroactively impose the regulations on every device that entered the market in the United States after February 2007. If you’re thinking that there weren’t any vaping devices on the market prior to that month, you are basically correct. So, this burdensome regulatory paradigm that specifically was crafted to make the introduction of new products prohibitively expensive and time consuming will apply to every single vaping device and liquid flavor out there today. What that means for most vapers is that the products they use will disappear, potentially overnight. There has been plenty written about the FDA regs being proposed and the efforts to fight them, so I don’t want to get into all the details here. Basically, every device and liquid possibility will need a separate application and will need to undergo a costly testing process. Any product for which a manufacturer does not submit an application by the deadline will be illegal the day the rules take effect. Products with applications submitted will be allowed to stay on the market while the application is being processed. Maybe a few will make it through, but the bottom line is that most of the devices being used by most vapers will eventually cease to be sold in the United States if the FDA has its way. There are efforts under way to fight this. Consumer advocacy groups like the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-Free Alternatives Association (CASAA) are doing battle on our behalf, and there currently is a resolution proposed in the House of Representatives (HR2058), which still will allow the FDA to regulate vaping products as tobacco products, but will remove the backdating provisions being sought by the

Photo courtesy of CASAA 7,600 printed testimonials of people whose lives were saved by vaping. These were taken to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs by CASAA when they appealed for common sense to intervene in the FDA’s goal of retroactively regulating all vaping devices as tobacco products. FDA so only new products would have to run the regulatory gauntlet. I set out to write a story about the reaction of vapers to these regulations. In small circles, informed vapers are discussing ways to fight this. We are talking about it, calling the White House, writing our elected officials, writing letters to the editor in local papers and submitting testimonials like those pictured above. Before I started working on this story, I was blissfully unaware just how small those informed circles were.

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I walked in to vape shop after vape shop to talk to employees and consumers about the regulations. I didn’t expect every casual vaper to be fully aware, but I did have an expectation that many would be, and I completely expected the employees and managers of these facilities to be armed with as much knowledge as possible about the topic. As it turns out, that expectation was incredibly naïve. After hearing from one clueless employee after another and talking to managers who had only the vaguest idea what was going on, I was baffled. I was frustrated. I was embarrassed. Most of all, I was scared. If these folks aren’t taking it seriously and proselytizing on the importance of activism to the vaping faithful, how can we possibly win? The answer is, we probably can’t. Searching for a beacon of light amidst the darkness of ignorance, I called my friend Julie Woessner, executive director of CASAA, to talk me back from the ledge. I shared my frustration with her, and asked her how so many people who literally depend on these products for their well-being could be so unaware of what threats the industry faces right now. “Most people go into a vape shop or a vape convention and there is so much there,” Woessner said, “It is impossible to believe that all that could go away. They think we are too big.” Woessner is a gal in the know. She is as connected to this fight as anyone and makes it her personal crusade to be hyper aware of all the goings on and every detail of every risk facing the rest of us. I asked her, if people think we are ‘too big’ to be crushed by the FDA, how much are they underestimating the risk? Woessner pointed out that the products the FDA is most likely to be comfortable with are the self-contained cigalike devices that are more cut and dry than the variable power, variable liquid devices that many of us use. “People don’t seem to appreciate that what is likely to be left is not the stuff that the enthusiast use,” she said. It is also possible, Woessner suggested, that people are thinking about this issue in the bubble of their own lives. However, if people are only thinking about themselves and deciding not to get informed and in the fight because they think they’ll be able to make their own liquids or find stuff on the black market, they are missing the point. “If we have a black market new people won’t be able to find it and won’t be inclined to use it. It will cripple the entire effort,” she said. That reality would put the brakes on the greater cause of getting smokers to smoke less or quit entirely. It also undermines the entire movement of defending the rights of vapers. If everyone only worried about themselves, Woessner wouldn’t have had thousands of testimonials to present to OIRA, and a manila folder of a couple testimonials wouldn’t have the same impact as boxes containing over

7,000 of them. What about the businesses? What explains the indifference of people whose livelihoods literally depend on the success of the vaping industry? Woessner has a theory on that as well. “What we have in our industry are some more sophisticated businesses, but they are new, and the vast majority of the businesses are people who got into this because it works for them and the barrier to entry has been very low.” She added, “These people are not making mega bucks and don’t feel like they have the extra money to put toward an industry lobbying group.” Companies are probably missing a chance to join with their fellow industry members to create a more powerful lobbying group to defend their interests. “Companies look at other businesses as a competitor instead of as an ally to fight this common battle,” Woessner said. On other end of the spectrum, some companies could be assuming that their peers will carry the burden for them. Woessner suggested that some companies might be thinking, “Someone will do it, whether I pay the money or not; someone will hire lobbyists.” For most interests, that rationale would probably work all right. Gun owners don’t need every single gun owner to be vigilant, they have the NRA. Union members don’t need every single member to be informed, they have the AFLCIO. Us, we vapers few, we basically have only each other at this point. We have our friends in CASAA and vaping business have the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association (SFATA) but these groups are both relatively small. They can’t fight and win without the active support of the every-day vaper. Going forward, Woessner suggested that we, “get involved and let your legislators know that this is an issue that is vitally important, and then take it into account when you vote. It doesn’t take that much. Contact your legislator and be good vape ambassadors. We are people’s first exposure to vaping.” Got to CASAA, SFATA and other organizations, sign up for updates and make sure you know enough to be dangerous. Help out with calls to action. Know enough to educate your fellow vapers and direct them to resources to get more informed. If we don’t take this seriously and start doing the dirty work of political activism on our own behalf, we could lose our rights to vape and our access to vaping products and we may all end up once again blowing smoke. Shawn McCarthy is a political junkie and grassroots activist turned Vaping Freedom Fighter. He has been a smoke-free vaper for more than a year and a half.

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Features

A Sociological Response: Is There a Vaping Documentary Curse? Words and photo by Tony Ottomanelli II When contemplating the ideas behind my current short documentary project, titled “Who Are The Vapers?” I can’t help but wonder about whether my team and I will receive the overwhelming support I have anticipated. An article I wrote published in October’s Issue of VAPE was a clear indication that this film would be made sooner than later, but only with the support of the vaping community. We introduced the production of our film by creating social media pages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram about three months ago, as well as a YouTube channel and LinkedIn account. “Who Are The Vapers?” now has a YouTube channel and a LinkedIn account, emerging as additional promotional opportunities in the social media realm. The fact of the matter is that an online presence is vital, regardless of which type of project it is. I assumed there would be an enthusiastic reaction from the vaping industry of widespread, immediate support. However, I must continually remind myself that it has only been three months since the film’s social media introduction and almost two months since the official announcement of our ethnographic documentary in article the October issue of VAPE. The key word to reflect on in that last sentence is “ethnographic,” or the examination of broad culture sharing behavior of individuals or groups. I’m approaching this short documentary from a sociological perspective, conducting qualitative research while facilitating an observational protocol related to ethnographic methodology. Ethnography is a word many people are not accustomed to often hearing. Creswell said that it is a research method that is used by sociologists often when studying groups, organizations, and communities that are a part of a larger complex society. What’s promising, however, is that this project could be published in the peer reviewed Journal of Video Ethnography, instantly categorizing the film as a valid social scientific study for academia to offer as a reference for students and faculty. Thus, our strategy of inquiry toward our research question is the ethnography, which is what uniquely sets our documentary apart from the others. We plan to film interviews with individual vapers in order to capture their authentic and emotionally charged stories of how they were able to quit smoking by switching to vaping, taking us through their mental museum of past tobacco abuse. The backstory of any vaper can be riveting, and vapers are not usually ones to shy away from sharing their personal transformations. I have at least 10 interview subjects on deck, eager to begin this process. We can always use more supporters and volunteers. “Who Are The Vapers?” could influence empathetic attitudes, thus creating more social approval of vaping nationwide. All things considered, even though I am optimistic about my project, I feel as if there is a stigma surrounding the act of filming an independent vaping documentary. Recently, I had a chat with fellow VAPE writer Susan E. Oser, known as Angelwriter in the online vaping show world, and she reminded me of the issues she heard about concerning vaping documentaries. She reminded me to look up previous projects, which I had done prior to our discussion, but I had not recently revisited that portion of my research.

umentary, yet no footage has been released and the website was deactivated. In an article online, writer Anthony H. states, “There is nothing to show for ‘We Are Vapers’ except a lot of excuses, a defunct website and a close-lipped attitude towards the community who donated nearly $22,000 to make it happen.” Taking this into account, in attempt to garnish more support within our community, questions arose: Are certain vaping groups and individuals reluctant to show support? Is there suspicion with getting involved, all because of one past project that rose and fell so fast? Don’t get me wrong; overall, support for our project is not entirely absent. We have attracted 1,000 Twitter followers @WhoAreTheVapers, but my expectations were much higher. Why wouldn’t my vaping documentary get more immediate attention and overwhelming support? Especially given the political climate suffocating the vaping industry and the genuine passion shared by all vapers. I can’t help but think of that failed feature-length documentary. Yet, the issue at hand revolves around my other questions as to why my own independent film has yet to attract the instant support it deserves. Something tells me, that one failed film can’t seriously be a factor. Then again, sociology would reply by stating, “It’s obvious that everything is connected within our social construction of reality, everything.” Perhaps it is a major factor for my own challenges with the production of an independent vaping documentary. But if I’m going to think big, I need to look at the big picture. Perhaps the filmmaker was, in reality, honest with his intentions and totally underestimated his budget plan. All we can do is move forward and keep trying. The 2016 release of the feature-length vaping documentary “A Billion Lives” will show groundbreaking footage that serves as concrete evidence that hope remains steady for vaping as acceptable subject matter openly embraced by the filmmaking community. This particular documentary was funded by a major film production studio, and though they most likely had to overcome some obstacles producing their film, nothing will ever be more challenging than attempting to make a film independently. Fully funded by a major studio or not, I still respect their crew a great deal for their relentless dedication and courageous sacrifice. they’ve made history; it’s undeniable. To all the vaping activists across the nation, it’s vital to promote vape education to gain more positive social expectation about this alternative to cigarettes. Ultimately, a newly acquired inhalation, a fresh taste of modernized elation. When all’s said and done, is there a vaping documentary curse? Not at all; some people just seem to take a turn for the worse. Please feel free to contribute in any way: spread the word, follow our social media pages, contribute funds, sponsor us, vouch for what you believe in and do whatever you can to assist us in completing this film. Help this filmmaking vaper complete a documentary project consisting of artistic expression combined with academic research.

I came across a once highly anticipated, feature-length documentary that has yet to release a single second of footage, titled “We Are Vapers.” Oser suggested there may be a cloud of skepticism among the vaping community, due to the fact that promises were made in the past and many pledged their support to a number of potential projects with little or no results. Unfortunately, for “We Are Vapers,” the filmmaker raised more than $20,000 for the doc-

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Tony Ottomanelli graduated with a Master of Arts in sociology from DePaul University. Ottomanelli also taught sociology at Owens Community College. He lives in Denver, Colo., where he pursues opportunities in sociology, writing and, of course, vaping, testing new vaping devices and e-liquids. Because the staff focuses on educating customers, Vaporleaf off Colfax in Denver is his favorite go-to shop.

COLUMNS our research. We let our manufacturer do some blending and testing and make sure it was all kosher. We’re exclusively using NicSelect and have no plans to use anything but.”

Crowd Chasers Professionalism is Intrinsic to

Intrinsic also uses USP kosher food-grade vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol in all its flavors; the mix is 70 percent VG, 30 percent PG. All Intrinsic e-liquids are diacetyl free and come in four nicotine levels: 0 mg, 3 mg, 6 mg and 12 mg.

New E-Liquid Company Makes Big Waves Right Out of the Gate

Before launching their first three flavors, Santino pulled together a tasting group that included a local vape shop in Simi Valley and a circle of advisers. “The market is oversaturated with juice companies, but we feel our flavor profiles stand up and hold their own against the competition,” she said.

By Maria Verven

Intrinsic E-Liquid Founder

The first question one might ask the owner of a new e-liquid company is: Why start an e-liquid business at this late a date?

Thanks to aggressive outreach directly to vape shops, via distribution channels and strategic alliances, Intrinsic has made great headway in getting its e-liquids out in the market. Santino said they worked hard on the pricing structure “so everyone makes money up and down the chain.”

Jodi Santino, co-owner and founder of Intrinsic e-Liquid, fired back a quick answer. “When we attended the ECC show in 2014, we saw a lot of companies run by people who seemed very inexperienced with regard to the big business world,” she said. “It was like the wild, wild West. With my biotech background, I already understood the fact the FDA was coming, but it didn’t appear to be a main concern of many I met.”

Intrinsic now is “firmly planted” in the areas where the vape shows were held; somewhere between 50 and 100 shops in Florida and the Carolinas, New England, Chicago and the Midwest, and all over the West, now carry the brand. Thanks to an aggressive international sales rep, Intrinsic now is carried in a dozen other countries, including Australia, Guam, Lithuania, Malaysia, South Africa and the U.K.

After earning a degree in accounting and a master’s in international business, Santino and her husband/business partner both garnered years of business experience. “Thanks to our finance and biotech backgrounds, we understand what it takes to launch and sustain a successful business,” Santino said. “I have a knack for numbers. We bring more to the table than most.”

Santino attributes their early worldwide success in part to successful branding. “When creating a concept for our premium e-liquid, we turned to our city for inspiration. We took the city of L.A., the most photographed city in the world, and used it as our backdrop for marketing,” she said. “People all over the world want stuff that comes from L.A. It’s been a very pleasant surprise.”

She continued to work full-time as a controller for a large insurance provider while writing the business plan for Intrinsic, finally quitting her job in June when they launched Intrinsic at Miami’s World Vapor Expo. Their debut was quickly followed by appearances at Chicago’s Vapor Expo and the ECC in Pomona, Calif.

The names of their e-liquids clearly reflect the frenetic pace of the city where they’re made: “Rush,” a blend of vanilla and mint; “Skyline,” a mix of lemon, dragon fruit and raspberry; and “Traffic,” their dessert blend of peanut butter and banana. “We sure stopped traffic with this flavor,” states the description on the Intrinsic website.

Like many, Santino’s passion for the industry comes from having someone close to her die from smoking-related illnesses. “I’m the epitome of the heavy smoker’s kid from the ‘70s,” she said. “My biological father passed away from coronary disease at a young age. When my little brother took up smoking, my mom and I were vehemently against it. At the end of the day, vaping helped him quit. That impressed the heck out of me because he had tried to stop on numerous occasions.”

Intrinsic uses NicSelect USP (U.S. Pharmacopeia-grade) nicotine for all of its flavors. “It was not a hard decision at all,” Santino said. “We tested others. We weren’t going to mess with anything from China. We wanted something that was premium. Hands down, NicSelect is the best. It was almost a given, but we did

For more information, call http://www.intrinsiceliquid.com/. Photo by Julie Jackson

Intrinsic’s e-liquids are made by a contract manufacturer in an ISO 7 clean room inside a cGMP compliant lab. “I got the impression at the 2014 show that if you used a manufacturing company to produce your juice, you were a poseur, a fake,” Santino said. “But, flash forward to 2015, and I’m amazed to see how much the industry has matured in just one year. People understand this is a serious business, and government regulations will be imposed to ensure the safety of the consumer.”

Santino said Intrinsic will be debuting two new flavors around Thanksgiving. They’re keeping the names and flavors secret for now, but there’s very little doubt they will be intrinsic to vapers’ tastes and the city of L.A.

(from left to right) Imani Hill, Spencer Boatman, Jodi Santino and Daniel Clark The original Vaping Vamp, Maria Verven is partner and chief marketing mentor with VapeMentors.

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Features

Nighthawk E-Liquid

Fosters Military Roots, Southern Flavor By Alyssa Stahr Photos by J. Jones Photography All Luke Tschantz ever wanted to do was be a pilot with the Blue Angels. Though he received devastating news that would end his dream, he didn’t quit. While stationed in Hawaii, he found vaping through Volcano, a vaping company, and took his love of aviation and vaping back to his home state of Iowa. After moving to Atlanta to finish his MBA, another dream was realized—opening an e-liquid company called Nighthawk ELiquid. Tschantz recently shared his tough road with VAPE, including his drive for success, having a military-owned company and bringing vaping to the Southeast. Can you take me a little more in depth about your background in the military? Tschantz: I grew up in Iowa City, Iowa, and joined the Army after high school. My grandfather and my dad both served in the military; I was not really interested in college, so I enlisted and joined the Army. I always had a passion for aviation, and wanted to be a fighter pilot one day. I realized that I couldn’t fly jets in the Army; if I wanted to fly, it was helicopters, and I wasn’t really interested in that. I got out after my enlistment and started school at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the No. 1 school in the world for aeronautics and aeronautical engineering. While I finished my degree at Embry-Riddle, I started to apply for the Naval Aviator pipeline for the United States Navy. I applied three times before I was accepted, and after I finished my degree in aeronautical science, I left for Officer Candidate School. And then your dream to fly for the Blue Angels was crushed. Tschantz: During OCS, the flight surgeon found minor back injuries in my medical record and disqualified me for naval aviation. I was devastated from the news. The only thing I wanted to do in my life was to fly. To get that close and kind

of have it yanked away—it was pretty difficult. I decided to re-designate as an intelligence officer and was stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, from 2011-2014. Having your dream crushed after being so determined must’ve been terrible. Tschantz: The Navy flight program is actually one of the hardest things to get accepted to, and I think I was one of 50 people in the class that I got accepted to, and there were like 5,000 applicants. I was ecstatic at that point; I had worked so hard for this and I got it. Halfway through, they’re like, ‘We looked through your medical records and you’re still OK to be an officer, but you can’t fly.’ So, that was probably one of the hardest parts in my life to go through. Just the feeling of being defeated and not really having anything, not being able to do anything about it. And in Hawaii is where you found vaping? Tschantz: In Hawaii, I noticed a lot of military guys using e-cigs as a replacement for cigarettes. I, myself, was an onand-off smoker for 10 years. I tried e-cigs in 2012, and was able to wean myself off of traditional cigarettes. While I was out there, I saw kind of the e-cig boon, especially in Hawaii with Volcano. What I realized [was] that [in] Iowa, where I’m from, there wasn’t any e-cig stores within a 100-mile radius. I would quit for a while and get back on. And the vapor products and e-cigs were really the only thing that helped me stay off. So, I approached Volcano at that time and I said, ‘I see you’re doing really well in Hawaii; there’s nothing back home where I’m from in Iowa. Can I distribute your products and have my own volcano store?’ They said, ‘Yeah, we can set you up as a distributor; there isn’t anybody in Iowa that’s carrying Volcano.’ In 2013, I opened my first vape store. I founded Hawkeye Vapor in 2013 while still serving in the Navy.

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Features And then you decided to launch an e-liquid company. Tschantz: After receiving multiple e-liquid samples from companies throughout my time owning Hawkeye Vapor Lounge, I realized that there were multiple companies that didn’t have great branding, and the e-liquid wasn’t the best. I thought that I could provide the vaping industry a better quality product, with branding that people could relate to in the industry. The military vape community is growing exponentially. I started doing my research for e-liquid labs and branding companies to start my own premium e-liquid line. We reached out to Showcase Marketing because of their work with Suicide Bunny, and had them design a militarized, aviation-type e-liquid brand. We launched Nighthawk E-Liquid in August, and got our first partnership with Vapor Beast in October. Next year, we are planning on doing all the major conventions and hope to increase the amount of international vape shops that carry Nighthawk E-liquid. Tell me a little more about your smoking journey and how you began trying e-cigarettes. Tschantz: I was in Hawaii; I was working for an intelligence agency, and some of my enlisted members (so, the people that I was in charge of) started using these e-cig eGo pens. So, they brought it to me and I was like, ‘What is that?’ I was kind of familiar with it, but back in 2012 it was still pretty new. Sub tanks weren’t even around yet. They let me try it. I went on a search to try and find that specific one. It didn’t dawn on me that I probably could’ve Googled e-cig Hawaii and Volcano. I went around for a couple of afternoons to head shops and I was like, that’s not the one that I saw, and they were trying to sell me some other brand and I finally went into a shopping mall. And, Volcano, they kind of got their start in the kiosk side of the business. They later expanded to lounges. But, I ended up buying my first one and kind of went through the ranks of Volcano, and I really liked their products back in the time when there really wasn’t much other option. Then, I started to bring it home with me. I’d go home on leave and I’d come back to Iowa and my friends were like, ‘What is that, man? I’ve never seen anything like that.’ And a little lightbulb went off in my head that said, ‘You guys don’t even know what this is. It’s huge in Hawaii; it’s huge on the West Coast. Why can’t I bring this here and open my own business?’ And, so, that’s how I got started. So you moved back to Eastern Iowa? Tschantz: I got out of the Navy and went back to Iowa and ran our vape lounge full time. I’m doing my MBA right now. When I moved to Atlanta, my goal was to either open a vape shop down here, or to develop our own premium e-liquid line. Once I got down here and got into school, I realized there are a lot of vape shops here, unlike in Iowa, where I was, like, the only one in the city. There’s probably 150-200 shops in Atlanta metro. And, I didn’t really want to be the new guy jumping into the pond with everybody else. That kind of solidified my quest to developing an e-liquid company. I still run the brick-and-mortar in Iowa. I have a great manager who does everything for me. I order all of the products and I do the payroll and pay rent and the bills. I spend the money and they go to work—it’s a good tradeoff. What were you finding wrong with other liquids that you wanted to change? Tschantz: Owning the vape shop and being on the retail side for a couple of years, I saw what sells. I saw what flavors sell really well, so that was a good kind of inside knowledge for me to base our flavor profiles off of. I knew custards sold really well; some of the dessert vapes sold really well. I kind

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of saw everybody coming out with the same stuff. Everybody had a strawberry milk or a strawberry custard … everybody’s trying to, basically, copy everybody else. They see the success with the companies, and they say, ‘Well, I can do that, too,’ so they bring out strawberry milk, and there’s 5,000 different strawberry milks. I kind of knew what flavor profiles we wanted, but we didn’t want to do what everybody else did. So, how we developed the flavor profiles is that we had a manufacturing lab send us 30 or 40 different flavors, and we whittled those down to about 10, and we wanted to launch five. But, we couldn’t eliminate the sixth one. We couldn’t eliminate one, so we just decided that, hey, the six are so good, that we’re just going to do six. On the branding side, our branding has a fighter pilot-type military logo, and I think that best describes my background. I think that it can relate. Military guys can relate to it. People that go to air shows just to go see the Blue Angels, they can relate to it. It’s really edgy. It almost has, like, a video game, like HALO, first-person, shooter-type branding, and I don’t think anybody in the industry has a militarygeared brand e-liquid company. What are some of the challenges that you’ve faced in making the liquid? Tschantz: The challenges that I see is not only the e-liquid market’s pretty saturated, it’s the challenge of kind of going into vape shops and talking to owners and having a blank slate. Because, me, as an owner, we get samples every day. We get emails all the time—‘Hey, we’d like to send you this’--and we just kind of get blinded by all of these companies that are almost spamming the vape shop owners to the point where they don’t even want to hear it anymore. OK, you’re just another e-liquid company that’s soliciting me. So, that’s probably the hardest challenge. That, and being a brand that nobody really knows about yet. We’re coming around; we’re getting there. We’re getting a lot of facetime on the social media platforms. People are asking questions. We did a really nice website; I think that set the bar for other e-liquid companies to strive for. If you look at the overall branding of e-liquid companies, it’s almost you have the ones that it doesn’t really seem like they put a whole lot of thought and work into it—just bad labels or the fact that they’re borderline copyright infringement. I’ve seen a lot of companies that are knocking off cereal companies. When we were in the development stage for branding, we didn’t just want to put Froot Loops on the label. We wanted to develop our own brand and to have a brand following—have people who look at the brand. I was really impressed with Suicide Bunny and the way that they did their branding. Cuttwood has a huge following—Cosmic Fog, Space Jam—so we kind of wanted to go that route and develop this Nighthawk brand that people can get excited about, and kind of feel like they’re a part of the Nighthawk family. We went through a company called Showcase Marketing. They’re unknown to a point, but they’re also very well respected with those that know their

work. We partnered with them, and they’ve designed our entire brand from start to finish. The website, the logos, most of the Facebook images. Do you plan on working with any of the military in the future? Tschantz: If we ever get to the point to where we do a follow-up line, I want to do some type of donation—a portion of that donation to some type of military cause. Whether it’s the Wounded Warrior Project—some type of non-profit that supports the military. So, you do have plans for expansion? Tschantz: If the high-VG stuff sticks around, I don’t know if that’s bad or not. The cloud chasing stuff has been around for a while, but I think it’s going back to more flavor chasing. Or, looking for the flavor vapes. So, if there is still a high market for high-VG stuff, I think that would probably be our follow-up line, is do like a special-edition, high-VG line where five or 10 or 20 percent of the proceeds goes to such-and-such military cause. Regulations: Where do you stand? Tschantz: How we’re going to deal with that, I think, [is] being responsible as a company in the e-liquid manufacturing game [and] making sure you don’t do any type of copyright infringement. Ensure that there isn’t any childish pictures or types of childish marketing. So that people take us seriously and not a bunch of renegades—a bunch of e-liquid companies that are marketing to children. So, we tried to stay away from that when we did our branding. I think that it’s going to be some type of regulation, but I don’t think the government is looking to put us out of business, per se. I just think that they’re trying to have this unrelated industry have some type of rules and regulations, which I think is appropriate for any company. Anything else to add about the line? Tschantz: One thing that kind of makes us stand out is, because we’re based in Atlanta, we wanted to give the southeastern side of the U.S. something to root for when it comes to e-liquid. Most of the major e-liquid companies are based out of California. And, there’s really no up-and-coming e-liquid companies in the Southeast. You have Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina. So, what we did with our flavor profiles, is we kind of wanted to give, like I said, the southeastern side of the U.S. something to root for, something to call their home e-liquid company. So, most of our flavor profiles kind of have a southern feel to it. We have the Arnold Palmer lemonade iced tea, which a lot of people enjoy; Peaches and Cream; Caramel Cinnamon Roll; kind of the southern past things that the people in the Southeast kind of enjoy. That’s what makes us different, and we’re proud to represent Atlanta. There’s a big vape community that kind of gets overshadowed by the California vape scene, but the people here are really passionate about it. For more information, visit http://nighthawkeliquid.com/.

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Features

aaron

cericola of

Talks Connections , Future of E - Liquid By Susan Oser Photo by Joseph Siano

Parrot Vapors has been a source of Web chatter lately, especially the hosts of Vapenet, who have become addicted to this e-liquid. It’s probably because their good friend Adam Miranda (A.K.A. vaping_goat), a host on Vapenet, decided to connect them to a few people. In fact, Adam Cericola, coowner, was the one who asked me if I could do an interview with his brother Aaron a few months ago. I’m glad that I did, because Parrot Vapors is in it for the long run.

Susan: What has been the best thing about creating Parrot Vapors? Aaron: I would have to say that the best thing that has come

out of creating Parrot Vapors is the friendships and the connections that we have made, without a doubt—locally, nationally and globally. I also think it’s the ability to be able to create an original brand that people actually like. It takes a lot of effort to push hard every day, keeping up your focus through ups and downs in an oversaturated marketplace for e-liquid.

Susan: How did Parrot Vapors get started? Susan:What has been your biggest disappointment with the company? Aaron: It all started with the idea that my brother had. He was Aaron: I wouldn’t necessarily say there has been one major disconvinced that he could make a few flavors himself that people might like. Toward the end of the year in 2013, he asked me to join him, and we had to come up with a company name. Since I had a couple of parrots myself, we thought that that would be a simple, easy and recognizable name for the company. Thus, the name Parrot Vapors was born.

Susan: How did you get into vaping in general? Aaron: My brother Adam introduced me to vaping back in 2013. He took me to a few vape shops here in the Phoenix area to take a look at some of the products that were on the market at the time. I was told that I should start with a mechanical mod. This way, I would not have to dump or waste money on products that probably were not going to work for me.

appointment with our company. I mean, business is business. It’s always a risk and roll of the dice. You want to do your due diligence to make sure you are putting your best foot forward to limit your failures. At the end of the day, every week could bring change in how you have to reposition your business. It’s all about being open-minded and keeping on your toes. Flexibility is key to being successful and learning which cards you have to play or hold back. I would say people in general are the most disappointing factors to any business. People’s actions nowadays are hard to come by. So, if you find a reputable partner that will help you expand your business, while also seeing if you can help them as well in the same space, make sure not to burn the bridge and keep the channels open.

Susan: Why did you choose to get into selling e-liquid as op- Susan: What do you want to see improved with Parrot Vapor? Aaron: We are at least in 25 states now in various stores, and posed to equipment or other things? plan to be a national company soon. As we grow as a comAaron: At the time, there were not many max VG lines available. We wanted to focus our efforts in creating one of the first high VG [or currently called max VG] e-liquid lines that you could actually vape all year long. My brother wanted to create a high -VG line that was light and functioned like an all-day vape, or at least something that could be vaped over and over again. At the time, most lines were selling mainly 50/50 or 60/40 blends.

pany, there are growing pains from sales to management to customer service relations. There are always things to work on. Having said that, we feel that our No. 1 priority is taking care of our customers. If we mess up, we must be quick to resolve the issues and make it right. Everyone makes mistakes and falls down on their swords. It’s not about how you fall; it’s all about how you get back up.

Susan: What are your most popular e-liquids? Aaron: Currently, the most popular juice is turquoise, which is Susan: How has your life changed since you started vaping? a tangy berry vape, or turquoise. It is by far the hottest sell- Aaron: Well, that’s a great question. I guess it has changed a ing flavor out of Arizona right now. Everybody loves it. Our line is primarily a fruit line, and as the market changes from heavy desserts to fruits, Parrot is really expanding and starting to become a household name when it comes to delicious fruits or candy based e-liquid lines.

lot. I went from vaping to starting a business to running around town getting to know our local customers, shop owners and distributors, to expanding into different cities through social media awareness and exhibiting our Parrot brand all over the United States. We are also gaining traction in the U.K. nowadays.

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Features Susan: What has been the biggest surprise you’ve seen with

the vaping community? Aaron: I guess the response from so many happy vapers vaping on Parrot. I had no idea there would be such a demand. You always hope for the best when starting a business, and so far, it has been an amazing ride and [we] plan on so much more to come.

Susan: What has been your biggest disappointment you’ve

seen with the vaping community? Aaron: Well, we don’t know what the regulations from the FDA are going to say, exactly, until it gets passed through the OMB. From the looks of things (and I’m not saying this to scare anyone), but things don’t look good as far as what’s coming down the line. We have to be hopeful that the rules won’t be so severe that tens of thousands of jobs are just taken away by their ignorance or just lack of caring about our health in general; we are literally changing people’s lives.

Susan: What are you doing to protect yourself from regulations? Aaron: Our primary focus at this very moment is preparing for

our second e-liquid line that will be released toward the end of December 2015. The proART line is a three-flavored 60 ml bottle that will retail for $26 to $30. It will be some of the cleanest juice on the market by far that will have data backing this up. This lab is an “FDA registered” facility as a tobacco manufacturer, and all of the formulas are on file with the FDA. They practice in accordance with cGMP guidelines (21CFR Part 111). The liquids are tested in their own A2LA accredited ISO 17025 analytical laboratory, on a GC/MS, GC/FID and HPLC, to assure purity and proper nicotine levels. All formulas are made by degreed chemists for maximum shelf life. They use no diacetyl, acetyl propanol or acetoin in any one of their products.

Susan: How do you feel about vaping activism? Aaron: We all feel strongly about activism and advocacy. Parrot is a board member of our local National Advocacy Vaping Business (NAVB) Association. We are constantly in communications

with peers of ours who are members of SFATA and of course The Vaping Militia. Being in the fight and taking part is an ongoing, day-to-day battle. I’ve also found out that joining these organizations makes a big difference in the local community.

Susan: Why should people care about the vaping community? Aaron: I think that people are misinformed and not aware of what

vaping is. I feel that people need to do their part and be aware of what’s happening at the local, state and national levels. They should care of the positive experience of vaping. There is a lot of money thrown against it in general. I hear these stories of those who got off cigarettes who smoked for 20 to 30 years. To me, vaping is a revolution that is needed in our society today, especially if people are just trying to find a way to quit smoking.

Susan: What do you see with the future of vaping? Aaron: I’m not really sure about the future of vaping. I’m hopeful they won’t take it away from us. I would hate to see so much innovation from juice to mods just suddenly go away. At the moment, all we can do is live one day at a time and make more progress each and every day. Keeping up the fight, educating more people coming off cigarettes [and] sharing our experiences with others are the things that truly matter and what strikes a chord in every community. It is inconceivable for me that with a pen stroke, the FDA has the power to wipe out a billion dollar yearly industry and destroy so many jobs, livelihoods and dreams. Keep watch, my friends; keep fighting, and “Drip on, my friends.”

Visit Parrot Vapors in Phoenix, Ariz. or visit http://www.parrotvapors.com. Order retail products from them at http://dallasvaporsupplies.com. For wholesale inquiries, call Aaron Cericola at (480)436 -2029, like Parrot Vapors on Facebook, join the #parrotNATION business page, and follow them @parrotvapors on Twitter. If you connect with them, please let them know that you saw their article in VAPE. They just happen to be subscribers.

(from left to right) Jim Shumaker, Lonnie Pollard, Effrin Lefever, Adam Cericola, Taylor Gonzales, Aaron Cericola and Jerry Jones VAPEMZ.COM

Features

BLACK RESERVE

Rolls Out Red Carpet with Lifestyle-Based Brand By Alyssa Stahr Photos courtesy of Black Reserve Vapors Jason Winkler is an entrepreneur who started in concert promotions at the age of 19, working with artists such as Snoop Dogg, Big Sean, DJ AM, Travis Barker, Paul Oakenfold, Wiz Khalifa and many more. From there he took his experience in the music business and marketing to help brands such as Uber build recognition in Southern California. He was able to pair brands with certain events and trend setting musicians to help create a buzz. Winkler brings a creative outlook on how to launch brands and is able to bring influential strategic partnerships to the table that gives companies the upper hand. At age 24 he helped launch a tech company called Liquipel. In one year the company won numerous awards such as Best Of Show at CES and The Edison Award. Once Liquipel had the respect from the tech world, Winkler wanted to spread the brand to the masses. In the next six months he set out to bring influential partnerships to the company. He wanted to make Liquipel a lifestyle brand, not just another tech company, so he signed partnerships with Pharrell Williams, WME and Steve Aoki. Most recently, Winkler and his business partner saw an industry that had no cool factor or lifestyle to it, so they brought that with one-of-a-kind packaging, clean flavors and creative content creation to Black Reserve. Winkler and his team have paired Black Reserve with some of the most recognizable names in music and sports, from throwing a launch party with performances from Rick Ross and Wiz Khalifa, to having Rampage Jackson do a signing at their booth at ECC. Graftan Darnall has a background in product development, business architecture and design. Starting with the sale of a successful entertainment equipment rental company, he has worked on many product development, application development and branding projects. He holds patents for inventions in both consumer and commercial product space and considers product design his passion. Since 2012, he has been featured in major publications for his inventions and ventures. Darnall heads and co-heads all product development and brand strategy for Black Reserve, and manages business operations for Brand One Corp and client partners. Cody Soto, an Orange County and Los Angeles resident, found his place in the world of marketing at a very young age. With his entrepreneurial mindset and the drive to succeed, he knew he would find great success in all business endeavors he explored. His first success was his position as brand ambassador for Orange County-based tech company Liquipel. As brand ambassador for Black Reserve, Soto has successfully signed professional skateboarder Nyjah Huston. Alongside celebrity endorsements, Soto has a successful past in the promotional space sponsoring events, campaigning with celebrity partners, and maintaining client relationships. Currently Soto also oversees brand strategy as marketing officer/partner for Brand One Corp.

Pharrell and Jason after signing the Liquipel partnership agreement

While three may be a crowd in some cases, it’s not in the case of the three creators of Black Reserve: Jason Winkler, Graftan Darnall and Cody Soto. One of the first to discover lifestyle branding in the e-liquid industry, the three entrepreneurs always are working to find new ways to innovate and market their products differently than the all rest.

VAPE: You’ve all three been entrepreneurs in other businesses. How did this translate into getting into the e-liquid business? Jason: We’ve all come from building lifestyle brands, and Cody and myself have been working on different products for the last several years. We started in a tech business that we helped to start called Liquipel, and what we did with that was kind of take that from a standardized tech business to more of a lifestyle brand by getting people like Pharrell Williams involved and Steve Aoki and making them partners, so that company was more looked at Sold Out Black Reserve Launch as something that you Party with performances from Rick could bring music and Ross and Wiz Khalifa at Supper Club fashion and function into a technology like waterproofing cell phones. So, that’s our key to do with any products that we get involved with is trying to find that ‘cool’ factor and to relate to our market. Graftan had been working with Cody on other products as well and he connected me and Graftan together, and from there we formed Black Reserve about a year and a half ago. We’ve been partners ever since, all three of us.

Krewella stopping by the office before their show in O.C.

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Graftan: We were getting into mods and hardware, and we started realizing that there was this big opportunity in the e-liquid … and really coming out with an e-liquid that’s known for its quality and cleanliness. So, we took our knowledge of

creating a brand and our passion for the vape community and the vape market. We really wanted to make a quality product in the market. We saw that there wasn’t a lot of classic bottle e-juice at Datsik and LA Riots visiting the time, and a lot of things Jason at the Liquipel offices weren’t standardized. So, we wanted to bring that standard to the e-juice market and really create something different. Jason: We really saw in the beginning of this industry that brands were kind of taking that approach of ‘hey, let’s print our name on a bottle make a good flavor and see what happens.’ No one really took the approach of ‘Hey, let’s try to build a brand,’ like a lifestyle brand and we feel like we were the first ones to kind of pioneer that. Even though our juice didn’t really launch right away, we got out there and we got the designs out there and we got the vibe of Black Reserve kind of in the market before we launched. And now we’re seeing a lot of companies kind of take that same approach and we’ve had a lot of companies tell us, ‘You guys inspired us to go a different route with our bottling and our content that we create and the way that people get involved.’ The key thing for us is to have the influential photographers that Cody brings to the table, and a really strong community in the vape scene, and taking the new kind of vibe to our brand. Now we’re starting to see that throughout the board and we’re proud of being kind of the first to do that. VAPE: How do you view the lifestyle and celebrity aspect of a brand? I feel like a couple of years ago celebrities did The Black Reserve team with SpiffTV not want to be and French Montana at ECC after their seen vaping, and signing at the booth I feel like that’s kind of changed over the years. Do you feel that way too? Jason: I really do feel that way. About two years ago, at that ECC, we were the first company to bring celebrity to ECC, so we had French Montana and Rampage, we [had a DJ] in our booth the whole time, so we really brought UFC, celebrity and music to an industry that celebrities were really kind of fearing. We used our relationship to kind of let them know, ‘Hey, this is a new industry, this is a growing industry and you should be a part of this industry before everyone jumps on board.’ That resonated with them early on, and I think by leveraging our relationships from working with them in the past and being involved in the music scene kind of helped us open the door for that. I do feel like there was kind of a convincing phase that we had to go through with a lot of these people. Cody’s Rampage Jackson getting really a strong point on that as well; really tight in with the conescorted to the Black Reserve booth at ECC

tent creators with the rap side and the DJ side is really what we’re focusing on right now. VAPE: They say three’s a crowd. But it’s not with you. Why do you think the three of you work so well together? Graftan: We’re all three are absolutely very different. We bring different skill sets to the table; we don’t overlap; we complement each other on everything. While Cody’s working on one thing, Jason’s working on another and I am too. Luckily we’ve been able to work together in a way where we don’t step on each other’s toes and we help each other with everything. Jason: A lot of times too Graftan has to wrangle us all in, and he’s kind of the guy that makes sure everything executes on time. Cody and myself are all over the place trying to build new relationships, trying to find different avenues for the brand, and Graftan kind of pulls it all together and makes sure that we point it in the right direction. The Black Reserve crew at Coachella with Kyle Long, Mike Posner and Chuck Liddell

VAPE: Take me back to the beginnings of Black Reserve. How did that idea come about and what was your inspiration? Jason: We didn’t see a package or a high-quality brand out there, and our idea for it was let’s make the, and it’s kind of corny to say, ‘ace of spades’ of the vape industry. Or let’s make something that everybody wants to have and be a part of and not just a flavor that we make, but a brand that we recognize and feel that we want to be a part of. So, kind of building that cult following in a high-end fashion kind of way. That was our concept for Black Reserve from the beginning. We were sitting in a bar drinking and talking and that’s how it came about. From there we thought up different packaging concepts and like I said content creation that would make sense for the brand, kind of built the whole entire story and the image before we even created the juice. We had an idea for flavors, but we know that if we created such a high-end package and brand that our juice would have to stand up to that. We created the brand, the packaging and we were like, ‘Hey we want to make sure that our juice is perfect.’ We don’t want to be that product that has great packaging and they buy it once and they don’t want to buy it again. We spent a lot of time after that testing. The reason we took so long to release our product is that we spent a lot of time sending out different flavors throughout the market to over 100 stores and having blind testing on our flavors. We tested hundreds of flavors to make sure we found the best flavors to launch with. Cassy from Seventh Letter and Pasqual That’s what retaking the Black Reserve team out at EDC ally been able with good friend Nyjah Huston

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to ensure our success, and that’s why we’re one of the top selling brands in every single store we’re in right now. VAPE: Can you talk about the trial and error process that went Cody and Jason with Dj Irie at into choosing the three Wet Republic in Vegas flavors? Jason: We used a starring system. We did internal testing; we whittled down from about 100 flavors to about 20 flavors we really liked and then we sent those out to partnering stores, people who are really supportive of our brand, and we did a lot of consumer testing in-store with people who were looking for new juice to buy. We got the feedback a few different ways. We asked them some questions about the juice, if they would refer it to a friend, if it was an all-day vape, and then we had a star rating on how good it was. From there we were able to look at what the highest rated ones were and use that as our educated guess as to what the market wanted. VAPE: Do you look at it as an all-day vape then? Is that your consumer focus? Jason: We do, but we like to mix it up. We have a couple of flavors that are really rich and are very tasty and they won’t necessarily be an all-day vape, but they’re that flavor that you can sit back and really enjoy. Graftan: I think one of them is an all-day vape and the rest are more of an enjoyable, savory vape. VAPE: Do you have plans for expansion of the line? Jason: Our fourth and fifth flavors that are coming out very soon, we’re actually very excited about. We can’t tell you yet what they’re going to be. One is definitely going to be an allday vape. We’re going to be focusing on seasonal flavors for 2016. VAPE: How did the idea of tinted black glass, chrome colored top dropper filler system, and raised metal embossed labels come about? Jason: We came out with all these designs and packaging that there when really there was nothing out there like that on the market. We wanted to create something different and raise the bar in terms of packaging and the branding and the look of something that would be on the shelf. We found an all-new system for dripping with the dropper and then we went about using metal labels to really give that bottle the pop. You can actually feel the labels, and it’s something when you hold in your hand it’s like, ‘Wow, that’s really cool and it’s nothing like what I have had before.’” That was really important to us not only to recreate something from our vision, but something that was different and to raise the standard on what was on the market. Graftan: In the middle of our process we had those silver caps, but then the law passed where they had to be childproof, so we switched to our black caps. The cool thing is by February you’ll be seeing that we’ve developed our own childproof silver dropper caps that will be coming with the bottle, and the look will be revised to what it was.

Jason: It was important to us to care about the safety of the consumers and children and be compliant. VAPE: How do you feel you’re prepared for upcoming regulations? Jason: We’ve really positioned ourselves with our manufacturing, our testing, even recreating all of our own flavors to position ourselves in the market and in the eyes of the government, as a leader. It’s taken a long time, a lot of R&D. We’re planning for the worst and hoping for the best. Graftan: We also have a really strong partnership involved that is really on the forefront of lobbying for this and being more involved on that side of things. We’re prepared with the people that we work with to make sure that we’re able to handle whatever regulations happen in the future. Jason: A lot of people are in this business for a quick buck, and we’re trying to build a brand that lasts. It’s kind of a ballsy statement, but when there’s five or 10 companies left, we hope we’re one of them. Graftan: We want to build a staple brand that you’ll know. VAPE: Anything else to add? Jason: We want to get the point across that we are a brand that is really involved in the music scene, the arts scene and photography. We are talking that culture and helping spread vape into the mainstream market through our avenues that we’re really tied into. Cody: Our goal is to educate non-vapers. When we do these lifestyle shots, and it’s new to people and they don’t know what it is. We want to grab an audience—if you don’t know anything about vaping, A night out at Hakkasan with come in to vaping. We just Jason and his business partner want to get all aspects of Steve Aoki different industries and bring them into vaping. Like you know how Monster Energy sponsors a skateboarder, sponsors a professional snowboarder, it’s getting to that thing now where companies are sponsoring the best trick guy in the world, sponsoring athletes. It’s going to turn into that industry. Black Reserve is taking the first steps with it and kind of leading the way for that time to come. There’s going to be a lot of cool things that are coming up. Jason: The reason for that is we want the community to know that we’re trying to spread the word in a unique way where it reaches the masses, and that’s the purpose that Black Reserve is doing this for. We want to grow this industry into something that is helping people quit smoking and using our outlets to do so. For more information, visit http://www. blackreservevapors.com/.

DEPARTMENTS

Scenic Vapers #CloudCheck Promotes Vaping in Nature

Photo by Tyler Price (@Dripping_Balls) Vince Nero (@the_ohmie_vin) - in picture Cranberry, Penn. Spitfire Tank/Decimus Mod from Praxis Vapors (@praxisvapors)

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Social media sometimes brings people together in ways that we least expect. Friends, followers and likes originate from all over the world, and many people become acquaintances and even close friends without meeting face-to-face. In July 2014, Ian Silver (@Yogi_Wan_Kenobi_Sov) and Tyler Price (@ Drippin_Balls) first met on Instagram when running into each othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; similar photography styles and love for nature. These passions are what led them to create Scenic Vapers, and almost a year later, the pairâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s original goals are staying true to form. From the beginning the main goal was to inspire other to get outside and enjoy the beauty that this world has to offer and the exercise that comes with it. They knew that they loved what they were doing and there had to be others out there who shared the same loves. Ian Silver, or Yogi, lives in Sedona, Ariz. A self-proclaimed nerd and Star Wars junkie, he also is an avid hiker, yoga practitioner and healthy lifestyle promoter. He started his journey in the vape game about a year and a half ago when he and his girlfriend Aimee (@natty_vapes) wanted to find a healthier alternative to smoking cigarettes. They went to a local shop and picked up the Smok Magneto and IGO-W. Since then, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been a whole new world. He started building immediately and fell in love with all aspects of vaping, including the community. He found himself promoting online and doing reviews for companies, and he now works at a local shop called Magic Mist as a sales rep and promoter for Fogg Society (@FoggSociety) and is captain of Team Royal Wires Arizona (@teamroyalwires_az). He and @natty_vapes have a juice line called Chakra Joose (@chakra_joose) and he is proud to be a part of the Society of Vape competition team (@TeamSOV). Tyler Price has been cigarette free for almost two years. He started off with a Volcano e-cig and a cartomizer, and from there with the help of forums and friends and a lot of curiosity and practice he gradually made it into mechanical mods and atomizers. This whole journey has been more than he could have ever hoped for, and he feels blessed to have gotten to meet and get to know so many members of the vaping community. Both Silver and Price have consciously chosen a healthier lifestyle, and they feel that Scenic Vapers gives people the motivation to want to get out and explore all of the beautiful places around them while being active and enjoying life. They aim to promote a healthier lifestyle and living life to the fullest. What they really enjoy the most is being able to get a glimpse at what others from so many different parts of the world get to see on a daily basis. While they feel they are on the right track due to community response so far, neither will quit setting goals for the Scenic Vapers movement. The biggest unexpected challenge, after all, is the wind.

Photo by Tyler Price (@Dripping_Balls) Logan Wells (@mr_subohm) - in picture Ohio Pyle State Park, Penn. Bad Drip T-Shirt (@baddrip) VAPEMZ.COM

Photo by Atlantico Bay (@plat1num_prince) Jayson Magbanua (@Mrpinoykid) - in picture Vance Creek Bridge, Wash.

Photo by Atlantico Bay (@plat1num_prince) (@831gaberodriguez) - in picture/photo editor (@christopher.v7) The Butano Forest, Pescadero, Calif.

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Features

Words and photos by Leigh Oates While it is a daunting task to cram a year’s worth of industry development into a few hundred words, I have gathered what I believe to be the highlights of 2015’s Year In Vaping, from news to hottest products, trends and more.

FDA Deeming Regulations —2015’s Biggest News The FDA is closer than ever to ruling on electronic cigarettes. The final deeming regulations were submitted to the White House Office of Budget and Management in October of this year. A copy of these documents was obtained by a group known as TVECA, the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association, which then made the Table of Contents of the document available to the public. Vendors are preparing for tobacco applications and other registration rules, and the future of e-cigarettes seems uncertain as of press time—unless the 2007 grandfather date can be changed. Bill HR2058 seeks to do just that—change the grandfather date for the FDA’s regulations, and vapers are urged to advocate for this bill. If the grandfather date can be moved forward to 2014, 2015 or even when the final deeming regulations are expected to take effect in 2016, electronic cigarette products would not have to go through the costly process of proving “substantial equivalence.” The PMTA, or Pre-Market Tobacco Application, is expected to be a nearly impossible hurdle for vapor products to pass without piles of scientific measurements, data and evidence about the safety and health effects of the product. And, without concession on the date, is likely to eliminate most of the products on the market due to the extremely high cost of gathering this information. What, exactly, those deeming regulations will be is a question to be answered in 2016, but for now, the vaping industry watches and waits.

Innovations in Vaping Technology 2015 Here are a few of the innovations in vaping technology from 2015.

Temperature Control Devices

And, with them, nickel wire and titanium wire for coils. Temperature control offers a way to vape with less danger of harmful chemicals that come from dry burning the cotton wick. TC mods allow vapers to control how hot the coil gets based on the type of conductive wire used.

Sub-Ohm Tanks

In 2015, it seemed like a new sub-Ohm tank came out every

week. This innovation meant that you don’t have to build your coils to enjoy sub-Ohm vaping. Sub-Ohm tanks and regulated mods make it easy to do safely. Even mainstream vapers enjoy the benefits: bigger clouds and lower nicotine vape e-liquid. Replaceable coil head units make sub-Ohm tanks easier to manage than most rebuildables.

Top-Fill Units

The Crown tank, the Triton and the Smok TFV4 all break the market with top-fill technology, among others, such as the Melo 2. One of the first in-demand top-fill units, the Crown tank, got major attention at expos and trade shows in 2015. Other major manufacturers caught the idea and quickly followed suit. Vapers love it for its ease of refilling, especially since sub-Ohm vaping uses more juice, making the top-fill tank a major convenience factor for vapers.

Drip-Tip Airflows

Such as the Triton and the Assassin tank from Atom Vapes. Top-mounted airflows cool the vapor coming from high-heat, sub-Ohm tanks and provide for a more comfortable vape.

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Features Pre-Built Coil Heads Under 0.5 Ohm

Build resistances seem to get lower and lower! The Arctic, Starre, Atlantis and Subtank follow the sub-Ohm build trend by offering coil heads in the 0.4 Ohm-0.15 Ohm trend.

High-Wattage Box Mods

150 watts and counting! Mods such as the Snow Wolf, Sigelei and IPV4 offer super-high wattages from multiple external batteries. These mods can handle the lowest builds and biggest power demands and were popular in 2015.

Hottest Products of 2015 Subox Starter Kit

The Subox gets recognition as bringing a complete sub-Ohm starter kit suitable for intermediate-level vapers. Much like the eGo One starter kit, the Subox and Subox Nano are complete, out-of-the-box, sub-Ohm kits. The sub-Ohm trend has been fully assimilated into the mainstream with these mods, making them easy to use, complete and attractive.

Joyetech T C Mods

The eVic and eVic VTC Mini are only two examples of the many temperature-control devices released this year. Joyetech stands out for its approachable operation and consistent manufacturing. These TC mods allow the user to adjust the max temp of the coil for safety and flavor purposes.

Aspire Products

Aspire climbed the charts in 2015 with the Pegasus, a nifty mod with a charging dock, and the Atlantis series of sub-Ohm tanks, as well as some items geared toward mouth-to-lung vapers, the Aspire ETS BVC clearomizers.

Vaping Trends of 2015 Complex Builds

Many of the vaping trends of 2015 are linked. Beautiful Instagram “coil porn” photos with intricately twisted builds and clapton-wrapped coils were developed as vapers desired to go super sub-Ohm. The hobby has truly become an art. Simple clapton coils are easy to D.I.Y. with a power drill, but manufacturers also dove into the clapton trend in 2015.

2015 —The Year of the Premium Juice Line

In 2015, it seemed like everyone and their momma had a premium juice line. Juice lines tend to run pretty similar, a high VG blend in glass bottles, offerings of about three to seven flavors, with a catchy theme to bring them all together on the marketing card. As the industry moves toward stricter labeling and bottling standards, including clean room e-liquids, I predict that some of these pop-up e-liquid lines will not be able to meet consumer standards.

Top Vaping News Stories of 2015 Vaping found to be 95 percent less harmful than smoking in a study released by Public Health England: http://vaping.info/ news/2015/public healthengland vaping is 95 less hazardousthansmoking TSA rules: You can’t check your e-cig on a plane, due to fire hazard: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/travel/fedsbanecigarettescheckedairlinebagscitingfire threatn451816 Vape Expo NJ First Vape Expo shut down by the local health department for violation of Clean Indoor Air Act: http://vapenewsmagazine.com/october2015/whatreallyhappenedatvapeexponj Vape shops closed by raids across Malaysia: http://smartvapes.com/blog/vapeshopsclosedbyraidsinmalaysia/ VAPEMZ.COM

PICTORIAL

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PROFESSIONAL SKATER’S CAREER SAVED BY VAPING By Norm Bour Photo by Ezra Zuniga/135fotografiks

We don’t always think of professional skaters as being “athletes,” but tobacco almost cost Alex Perelson his career due to his smoking habits. A young phenom since he started skating at age nine, he turned pro at age 16 and has been mentioned as being the same caliber talent as well-known names Shaun White and Ryan Sheckler. A favorite in his current home in San Diego, he is sometimes called “San Diego’s Favored Son.” Skateboarders are subject to falls and injuries and require stamina to stay on top of their game. How much can they risk by being out of condition? The richest skateboarder’s list from 2012 shows many who have net worth in the tens of millions of dollars. Who is the leader of the pack? It may not come as a surprise, but it’s Tony Hawk, with a net worth at that time of $120 million dollars. With name brand sponsors like Vans, Rockstar Energy Drink and Volcom, Perelson had a lot to lose. Would you quit smoking if you knew that you put all that at risk? Perelson almost lost it all. “I wasn’t the most consistent skater there was,” Perelson confessed, and much of that was due to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. Success at a young age can be a curse as well as a blessing, and he didn’t start developing bad habits until he was 20 years old. First excessive drinking, then cigarettes, and he

soon realized that he was putting his life and career on the line. Now, at age 25 and hitting the quarter century mark, he got it together. He has been alcohol-free for more than one year, celebrating that milestone on his Dec. 5 birthday, and cannot remember his last cigarette. When asked if he has any particular brand of hardware or liquids he said, “Nope, I’m not committed to any particular mod or e-liquid, and I try new stuff all the time.” But, his manager takes a different approach and sends Perelson liquids of the highest purity just to be sure he’s not using tainted products. The Non-Smokers Movement of Australia shares that one drag of a tobacco cigarette can reduce airway movement by 300 percent. Add in tar build up, inflamed membranes in the lungs, and before you know it, we’re gasping for breath. How many other athletes out there could benefit from vaping? Even amateurs will perform better eliminating tobacco products, so it’s good to see a high profile athlete setting a good example. Norm Bour is the founder of VapeMentors, which offers online educational programs, services and resources for anyone in the vape space, including vape shops, online stores and e-liquid brands. He’s also the host of Vape Radio, the largest vaping radio show in the world with more than one million downloads. Norm interviews the masters of vape and thought leaders in the vape space. Contact him at norm@ VapeMentors.com.

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Features

essex uid

q i L E

Founder Talks ‘Premium’ E-Liquid, Being in Business Since 2012 and Upcoming Regulations

By Alyssa Stahr Photos courtesy of Essex E-Liquid

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Features The vaping industry may not be in its infancy, but it’s still young. It’s for that reason Essex E Liquid’s 2012 origins make it seem like a veteran company in the industry. In 2011, CEO Dennis Weddle was a bachelor living paycheck to paycheck, working for a sign company. He was in a motorcycle club and was staying at a friend’s house when a woman gave him the movie The Secret. He said that, as corny as it sounds, he watched the movie. He thought it was BS, but he watched it again. “This lady was nice enough to give it to me, and I needed to watch it with an open mind,” Weddle said. “I watched it again, and what happened was, my boss couldn’t pay me, and it was right before Christmas. I did one of these little visualization things, and it kind of worked.” Weddle ended up with the money he was visualizing right before Christmas, but he thought it was just a coincidence. He tried visualizing again, and it worked. Hoping for the trifecta, he tried to visualize what he really wanted. “I needed to quit going just for money and going for what I really wanted. I always wanted to get paid to draw and own my own company, so I started visualizing owning a sign company,” he said. And then, he got laid off. That didn’t deter Weddle, and about eight years ago, after some coaxing, he started his first business. He hired a salesman, with whom he traded work at a pizzeria. He did the signs for the pizzeria, and the salesman introduced him to vaping. “This was back with the little cartomizers and the end of the cigarette lit up; it was a long time ago,” said Weddle, who had been smoking for around 30 years, since he was 14. “I could never get enough vapor to get off cigarettes; I just couldn’t do it. I spent hundreds of dollars.” But in 2011, Weddle knew that there had to be a better way. He started making his own e-liquid, and in 2012, one of his good friends started Vape Zombies, based in Olympia, Wash. Weddle struggled with the sign company during the “mini-depression,” and money was tight. The Vape Zombies launch prompted him to start researching vaping as a business. He was buying e liquids from other companies, and he realized that he could do better, and soon opened his first vape shop—the first one in his town in Washington State. He came up with several initial lines, along with CoolVapes.com. His first “home run hit” was a flavor called Ahola, which was his version of fruit punch. “Of course, when you have your own vape shop, you have a testing ground to see what people like and buy,” Weddle said. “I was with my kid at Taco Bell, and he goes, ‘Dad, they have this drink called Blueberry Mountain Dew,’ and I said, ‘Let me taste this.’ And, oh, my God, I was going to make this into a flavor. That was my second home run hit; we called it Blue Dew.” The next step in Weddle’s career happened when someone walked into his shop with a well known e-liquid brand in hand. Weddle tried it, and he thought, “This is good, but, no offense to anybody, mine was just as good as theirs was.” But, he was struck by the packaging and the branding. The lightbulb went off, and he realized that the real deal for him was to have an e liquid company and sell wholesale. It took Weddle a year to decide on the first six flavors for Essex. “I drove my guys crazy,” he said. “It’s the funniest thing, because the simplest flavor out of all of them was called Girl’s Best Friend. It was just a coconut banana; I tried 37 different combinations, and once I got it, I tweaked the final five times.”

At the time, everything in the industry was racy, so Weddle based his packaging on a stripper girl with a silhouette. He moved on to hiring a CEO—someone he was working with in the sign industry. After a one-year deal was made, things really started to take off at Essex. “With his knowledge on retail and wholesale, that really excelled my company. Once he came on board, we really started to get big. Through that we went through some pretty big changes,” Weddle said. The changes included toning down the sexual content of his e-liquid marketing. Dealing with European markets, he had to get up to speed with warning labels. He took a look at the entire vaping industry, which was, and still is, under a lot of scrutiny, and he didn’t want anything negative. Even though some customers were used to, and even liked, the sexy names of the first line, Weddle decided to make some changes. “We are so passionate about the industry, and we didn’t want to be negative in any way to the industry as a whole. When I had the vape shop, my average age client was, like, 40. I had 60 year-old customers who were quitting smoking and starting vaping. We really took a hard look; it was a big change for us—basically, just to be proactive with the industry,” he said. Weddle has seen some major changes in the industry since 2012. The one thing that stood out was that, back then, his No. 1 nicotine level seller was 24. “I would not go over that. We had people wanting 36, and I held at 24 because I thought that was plenty enough,” Weddle said. “We sold more 24 than probably zero. We didn’t even have three back then—that was unheard of. When I was making e-liquid in the early days I was using a lot of nicotine.” Times have changed, and now the No. 1 seller is 3 mg. The other change, according to Weddle, is that the industry is “inundated with juice makers.” “When we first started, just the fact that we had a really premium, thought-out, complex e-liquid was huge. Now, you have so many of them to where there’s a real competition; there’s a lot more standup e-liquid manufacturers today,” he said. The final big change, according to Weddle, has been with labs. His first lab was built in the back of the vape shop. It wasn’t really a “lab,” Weddle said. “It looked kind of like a lab, but it was out in the open. We made it real easy to clean everything.” Weddle said that he keeps saying “we” because of all of the people who have helped him along the way, including his employees, are like family to him. With a motto of “Live to Vape,” Essex’s new off-site lab was built by Custom Builders Innovations, and it includes a storage facility on the outside of the lab. There’s never an open container outside of the lab, and it includes an epoxy floor, fiberglass sheeting walls, a filtration system, and stainless steel shelves and tables. On a large bottling day, the facility will produce about 1,000 to 2,000 bottles. Now, almost four years later, Essex’s most popular e-liquid is one of the original six flavors, called Pink Lips—a combination of passion fruit, strawberry and kiwi. Weddle calls Pink Lips the first home-run hit. As far as the Tasty Tunes line goes, a flavor called Rock, a decadent white chocolate, strawberry and cheesecake flavor, is also very popular. The first Essex flavors had no creams or butters, because Weddle was “afraid” of diacetyl in the beginning, so he avoided those flavors altogether. But, Weddle said that his company “did just fine.” Now, he has flavors that are cheesecakes, custards and creams. Then, the company came up with a single shot of e-liquid.

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Features “There’s so many complex flavors out there. We did what we called a single shot, which comes in 50 ml bottles, which are just straight flavors,” Weddle said. “We have a strawberry, watermelon, peach, banana and blueberry.” Even though they are “just” blueberry, Weddle explained that they are a little complex; for example, there are about three different blueberry flavorings mixed together in order to get one flavor of blueberry. Even the single shot is very well thought out. Now with 10 different lines and 73 flavors of e-liquid, Weddle stresses the importance of being innovative and providing premium products. He said what makes that buzzword “premium” to him is the complexity of the e-liquid. With almost 300 different flavors in the lab that he can “play with,” he’s narrowed them down after sourcing ingredients. “I’ve been able to source the very best of PG/VG flavoring, so I’m down to three flavor companies that I use. But, then when you start mixing them together, and not just mixing them together, but the ratios that you mix, there’s a billion flavors that you can come up with,” he said. “So, anybody who throws something together in a day and calls it premium, to me, is not premium.” The flavor set, according to Weddle, takes him hours upon hours. His first six flavors were a year in the making. He said it’s about putting in the time, something he believes a lot of companies do. “I don’t think they’re just throwing some stuff together and then throwing a label on it. There’s a lot of them out there that are. Like the cereal flavors—to me, that trend came and went a long time ago, but you still see them out there,” he said. “It’s a very trendy industry.” Yakima, Wash.based Exclusive Essex carries all of Essex’s brands, and Weddle gives the company a lot of credit, especially after working with many first-time business owners in the beginning. “That’s been a huge challenge. So, having a graphics company, we’re really able to help our customers with point-of-sale and point-of-purchase graphics. I have two graphic designers on my payroll, so I really help the stores that we’re in; we’re invested in them. We want them to succeed, so we help them in any way that we can,” he said.

Along with relationship building with stores comes with time and experience. Vendors that Weddle has gone through to get to where he is now source the very best ingredients to create his premium e-liquids. And, in 2016, Weddle looks forward to building those relationships and FDA regulations. “I think the industry desperately needs to be regulated,” he said. “It’s been one of my biggest fears for years now, and I’m just wondering why they’re taking so long to do it, is that something is going to happen and someone is going to get hurt, and it’s going to affect us all.” Weddle said that Essex will do whatever it takes to stay in business. “We have a lot of customers who depend on us, to where if it does hit, they don’t have to pull our stuff off the shelves. The warning labels, the childproof tops, all that’s a given. Everybody should be doing that; we changed all that years ago,” he said. He thinks that where regulations will come into play is in documentation. “How many of these places actually have procedures and guidelines?” he asked. “We have them all the way from receiving raw materials to shipping finished product, with critical control points.” Everything that goes into Essex’s e-liquids are documented, along with lot numbers and a bottle of e-liquid of every lot stored. Weddle does think where people are guessing wrong is in building medical labs; he thinks it’s totally unnecessary. “I think it’s going to be a clean room environment, probably more so than the food industry, but not as much as the medical industry. That’s why we have a really nice lab, but I’m not going to build any more labs,” he said. “I’m not building another lab until we have regulations, because I need to build that lab to the regulations. I’m not building a lab hoping that it meets regulations or spending money to where it far exceeds regulations. Let’s see what the regulations are, and then build appropriately. I think handling the nicotine and having policies and procedures with quality control points, filing systems, that’s where regulations are going to hit the hardest. I don’t believe a lot of guys are as prepared for that as they probably should be.” For more information, visit http://www.essexeliquid.com/.

(left to right) Kevin Wakefield, marketing director; Chet Wyatt, COO; Kayli Richardson, logistics manager; Dennis Weddle, CEO; Jodi Holmes, graphic designer; Ken Thompson, lab tech; Megan Mitchell, CFO (not pictured) VAPEMZ.COM

Event Coverage

S S E N I S TO S U S B E N I S U B Done Right Words and photos by Norm Bour

That elusive target of vaping events that provide a true business-to-business environment may have gotten one step closer with Vape Nights 2015, held at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, Calif., which used to house the Electronic Cigarette Convention (ECC) for several years until it got too large. As bigger is not always better, Vape Nights had a smaller crowd than other mega-shows, but it provided a sense of intimacy, which is what business-tobusiness should be about. Event promoter and founder Ray Yang, president of R2MediaHub, is a big proponent of education and made it a priority to offer top-notch speakers. With celebs like Austin Hopper, founder of REVOL Vapors, sharing his tips on taking

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Event Coverage an unknown product into the spotlight, the attentive crowd got what they wanted: inside information and little-known, but common-sense, secrets. Michael Guasch, CEO of Molecule Labs, had to revise his initial presentation due to the FDA regs that were delivered to OMB the week prior. “I wanted my talk to be timely, since these regulations were worse than I feared, and I needed to let everyone know that compliance is important,” he said. Guasch spoke about the pros and cons of producing your own e-liquid, versus having a contractor do the job, and profiled what the proper lab show look like. Since the vast majority of exhibitors were e-liquid companies, this was a particularly timely subject, and their prominence was even more noteworthy due to the lack of distributors and hardware manufacturers at the event. The always entertaining Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, spared no one’s emotions as he drilled down the details of these new rules. “All that really matters is that we move the Grandfather Date of Feb. 15, 2007, to something more current,” he said. “Everything else takes second place to that.” His ominous words fell hard as Conley confessed, “I’m not in the business of making people happy.” Cynthia Cabrera, president of SFATA, was a last-minute addition, and between her and Conley, they gave the crowd the most up-to-date information available. I spoke about “taking your business to the next level” in this soon-to-be more competitive and challenging world. Like many events these days, this one started on Thursday with B2B and continued through Friday. Saturday was consumer day, which, surprisingly, many vendors chose to skip. In addition, many that did show up came late to the party. The standard operating procedures of vaping shows seem to be changing. Though they are still noisy and smoky, with scantily clad babes running around everywhere, one thing that seems to be on the downswing is offering of free

Norm Bour (left) and Gregory Conley Photo by Katie Coates

VAPEMZ.COM

samples. Most provide on-site sampling only, and some sell retail, whereas others do not. Stevie Blackburn from Ethos Vapers was an exception, as someone that likes consumer days and loves seeing their customers’ eyes light up when they try something they enjoy. When asked if Ethos Vapers offers free product samples, Blackburn said, “We try not to do it at shows. We know it damages the local shops when they leave with sacks of free product. But, if they contact us afterwards and request a sample, then we know they are more serious.” This was a great opportunity to bring major thought-leaders together with the public, so VapeMentors hosted a dinner on Day Two with all the speakers and members of the public that wanted to know how they got there. Overall, the dinner was an enlightening success, and the MasterMind dinners will be offered at future events.

This show was particularly well run, though it was smaller than others both in vendor size as well as crowd attendance. This probably will be the template for the future. The trend seems to be smaller, regional events in different parts of the nation. There is still a battle for the “bigger is better” trophy, and there are several contenders; many promoters are driven to host mega-events. Time will tell who has staying power. Norm Bour is the founder of VapeMentors, which offers online educational programs, services and resources for anyone in the vape space, including vape shops, online stores and e-liquid brands. He’s also host of Vape Radio, a podcast series that interviews the masters of vape and thought leaders in the vape space. Contact him at norm@ VapeMentors.com.

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Words and photos by Alyssa Stahr First speaker and moderator of Day 1 of the Moscow Vape Expo, American Vaping Association President Gregory Conley, perhaps summed up our industry and the event best: “There’s plenty to learn. This is a very complex industry that is constantly changing and constantly evolving, so there’s plenty of room for opportunities to learn at this event.”

Event Coverage Even though my last trade show of 2015 was held in Russia, it paralleled many aspects of the industry that are happening stateside. While the speakers (myself included for the first time) were inside a room speaking about advocacy, the crowd was outside hitting up the booths from around the world, taking photos with beautiful women and watching cloud chasers. All in all it was a festive atmosphere during both days at the Sokolniki Exhibition and Convention Centre, and I was happy with the turnout of the crowd inside the conference doors. Even though many of the listeners of our panel didn’t speak English, they were provided a translator, and it was a smooth event. Conley was up first, and he spoke about “Lessons to be Learned from America’s War on Vaping.” He began with his story as a smoker for about eight years, and then in 2010 he bought an open vapor product and finally quit successfully. Conley didn’t pull any punches as usual, speaking about the disruptive technology of the industry and the threat we are to the tobacco industry. He started off with a theme that

would echo throughout the day’s presentations: where regulations are in different parts of the world and how people are trying to destroy vaping. “I believe very strongly in the phrase, ‘Know Your Enemy,’” he said. “Your biggest enemy is going to be tobacco control.” Conley shared with listeners about minor bans, taxation, child-resistant packaging laws and vaping bans across the United States. Perhaps the most telling of statements in his speech was that smokers are not proud to smoke. “Maybe it’s different in Russia, but I don’t think so. Vapers are proud to vape,” he said. Next on Conley’s agenda were the FDA’s deeming regulations in the United States and the importance of the grandfather date. With more than 100,000 vapor products on the market, the deeming regulations could shrink the market by more than 99 percent, according to Conley.

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“The FDA has admitted they expect businesses to close,” he said. He went into how the public is getting mixed messages about vaping risks. In 2010, 85 percent believed that e-cigs were safer than cigarettes. That number dipped in 2015 due to misinformation. Only 44 percent of U.S. citizens believe ecigarettes are less hazardous than smoking. He closed with some general ways to win or survive in the industry. He said that America has made a lot of bad mistakes in marketing our products. Yes, it’s the center of vaping, but we’ve done a lot of stupid things, he shared. He then went into Federal Regulation and The Tobacco Control Act and explained to the crowd about how important it was to know about it if they were going to make e-liquids and work with the United States. “Don’t make vaping in Russia about clouds. Make vaping in Russia about getting off cigarettes. Clouds are fine, but don’t make that the biggest part of your marketing. If you make it all about clouds, the public is going to think you’re a bunch of hustlers and that you’re not making it about health, you’re just making it worse,” he said.

“Don’t make vaping in Russia about clouds. Make vaping in Russia about getting off cigarettes ...” I was next, and I talked about innovations and trends that VAPE Magazine reported on in 2015. I shared with the crowd trends I’ve seen about cloud chasing, device innovations, hot products, vaping for a cause, protecting your right to vape, premium e-liquids, events and customer service in brick and mortar locations. I received a lot of Q&A, mostly about the demographics of vapers in the United States. Derick Kvass of Kvass Inc., the event’s platinum sponsor, spoke briefly about why it’s important as an industry that we create a united front and uphold our standards and what our purpose is, which is to create alternative methods for smokers. “What I love about it is that we are helping people every single day,” Kvass said.

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Next up was Jordan Stewart, co-founder of the E-Cigarette Club. Jordan Stewart from the E-Cigarette Club started his talk off by saying that we need to try to raise the level of customer service in the industry. Owning three brick and mortar stores in the north of Ireland with his wife, he addressed the state of what’s happening in Europe and the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) and stressed education.

The day’s presentations closed with Yush Zhu, director of marketing and sales for Ruvian Technology, an e-cigarette manufacturer in China. Zhu’s talk centered around a development overview and the e-cig industry’s regulations in China, Chinese e-cigarette market analysis and the “other side of Made in China.” Chinese regulations are predicted to take even longer, according to Zhu, with a clear policy of regulations “by 2020.”

“We’re facing a serious challenge. A challenge that actually may come March of next year. We might not even have a business or a business that is completely unrecognizable to what we have today,” Stewart said.

“The Chinese authorities are really closely observing in Europe the TPD and in U.S. with the FDA,” he said.

He then played an excerpt from the highly-anticipated documentary, A Billion Lives.

After discussing demographics of Chinese vapers, he stressed targeting a different type of customer in China. “If you want to target a different type of customer, you need to have a different kind of strategy in China.”

After a delicious lunch, coffee and muffin break, Beju Lakhani, CEO and founder of VapeMoshi, presented, “Leveraging Technology to Grow Your Vape Business.” Based in Toronto, Canada, Lakhani also serves as president of the Canadian Vaping Association. With former senior roles at Salesforce.com, Oracle and CenturyLink, his theme was how retail has changed and tools that are available outside of the brick and mortar shop to help businesses succeed.

All in all, the two days of Vape Expo Moscow were a great success. The show floor was busy with vapers and booming businesses, cloud chasers and advocates. Organizers are preparing for next year’s event, to be held June 24-26, 2016. For more information, visit http://vapeexpo.ru/en.

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Event Coverage

VCC Midwest Continues Tobacco Harm Reduction Fight

By Nick Bessette Photos by Kevin Skipper If you’ve ever attended a Vaping Convention Circuit event you know they tend to be a little different than your average vaping event. With a strong focus on advocacy and inviting current smokers to check out the world of vaping, Kevin Skipper’s events are more about tobacco harm reduction rather than free products and cloud competitions.

Skipper and his team also try to bring vaping events to areas where there haven’t been any before, breaking new ground and blazing a trail for smokers everywhere to learn more about the vaping industry. With around 3,500 people in attendance over the two days that the event was open to the public, you could definitely feel the electricity in the air.

“VCC is first and foremost a Tobacco Harm Reduction company that organizes vaping conventions. It is, and will remain, the primary focus of every VCC event,” Skipper said.

“It was very smooth and professional. Yes, there were a lot of vapers and businesses excited about the event, and I heard a lot of positive comments from those I spoke with personally,” Skipper said when asked about the events atmosphere.

When asked how he runs his events, he said, “We do as much pre-planning as possible to ensure the events are executed with little or no issues, and in venues that either support or are neutral on vaping. We will not go to a venue that does not support or opposes what we are doing, even if they offer a special event waiver.”

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Skipper likes to break the mold of the traditional vaping event by holding an industry advocacy panel during his events. After setting up their booths, the vendors are invited to participate in a Q&A session with some of the industry’s leading advocates. This allows them to ask the burning questions they might have about what they can do to help save the vaping industry. If that wasn’t enough, Skipper said that they also do THR advocacy talks for attendees on the main stage at every VCC event. On the list of advocates in the panel was Kevin Skipper (VISTA), Schell Hammel (SFATA Texas), Alex Clark (CASAA), Joe Barnett and Robin Barsky (The Vaping Militia), Dimitris Agrafiotis (TSFA/ VISTA) and Aaron Biebert (A Billion Lives). Also new this time around was the introduction of the SponsorASmoker program. John Denver (Northern Nevada Vapers) and Jonathan Thomas (Vapestars/Flawless) from SponsorASmoker had a table right at the front entrance. Skipper said, “It went great; they handed out a number of kits and educated smokers about vaping and the community. They also received many donations from vendors of hardware and eliquid, as well as money, to grow the program.” Another special event that went on after the first day was the THR advocacy benefit featuring none other than DJ Miami (aka Phil Busardo.)

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“It blew every other VCC THR fundraising effort out of the water. We had $5,000 just from the event, then the next morning (Sunday), White Label Juice Co. matched the $5,000, as did VaporWorld.biz, and then Cloud Chasers Inc. decided to match both of their contributions with $10,000 bringing the grand total to $25,000!,” Skipper said. “Phil does a great job and we appreciate him volunteering to do this for us at VCC events.” The money raised was split evenly with CASAA, AVA and The Vaping Militia as well as OVAL (Oklahoma Vapers Advocacy League).

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So, VCCMW has come and gone and maybe you weren’t able to attend but don’t worry, Skipper always has a new location up his sleeve. When asked what’s next, he said, “Right now we are working on Tampa (VCCT16) for March 12-13 at the Florida State Fairgrounds. The hall is 52,000 plus sq. ft., so twice the size of the previous two VCC events in Tampa (the only place we have done repeat events so far, because it’s home … and 75 degrees in the winter). Beyond that, we are vetting locations for other events, but nothing we can disclose just yet.” You never know, the next VCC could be right in your backyard! Skipper would like to say thanks to the vendors that continue to support VCC events. “We appreciate them— we had a great co-presenter for VCCMW15 in Tulsa (All About Vapor), and another for VCCT16 in Tampa (Good Life Vapor). We will continue to do everything we can to spread the news about vaping so we can continue to convert smokers and change lives.” For more information, visit http:// www.vapingcc.com/. VAPEMZ.COM

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Event Coverage

Support Local Charity By Norm Bour Photos by Roy Mananquil with Roybot Vision

In the eyes of the public, vapors sometimes get a bad rap. Blowing “smoke” in voluminous clouds can rub members of the public the wrong way, and much of the disconnect is due to lack of knowledge. When vapors get a chance to bring a positive image to the public that’s a good thing. And a very good thing took place Dec. 6, 2015 in Norwalk, Calif., at the warehouse of Villain Vapors as committee members Lisa Kellett (with Villain Vapors), Malinda Ridenour (High Voltage Vapors), Jan Halili (Calivapers), Nikki Litonjua (Cartel Mods), Rozzi De Chanel (Vaperazzi), Rodney Johnson (Juice Box E-Liquids) and Calvin Macaraeg (Vape Pics) hosted the Second Vape Foodies event to support various charities. Their mission is to “provide a heart-warming event that brings vapers together in a non-vape related environment for the sole purpose of enjoying the holiday season with one another while supporting our community and helping out those who are less fortunate.” All money that was raised went to three charities: SFATA, Project Hope and Foley House. The idea is to have fun and according to co-founder Super Jaymze “We decided

to make it a holiday event based on the suggestion of Lisa Kellett from Villain Vapors. Until then we were meeting casually at different events, but once we got focused it made a world of difference”. Local celebs Roybot and Patman, the two other founders of this event, also participated. This celebration is not open to the general public until the last week, and then by invite only. Vaping is known for having a connection with food, since many e-liquid creators come from culinary fields. For this second edition 40 dishes were entered in the cook-off, and about 500 attendees had a chance to munch on a variety of different dishes. Some were made on-site and others in advance.

(from left to right) Nico Manalad (Cartel Mods), Calvin Macaraeg (Villain Vapors) and Rozzi De Chanel (Vaperazzi)

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In 2014 in their inaugural event, they raised about $5,000 with just over 300 attendees. This year they had about 40 to 50 different raffle prizesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;most of them non vape related and expect to donate much more.

Norm Bour is the founder of VapeMentors, which offers online educational programs, services and resources for anyone in the vape space, including vape shops, online stores and e-liquid brands. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also host of Vape Radio, a podcast series that interviews the masters of vape and thought leaders in the vape space. Contact him at norm@ VapeMentors.com.

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Event Coverage

Second Next Generation Nicotine Delivery Conference Returns With Engaging, Informative Information By Alyssa Stahr Photos courtesy of David Jones, event manager for the Next Generation Nicotine Delivery Conference The highly anticipated Next Generation Nicotine Delivery Conference returned Nov. 17-18, 2015 for another informative, engaging event. Held in London at the Novotel London West, this year’s event focused on advancements in the e-cigarette and NCP market, presenting an open learning forum with valuable take home messages, interactive sessions and high calibre speakers. Show organizers planned for the 2015 event to build on the success of last years’ conference program and to continue to spotlight innovation in the e-cigarette market alongside other alternative nicotine delivery products, while delving into key regulatory aspects and highlighting advancement in product/manufacturing quality standards.

Tesfaye said that there are many different opinions and perspectives regarding the development of this evolving market, so it was particularly good to see the audience actively participate in discussions/debates while also respecting each other’s opinions. Innovation with the consumer at heart was a recurring theme—specific standards have to be met here (e.g. GMP and, PAS 54115 as presented by Katherine Devlin, ECITA) so it is important to gain an understanding of what is expected before investing further in product manufacturing/development.

“The round table sessions alongside engaging panel discussions and case studies always resonate well with the audience and as a result we aim to encourage more interactivity in the 2015 conference program,” organizers said. The conference served as a platform to discuss pivotal developments in the e-cigarette and alternative nicotine delivery industry, with key senior-level representatives participating in open and interactive discussions, facing the shared uncertainty of regulation. The delegate list included innovators and thought leaders from the sector. VAPE spoke via email to Program Director Rachel Tesfaye and other organizers of the event about 2015’s happenings. As program director, Tesfaye is responsible for developing the program/agenda pre-conference (speaking faculty, topics, presentations). “I work alongside our wonderful NGND team to engage with the audience through pre-conference industry updates, support smooth on-site delivery and develop the conference for the following year based on valuable attendee feedback. This is a conference tailored for the NCP industry by the NCP industry,” she said.

Organizers said that it was interesting to hear the MHRA’s perspective from Beryl Keely since again the TPD is the hottest topic at this time, and the MHRA play a crucial role in its implementation, so it was invaluable to hear Beryl’s insights—it was especially good to see the audience engage with this presentation in a positive way.

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Event Coverage This year’s conference featured 23 presenters/roundtable hosts across the two days, and both days were chaired by Clive Bates, director at Counterfactual.

Spotlighted Presentation Day 1:

Beryl Keeley from the MHRA providing an update on the TPD and the relevant timescales for submissions. Positioned alongside industry leaders: Gamucci (U.K.), Diamond Pharma Services (U.K.) and EcigIntelligence (U.K.).

Spotlighted Presentation Day 2:

Liam Humberstone from Totally Wicked—exploring hardware innovations. Positioned alongside industry leaders: White Cloud Electronics Cigarettes (U.S.), Nicoccino (Sweden) and ECITA (UK Trade Association). The event had a total of 99 attendees, including those from the United Kingdom, Poland, Germany, Netherlands, Croatia, Switzerland and the United States. There were five exhibitors—Diamond Pharma Services, Connect2 Cleanrooms, Monmouth Scientific, Medical Engineering

Technologies and Nicoccino—and four sponsors: Diamond Pharma Services, ELDA, Nerudia and Smithers Rapra.Due to the success of this year’s conference, organizers want to mainly focus on developing the programme further next year to incorporate the perspectives of other NCPs and potentially NRTs. While NRTs work to different regulatory guidelines, this is a consumer-driven conference, hence it is important to observe products that speak to consumers within this framework. Why do consumers invest in these products? What opportunities are there? What trends have been observed in consumer behavior? How can we educate consumers better? Organizers also will feature selected updates from the 2015 conference e.g. MHRA update on the TPD Article 20, alongside having dedicated morning and afternoon focus groups across both days to have more open and interactive sessions—this is where topics can be discussed at a deeper level with a little more interactivity. With so many events in 2015, organizers said that while this conference features predominately electronic cigarettes

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and e-liquids, they have weaved in topics from other NCPs to create a holistic view of the market from a consumer perspective. Dedicated research is carried out with around 40 different industry representatives to establish the topics and overall scope of the conference. This is to gain an unbiased and robust understanding of the key challenges and opportunities for the industry, which Tesfaye then translates onto the program. She then invites selected speakers to share his or her insights. “The overall aim is to ensure this is an interactive contentdriven conference with the consumer at heart. This is an evolving market facing many challenges (primarily implementation of TPD Article 20), however a collaborative effort is required to succeed alongside educating consumers (and those who have a different perception of electronic cigarettes and NCPs),” Tesfaye said. For more information, email events@arena-international.com or visit http://www.arena-international.com/nextgennicotine.

2015 References: “Honestly, everything was good. You did a good job!” - International Sales Manager, Alternative Ingredients “Good mix of attendees. Good layout and excellent time dedicated to networking” - Managing Director, Broughton Laboratories “Very well organized. Good attendance, Great level of knowledge.” - Account Manager, Nerudia “The opportunities to network were plentiful, and the number of delegates allowed for meaningful discussions with all relevant parties. The format was excellent and well managed, and the location and food was superb!” - Managing Director, VaperCrew eLiquids “Great speakers, good venue, well organized, valuable knowledge exchange.” - Toxicologist, Bibra Toxicology

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Event Coverage

Second Annual CECMOL Brings E-Cig Industry Leaders to China By Alyssa Stahr Photos by Wen Ning

Even though the e-cigarette is thought to be conceived in China, it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t until last year that the first huge convention came to the motherland in the form of CECMOL in Shenzhen. CECMOL is Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest platform for the electronic cigarette industry, providing not only a convention but an online platform service with two million users each year. We spoke with Roger Luo, the operations director of CECMOL, about the second annual event at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center held in October.

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VAPE: What were some highlights of this year’s show for you personally? Luo: We had more than 30 overseas e-cig and e-liquid brands at this October’s vape expo, such as E-Liquid Solutions (USA), Baker White (USA), Khali Vapors (USA), COV (USA), iBliss (Canada), J WELL (France), Babylon Vape (Russia), Liquid Factory (Malaysia), LSS (South Korea) and many more. Some of them built a stage at their booths and had dancers and a DJ, creating a vaping lifestyle that is very new in China’s expo world, compared with other traditional and serious B2B expos.

Luo: We had 158 vendors and brands, and around 52,000 attendees. VAPE: Any challenges or unexpected things that happened? Luo: It’s our second time to organize CECMOL and we had good preparations and there were not many challenges for us. The unexpected things were that we had great success both on our New Product Launch on the first day and Vape Cloud Competition on the second day, so some exhibitors asked us at the last minute to arrange other events for them, so we added more events and shows on the big stage on the third day of our expo.

Additionally, VGOD team’s vape tricks show on the big stage attracted thousands of young Chinese vapers and followers at our expo. We held a vape cloud competition on the big stage and had around 100 vapers attend it. The prices were in cash: ￥8888RMB, ￥3888RMB and ￥2888RMB.

VAPE: There were no speakers this time around. Do you plan on changing that for the next CECMOL? Luo: Our next E-Cig Forum will be on April 7, the day before our third expo from April 8 to 10 in 2016.

VAPE: How many vendors did you have and how many attendees?

VAPE: Let’s talk about advocacy. How does your show approach this?

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Luo: We advocate tobacco harm reduction and a healthy vaping lifestyle. We promoted our advocacy through 2,000 media partners worldwide, including on the billboard of Times Square in New York. VAPE: How does your show approach the stigma of cloning in China, and how do you hope to work together with other countries on a global scale? Luo: We prohibit the clones to be exhibited at our expo. We send a statement to all the Chinese exhibitors before the expo that we prohibit any clones to be exhibited at our expo. If we still find any domestic exhibitor exhibiting clones at our expo, we will strictly deal with it and ask them to take the clones off the shelves immediately. We will discuss it with other speakers from overseas countries about how to work together with them on a global scale at our next E-cig Forum on April 7. VAPE: Do you plan on doing anything for the next CECMOL? Luo: We will try our best to promote our third CECMOL China to attract more vendors, buyers, distributors and visitors, and we will also make good preparations for our third International E-Cig Forum, New Product Launch and Vape Cloud Competition. VAPE: There are so many shows being put on in our industry. What sets yours apart as the must-see show of the year? Luo: Compared with other vape expos in China, ours is the biggest and most professional one. We have the rich experience of organizing the first two CECMOLs, and we are the organizer of the first vape expo, the first E-Cig Forum and the first Vape Cloud Competition in China. On April 8 to 10, we will have estimated more than 1,000 new products to be exhibited at our expo, as well as the New Product Launch and Vape Cloud Competition, which introduces the latest vaping lifestyle of European and American countries. Also the top level of E-Cig Forum, which gathers together the global elites in the vaping industry, makes our expo the must-see show of the year. For more information, visit http://expoen.cecmol.com/.

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Event Coverage

VPX NOLA Nir Barzllay, Zombies Juice

Words and photos by Matt Schramel Down on the bayou, in the Big Easy. VPX and ECC hosted a vape trade show and party in one of my favorite cities, New Orleans! The show was held at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, a sprawling, world class venue, just a few blocks from the great food and music of the French Quarter on Nov. 6-8. It was a solid turnout for both attending vendors and foot traffic. A big hit was the sold out after party, hosted by and featuring hip hop performances by Murphy Lee and Kyjuan of the St. Lunatics. If you missed this event, I would suggest making it next year. Where else can vapers enjoy food and fun, while networking with other vapers and businesses in a world class city, venue and show? In the meantime, enjoy these photo highlights from VPX Nola!

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Event Coverage

ABOVE: Joe Barnett, Vaping Militia director, introduced the Louisiana Association of E-Cigarette

Retailers (LAECR), Chris Flowers,

Ly Nguyen, Heather Hutton and Chad Rogers. Louisiana is one of the most regulated and taxed states for vapor.

LEFT: Cynthia Cabrera, SFATA president. Cabrera pleads with vapers to work together before it is too late. She explains that without cooperation, the industry will be regulated for us. She also encouraged the vaping community to think before evangelizing vape to the general public, “Will this help our cause?” According to Cabrera, vapor products may be regulated as tobacco products, and there is a possibility that each device, each e-liquid flavor and nicotine level will be required to register product at a cost of more than two million dollars per SKU, which will essentially “wipe us out.” Learn more at www.sfata.org and consider becoming a member today.

RIGHT: Gregory Conley, American Vaping Association president. Conley had a more dire prediction, explaining that each vapor product could cost up to “six to seven million dollars.” Conley goes on to say that it would be a “defacto ban on e-liquid in six months.” Conley urges support of H.R. 2058. This act moves up the 2007 date to the date of the announced upcoming deeming regulations. This would permit products that have been sold after 2007. This is important because 99 percent of the innovation occurred after 2007. If this act does not pass, it will wipe out eight years of vaping products and only legacy cigalikes will be permitted to be sold.

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Event Coverage

TOP LEFT: Congratulations to Ashley King, who donated to the #VAPEMagazine, @VPXshow and @ECC_EXPO holiday food drive with Second Harvest Food Bank. She received a basket full of high-end devices, e-liquid and swag. Because of your cash and food donations, we were able to provide more than 600 meals to hungry families in Southern Louisiana over the holidays. We would also like to thank the companies that gave atomizers, mods, e-juice and accessories to the gift basket: Walking Vaped Cloud Punkz Kilo Elevape ABE Vape Ya Tailfeather Demonic Vapes Backwoods Vapor

Premeier eliquids Trinity Glass Tanks Group ISO WUD SBS Modz Vaporuzed Inc Diamond Vapor South Tradition E-liquid

FFDA eliquid Sapphire Vapewell Cake E-liquid Climax Cotton Switch Mods Cool Breeze Vapor VAPE Magazine

Murphy Lee and Kyjuan of the St. Lunatics, along with Vape Ya Tailfeather, donated to the food drive and donation basket.

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Event Coverage

Switch Mods: Andrew Richard, Tay Tay Djnbar, Jude Fernando

Climax Cotton John Green and Luke Sims

Dylan Ramos, Vapor Dynamix Tradition Vapesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; pre-made Coils.

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MOD TECH

Tech Reflect

Words and photo by Chris Mellides

Smoke Stack Modz • Neon Dual 18650 Unregulated B-Box Mod Smoke Stack Modz (SSM) is a family-run business based in Walkersville, Md., that offers custom box mods at affordable prices. The husband and wife duo and co-owners Josh and Alisha Ketterman specialize in unregulated boxes wired in either series or parallel that come in a variety of powder-coated colors and sizes. Almost all of the mods utilize the popular Hammond project box enclosures, while some on the smaller side make use of the CNC A+ enclosure. At first glance, the deep laser engraving of a demon skull with smoke stacks for horns, chucking billowing clouds of exhaust, immediately draws you in. While the logo may not be for everybody, it’s nicely done and only adds to the cool aesthetic, in my opinion. The box sent to me for review is part of the SSM neon line and makes use of the Hammond B-box enclosure measuring 2.5” wide by 4.25” tall and is 1.25” deep. If what you’re looking for is a smaller box with equal bite, SSM offers the dual 18650 G-box, which measures 2” wide by 3.75” tall and is 1” deep. The manufacturer claims that, because the smaller box uses slightly less wiring than its bigger B-box brother, there is a little less voltage drop, which allows the mod to hit slightly harder. No matter the box, MOSFETs come installed and are a company standard. Mosfet-fitted boxes offer a little added protection and ease the stress on the unit’s switch, which prevents it from failing—this is paramount, particularly if you’re rocking low-resistance builds. SSM parallel-wired boxes are ideal for vapers who prefer low-Ohm builds and are looking for the performance of a traditional mechanical mod with less battery sag, but twice the battery life.

So, a dual 18650 setup, where each battery reads 4.2 volts when fully charged, when wired in series, will give you a whopping 8.4 volts of pure skull-bashing power. It’s for this reason that you’ll want to use an atomizer with plenty of airflow and wrap larger coils at a higher resistance to keep your build from overheating and melting your face clean off the bone. “0.24 is the lowest I recommend running on my series boxes. You’re pushing 30 amps, which is what the MOSFETS can handle,” Ketterman said. “I push my personal box a little harder, but it’s mainly for testing purposes. A 0.24 equals roughly 220 watts.” He added, “When you’re running a series box, it’s all about coil coverage. I would use some nichrome to get some big fat coils. Don’t wrap any smaller than a 3 mm and when you wick, you don’t want it to be extremely tight.” Ketterman recommends not letting the batteries in his series box drop below five volts. “My main concern below five volts is damaging your cells; however, you also don’t get the draw your mod is capable of,” he said. SSM offers mods that accommodate triple 18650 batteries and dual 26650 batteries as well. On to the main attraction—the B-box. This is a big bastard of a mod and is wired in series with a custom, 3D-printed battery sled that houses two 18650 batteries. Early Hammond box mods, like the Duke and early runs of the HexOhm, had doors that either wobbled, were hard to remove to access your batteries, or both. I’m happy to report that the box I received does not suffer from any of these issues. The door is incredibly easy to unhinge, yet it stays firmly in place and does not wobble one bit.

It’s recommended that if you go parallel (below .28 Ohms), you shouldn’t build lower than .15 Ohms, as you really shouldn’t push the MOSFET/switch too hard if you want to prolong the lifespan of your device. “If you’re into building larger coils to get more coil coverage, then a series box is for you,” Josh Ketterman, said. “I don’t recommend a series box to a new vaper; it puts out a lot of power that might be too much for you,” which is true. While parallel boxes afford you better battery life because you are, in effect, doubling your milliamp hour (or mAh), a series box doubles your voltage output and drains like any other unregulated mechanical mod would.

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MOD TECH I’m also happy to report that the contacts on the mod’s battery tray have, at no point, grabbed or torn the wrapping on my 18650 batteries, which has always been a major peeve of mine. The wiring is super clean, and I do enjoy the built-in voltage meter that displays an accurate voltage of the batteries under load when an atomizer is attached, and the voltage left in your cells when the atomizer is not attached. The atomizer connector is a Fat Daddy Vapes V4 510 and it is spring-loaded. Everything I’ve tossed on it sits nice and flush, so no harm there whatsoever. The 16 mm flush mount stainless steel switch is a joy to use and is incredibly responsive. I have experienced zero misfires. My one gripe, and this in no way impacts performance or functionality, is that the 510 sits at an angle, so upon careful inspection, your attached attys have the appearance of sitting slightly crooked. This is a condition my colleagues have dubbed the “Hammond lean,” which has most always been a flaw with these enclosures. But it’s hardly noticeable and is merely a cosmetic issue for the anal retentive.

the logo, the voltmeter is nicely installed, voltage drop is minimal and the price is wonderful. Depending on the box type and its optional add-on features (which include an additional high amp MOSFET and blue LED halo switch), an SSM box will run you between $100-$130. My box has the benefit of an external LED voltage meter, which is an upgradable feature on the B-box and will run an additional $15. So, the total cost of my unit was $115. Not bad. These mods are available online directly through Smoke Stack Modz at www.smokestackmodz.com. Chris Mellides began vaping in 2012 and witnessed the rise and fall of the cartomizer tank firsthand. A multimedia journalist, he has contributed to various local and national publications and has worked for WSHU Public Radio. Mellides takes an honest approach to reviewing the latest vaping hardware, separating the diamonds from the rough and suggesting where your money might be better spent. He works weekends at one of the first vape shops to launch on Long Island and lives in a fortified compound near Queens, N.Y.

There’s not much more to say, really. At the end of the day, this box is a Hammond. We’ve all seen them before, and in series, the mod does a good job at delivering a swift kick to the maw. The finish is slick, the wiring is clean, I adore

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COLUMNS

Wave of 200 is Just Big Fluff

Words and photos by Arvid Sollom

Once again, we are seeing a race to catch up to the bar set by Evolv. First, what seems like ages ago, it was the Darwin with wattage control. The Darwin was able to step up from mere voltage adjustment to intelligently monitor the atomizer and create a smooth way to control the output based on coil properties. It was quickly imitated; however, the results were less than stellar. Some may alsos remember the Vamo. It was a wattage control device that became commonplace, and few folks really knew what they were missing when using one, versus the chip that inspired it. The Vamo, and others like it, used pulse width modulation (PWM) to approximate wattage output. Essentially, the device pulses its near-full power, and then cuts off repeatedly. The average of the output and cutoff produces approximately the same watts as desired on the device. These devices regulated themselves at 33 Hz, which produced a signature “rattlesnake” sound when firing certain coils as they quickly heated and cooled—a sort of “tststststststststs” that became well known. Compared to the Darwin, which produced a perfectly steady output, these devices were a significant step down in experience, but they adequately accomplished the job and continued to watch Evolv for the next step.

More Imitation, Flattery and Falling Behind Next came temperature control. Again, Evolv focused on highquality, responsive electronics that produced a smooth, accurate experience. Imitators again turned to PWM, rather than direct control of the voltage output, and managed to achieve a semblance of the same results. Some makers, like Yihi, reached far and managed to come close with their SX350J chip, which was

a diamond in the rough patches of rattling PWM chips (the “rough” feel of a PWM vape and also a rough patch in tech development) released, and it demanded a premium price along with it. However, in its cheaper line, Yihi still allowed the pulsing control methods to lead the way. Truth be told, devices like the IPV4 and Sigelei 150TC are capable devices, and do accomplish temperature control in a way that is effective enough to stop burning and add a pleasurable method of control to vaping. They even seem fairly impressive in their own right; while Evolv sat on their 40 watt DNA for what seemed like an eternity in the vape world, the competitors were pushing 60 then up to 100 watts into the realm of temperature control. This allowed many folks who border on cloud chasing to start adopting the technology. An IPV3 Li with a titanium dual coil dripper and 100 watts to drive it, even with PWM limiting the power usage, can be a cloudy, downright warm, experience in the right hands. It started to seem like Evolv had given the cold shoulder to those focused on big vapes. They continued to explain that 40 watts could achieve any temperature needed when built properly, and by and large, they were right. But, it seemed like they were missing the trend of the industry.

The Cost of Truth Then, the rumors started. Phil Busardo, an industryknown reviewer who has been close to Evolv Vapor, started leaking hints that there was something big coming. Even Brandon Ward, president of Evolv, showed up on a video, saying little and hinting much. If there’s one thing we’ve learned watching the products turned out by this company, it’s that each level is groundbreaking and done with a level of perfection unrivaled in its competitors. The DNA 200 was on the horizon, but it was entering a field already populated by mods claiming high wattage that also offered temperature control. It set itself apart by offering a geek’s world of customization, but quickly landed in a pool of competing 200 watt devices. And it had this quirk: It needed

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columns three cells (think: batteries) to power it properly. Everyone else seems to be saying the same thing, but only need two 18650s. What makes the DNA 200 so greedy? The Truth. Telling the truth in the power ratings is why they are so greedy. To tell the truth, it COSTS.

Lies Abound I wrote an earlier article, “The Lies Our Mods Tell,” and the 200 watt, two-battery mods are the biggest liars of them all. They are the extra sea foam on the top of the wave, fluffed by theoretical achievements you will never see in the real world—the Snow Wolf 200, the Fuchai, the Sigelei 200, Asolo, Kooper 200, Tesla variants, etc, etc, etc. If it has two 18650 batteries, it will not deliver 200 watts. That’s the long and short of it. Even with the highest-amp rated, least voltage-sagging, brand-new pair of 18650 batteries in the vape market of 2015, with the perfect build for efficiency, none of these devices could do more than dream of a single puff at 200 watts before it starts falling off fast.

Trends of the New Year The 2016 trend to start the year will be an influx of three 18650 devices, as well as LiPo domination. Hopefully, gone will be the days of quoting wattage statistics that are theoretical possibilities, and the new days will be more realistic—but I’ve hoped that for months. We may also see a solid round of DNA 133s coming along, as the same dominant chip can be used with a two-cell configuration in a smaller package and deliver a staggeringly better temperature-control experience to the existing “high-wattage,” temp-control devices. The likely follow-up to the trend of three-cell devices is the move to higher resistance in non-temperature-controlled setups, utilizing larger coils with generally smaller wires to achieve high power with extreme responsiveness and low heat waste, all thanks to the higher voltages available.

Is It Worth the Money? So, in the end, is it worth the money to buy a device that costs half the amount of a DNA 200 equivalent, just because it fails to achieve what it claims? That’s a personal decision. If you can afford one of the many, and often fairly reasonably priced, DNAs on the market, it is well worth the premium. If you do opt for a more bargain-priced device, just know that there is still a fairly wide gulf between the reality established by Evolv and the claims made by the majority of other chip manufacturers. Many of the cheaper alternatives can deliver a good vape, but they cannot deliver one of the same class.

Arvid Sollom is a long-time vaper, old school modder and builder, resident tech, safety and temperature control guru living in the southwestern desert. He is a founding member of Tucson Vapers and Clouds of Tucson, as well as assistant manager at Old Pueblo Vapor, the city of Tucson’s original vape shop.

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This rich, sweet tobacco blendâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s complexity is produced by 9 different ingredients that are brewed and blended to perfection, creating velvety caramel and vanilla tones as well as a complementing toasted almond note.

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The Right Tool for the Job Modern 18650’s for Sub-Ohm Vaping Words and photos By Nick Bessette

With the industry pushing the boundaries of how many watts they can cram into even the smallest mod, and cloud chasers pushing for lower and lower resistances while using a single 18650 mechanical mod, you need to know now more than ever exactly which batteries will work for the right application. If you’re using a 150 watt regulated mod, you wouldn’t use a battery that would work better in a mechanical mod, would you? I didn’t think so. The big cloud comp is coming up; do you want to make sure you make it past the first round? Don’t worry, just keep reading! There are so many batteries on the market nowadays, and researching different models can be a bit confusing if you’re not an electrical engineer. So, the following will be a handy guide for just about every type of vaper out there. The first batteries on my list are the Samsung 25R, which boasts a true 20A continuous discharge rate and 2500 mAh battery life. The older, baby b l u e wrapped cells run very cool and have very little voltage sag, meaning your mod won’t be saying “check battery” nearly as fast as other cells. The updated green wrapper keeps the same overall specs, but improved battery chemistry means you will get even longer cycle life out of these bad boys. These batteries work great with high-wattage mods, whether you’re using a HexOhm, Sigelei Fu Chai or a Wismec Reuleaux 200 watt.

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My next choice is the LG HG2 with the same 20A continuous discharge rate; it boasts a 3000 mAh battery life, which, in my opinion, is slightly exaggerated, especially w h e n using higher amperage. That being said, these batteries run great, even when using them at their maximum discharge rate of 20A and will last longer, especially when they’re used in tandem in mods like the Snow Wolf or Sigelei 150 TC, because the amp draw is spread across both cells. If you’re looking for a longer-lasting alternative to the HE2/4 you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the HG2. Now, this one is for all the mech mod users out there. Finally, we have another true 30A continuous battery on the market as an alternative to the elusive Sony VTC4/5. Allow me to introduce you to the LG HB6, which looks stunning in its white wrapper. The interesting this about these cells is that although they only advertise 1600mAh of power, they last longer at higher discharge rates, as compared to the higher-capacity counterparts. For anyone building 0.140.21 Ohms, these batteries are definitely for you!

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COLUMNS Simply because these are the most sought-after batteries on the market, I have to mention the Sony VTC 4/5. They’re the only other true 30A continuous discharge batteries on the market that I could find. The VTC5s feature an impressive 2600 mAh, but fall a bit short when using the full potential of 30A, and the VTC4s rating is 210 mAh, again, further decreasing if used at the 30A max. To be perfectly honest, it’s not recommend that you use these for continuous discharge, as tests show that these batteries heat up much more under load than the HB6s and can decrease the cycle life if used as such. Now, we vapers will only be using these batteries in brief bursts, since it’s difficult to reach the continuous discharge rate while vaping. But, if your mod auto-fires for some reason, these are more likely to vent due to the high temperatures damaging the battery chemistry. Can you use these for sub-Ohm vaping? Of course, but be aware that the increased stress on the cells can hinder the cycle life and you’ll be in need of new ones every six months or so. On the bright side, if you use these at 20A, they will perform very similarly to the Samsung 25Rs. The most practical use for Sonys are with mechanical mods, but they will definitely work great in any single battery box mods, like the IPV D3 or Snow Wolf Mini.

Buyer beware: There are a lot of clones of the Sonys on the market now that they’ve become more rare. There are some telltale signs to look out for, however: first, the nasty seam on the battery wrapper, as well as an enlarged logo and slightly raised negative terminal. I’m sure there are other clones out there, so be careful and always make sure they’re authentic! There are a number of factors to consider when purchasing batteries, so make sure you pay attention to the test results, and don’t be fooled by inflated stats on the battery wrappers or packaging. For instance, I’ve seen a lot of batteries marked as 40A; however, these numbers may be indicating its maximum “safe” discharge rate, which might only be for a few seconds, and is not suitable for vaping. Also, consider that there needs to be a tradeoff between maximum amp rating and milliamp rating; you can have one or the other, but not both. One example would be a 40A battery that is said to be rated at 3000 mAh, but is more likely safer at 20A and still only gets around 2100 mAh of power. If something looks too good to be true, it probably is!

Glossary: Amp Limit: The maximum amount of current a battery can discharge at once. Battery: A container consisting of two or more electrochemical cells, in which chemical energy is converted into electricity and used as a source of power. C-Rating: The C in C-Rating stands for capacity. To break it down to its simplest terms, the C-Rating is the maximum safe continuous discharge rate of a cell. Cell: In this instance, it refers to an individual battery; e.g., an 18650 is a single battery cell. Continuous Discharge: The maximum current at which the battery can be discharged for pulses of over 30 seconds. Cycle Life: The number of discharge-charge cycles the battery can experience before it fails to meet specific performance criteria. mAh: Stands for milli-Ampere-hours and indicates how much electric charge the battery can provide. Pulse Discharge: The maximum current at which the battery can be discharged for pulses of up to 30 seconds. Voltage Sag: A dip in battery performance under load.

Nick Bessette works at Voltage Vape shop in Springfield, Mass., and he does video reviews for his own YouTube channel, Daily Vape TV, among others. He has been building for two years and conducting battery safety courses at VCC events over the past year. Teaching the safety aspect of vaping is a passion of his, and he believes that it’s an extremely important topic for every vaper to know about.

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FEBRUARY BUYERS GUIDE

an Instagram following of more than presented by CaliVapers With 100,000 and an active online forum with more than 18,500 members, CaliVapers has become a strong and recognizable brand within the vape community. Being located at the epicenter of the vaping industry, CaliVapers always has had its finger on the pulse of vaping. As the vape community continues to grow, more and more modders are entering the fray, and finding a source for reliable information on high-end and affordable mods is becoming more difficult. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re here to cover the MODS. From the rarest and hottestâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to the most reliable and affordable, CaliVapers has your back. Visit us at calivapers.com and keep up with us on Instagram at @calivapers, @bgateb, @janhalili, and @vapingroybot.

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Pocket Box Country of Origin: Greece Modder: Georgios Provatidis (GProv) Battery: 18650 Chip: SX350J

SX350J power in a gorgeous, handmade little bundle of wooden joy, the Pocket Box by Gprov (Georgios Provatidis) has quickly become a Team CaliVapers favorite. This mod simply feels wonderful when gripped, and it’s easy to see that it was crafted with care. Website: http://www.boxes-bases.com

We were able to chat with the Georgios Provatidis, the man behind GProv, and ask a few questions about his wonderful creations (and his favorite grub!). How did you get started in the modding game? I started five years ago in vaping, manufacturing vape stands by wood, and about a year ago, I decided to start modding. I Generally, I concern myself in vaping, because I love it, and also, I love wood as material. What did you do before you began making mods? I started as a vape user, but my initial job was surgical technician.

What is your favorite e-liquid? My favorite e-liquid is “Sweet Lovin’” by Mr. Good Vape. What is your favorite travel destination? A while ago, I did my first trip to the U.S., and I would like to say that this is my favorite destination. I am extremely excited by the people that I met and by the pictures of this region.

Our boxes are not easy to build. I would say that, adding the handcraft, it takes around two days for one box to construct.

Your designs are very unique. Where do you find inspiration for the look of your mods? I always liked the uniqueness of classic appearance. I have a new designer, Alexandros Toumanidis, and we work together in the development of the product. Generally, I can say that the designing directions are classical lines, minimal and mostly the functionality on the

Where do you see vaping in 10 years? I think that more and more people will join vaping, and in 10 years, we will see many nice new products.

What does the future hold for GProv? I hope that our products will remain with the high quality as they are now. I can’t hide that many new thingsobsess my mind. I have already new ideas in my mind, and I will try realize as soon as possible. The support of the people will help me to achieve it very soon.

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Decimus Country of Origin: U.S.A. Modder: Praxis Vapors Battery: Dual 18650 Chip: 150 w (proprietary) With 150 w maximum output and 0.2 Ohms minimum resistance, this dual battery, variable voltage/variable wattage is the perfect daily mod “The Decimus Box Mod is Praxis Vapors’ first entry into the regulated vaping product device category. beautifully designed products to vapers of all budgets. Its interchangeable door system is ideal for being able to customize the device to your mood, as Our we currently offer eight color objective was variations. Additionally, the product’s appearance was carefully developed to exude the contemporary, clean priced, but beautifully aesthetic you’d expect from a Praxis Vapors product. Features like the hidden power designed products output adjustment buttons, soft-touch texture and compact dual 18650 battery case to vapers of all make this device an ideal every day carry (EDC). We’re quite proud of what we’ve

budgets.

product, but we expect even bigger and better things in 2016. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled and follow our updates via our social media outlets! (Instagram: @praxisvapors; Facebook: /praxisvapors)” – Ivan Lee and Brett Jameson Reed, Praxis modders Website: http://www.praxisvapors.com

Goya Country of Origin: Bulgaria Modder: Yavor Kondov (YaYa Mods) Battery: 18650 Chip: SX350

Solid, seamless, and with an assortment of gorgeous wood options, the SX350 Goya by YaYa Mods is a wonderful departure from traditional c-frame mods. With unique design elements (from the faceplate to the overall shape) and top-notch craftsmanship, the Goya is in a class all its own.

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Walnut DNA200 Box Mod Country of Origin: U.S.A. Modder: Element Mods Battery: 900 mAh 3S Lithium Polymer Battery Chip: Evolv DNA200 A beautiful high-end mod utilizing the Evolv DNA200 chip, the U.S.A.-made Walnut DNA200 by Element Mods is a beautifully crafted device. The 510 connection integrated directly into the chassis makes for a sleek, integrated look. The walnut inlays patina over time to add a sense of classic and sophistication. Website: http://www.vapordna.com

Soledad Country of Origin: Philippines Modder: Critical Minds Battery: 26650 Chip: SX350J Hailing from the Philippines, the Soledad by Critical Minds is an extremely well-made and striking device. With a well contoured body, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s amazingly comfortable to hold for a 26650 device. The Soledad XL truly is another gem from Critical Minds, and we canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait to see what they have in store for the future! Website: https://www.facebook.com/criticalminds2013

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Reuleaux Country of Origin: U.S.A. Modder: JayBo Designs and Wismec Battery: Triple 18650 Chip: Evolv DNA200

Website: http://www.wismec.com

The Reuleaux, a joint partnership between Jaybo Designs, Wismec and Evolv is quite possibly the most hotly anticipated mod to hit the mass market, and for good reason. Most excitingly, the Reuleaux is the first DNA 200 powered mod of its kind that is not powered by a LiPo battery, instead opting for three user-replaceable 18650 batteries in series to provide 11.1 volts, meaning the Reuleaux is capable of outputting a true 200 watts of power. This is a game changer simply for the fact that the user can swap batteries on the fly, without having to wait for the device to charge, as they would with any other DNA 200 powered device on the market today. At first glance, the Reuleaux looks rather large (3.3” h x 1.9” l x 1.6” w) however, its unique shape makes it very comfortable to hold. Still, the device is not very pocketable. The device feels solid, constructed entirely out of aluminum and high impact plastic for the battery tray. The device itself without batteries weighs 6.6oz (187g). Loaded with three 3000mAh MXJOs, the device weighs in at a hefty 11.3oz (320g). The front of the Reuleaux features three metal buttons —a large “fire” button bearing the Jaybo logo and two small “up/down” buttons to control various functions of the chip. The front of the Reuleaux also features the 0.91” OLED display of the Evolv’s newest flagship board, the DNA 200, which powers the device. The DNA200 is a variable wattage board with a huge host of features including a 0.91” OLED screen, temperature control (200-600 ∞F), preheat functions, user presets, USB interface, and will fire down to even the lowest resistance kanthal, nickel, and stainless steel coils.

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The micro USB port on the front of the Reuleaux, paired with Evolv’s EScribe software, allows the user to customize nearly any aspect of the device. Firmware is finally user-upgradable via the port, allowing Evolv to bring new features to the board without needing to send the board or device back for any updates, and also eliminates the need to have different releases of the same board a’la the DNA 40. EScribe allows an extensive amount of customizability for any device running a DNA 200. Users can customize each view or “screen” that displays information—adding custom allowing customizability that has so far, been rare on devices. Further, it allows users to set up to eight profiles, you may run, making it very handy for switching between different drippers or sub-Ohm tanks you may have. EScribe also allows for custom battery profiles and device monitoring/troubleshooting. In use, the Reuleaux is nothing short of a joy. The device just feels right in your hand (barring the weight), and the DNA 200 performs flawlessly with everything from a hot dripper to your favorite subtank. With the batteries being run in series, however, you only get the capacity of a single cell, so heavy vapers may need to carry an extra set of batteries with them. The ability for the user to customize the display is a nice touch and something so far rarely seen on a device. User profiles are very handy—especially if this is your main device. At a sub-$200 (USD) price point, the Reuleaux is a steal.

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Event Coverage

Words and photos by CaliVapers

Every December, CaliVapers and VapeDaily pull out all the stops for the O.C. Vapers Meet, and this year was bigger than ever. With a goal to raise donations for SFATA, the vape community came out in full force. The event packed more than 300 vapers into the TEN Asian Bistro & Nightclub for food, fun and festivities, and thanks to the generous donations from sponsors, and the vape community as a whole, we were able to raise more than $1,700 in donations for SFATA. The winners of the cloud competition walked home with $1,500 in cash prizes, and the grand prize in time for the holidays. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in Southern California, join us for the next O.C. Vapers Meet! Follow us on Instagram at @calivapers or on Facebook at facebook.com/calivapers and keep an eye out for details. The O.C. Vapers Meet is held bi-monthly at TEN Asian Bistro & Nightclub, 4647 MacArthur Blvd. Newport Beach, CA 92660.

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DEPARTMENTS

The VAPE Meet Scene

Apollo Lounge Owner Brings

Meet-Ups to Bay Area

By Erin Hedrick Photos by Cyrus Malekzadeh

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DEPARTMENTS The vaping community is ever-growing, and this exponential growth is due, in large part, to the welcoming nature of many of the community’s people. The industry was not always as booming as it is now, and vapers found comfort in one another; that is, as the saying goes, “Birds of a feather flock together.” Despite the fact that the vaping community has come a long, long way from where it once was, the people within it want to maintain that close-to-home, familiar feeling. The vape life isn’t just about turning a quick profit; it’s also—and more importantly, many would argue—about creating a safety net of sorts for people looking to find an alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes. This is something that Cyrus Malekzadeh, too, sought to kindle.

Malekzadeh later applied for a position with Apollo, as vaping is a cause that he wanted to help further. “It was something I was so comfortable with I wanted to scream it to the world. I believed in it so much.” So, he got his resume together and sent in to Apollo. “I was that guy,” he said, “I would talk to anyone that would listen to me. I was so fascinated by the technology; I was impressed by it.” A man of action, it was huge for Malekzadeh to see how vaping, and the technology behind it, worked. “I keep calling it an industry,” Malekzadeh said. “But it’s really not. It’s more of a community. You’ll never see CocaCola helping out Pepsi the way vapers and vape shops help one another out. Sure, we have our own competitive nature, but we also want to make sure that this industry survives so we help each other, and it’s wonderful.”

Malekzadeh’s’ story begins like many others: he smoked for years and happened upon a cigalike model in a convenience store. Where his story differs though is in the fact that he was (and still is, when work permits) an avid bicyclist—like spandex-wearing, the whole nine yards bicyclist.

As time progressed he moved on to an eGo pen by the company he now works for, Apollo, and the rest, as they say, was history.

Malekzadeh owns a vape lounge, Apollo Lounge, in Livermore, Calif., where he hosts meet-ups every other Friday. These events bring anywhere from 30 to 100 people every time they meet. These meets are put on with the help of another shop, Vapor One, which is located in Walnut Creek, Calif. The two locations take turns hosting events nearly every Friday for people in the bay area of California, and between the two B&Ms they encompass the entire bay area effectively, as one is located on one side, and the other on the other.

“I absolutely believed in it. It was something I could get behind,” Malekzadeh said. “So, I stuck with it.”

“We do cloud and trick comps,” Malekzadeh said. “And we eat pizza or whatever. These meets are realistically

“And that was with a team, and I just couldn’t breathe anymore. And I was the only guy who’d stop for smoke breaks,” he said.

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a group of people just hanging out.” Sometimes the competitions are sponsored by other shops or companies, and the winners can win some awesome mods. Although he only charges a few bucks to enter the competition, Malekzadeh takes all of the money earned through these meets and gives it to Not Blowing Smoke (notblowingsmoke.org). Both shops also host raffles during these events, the proceeds of which also goes to Not Blowing Smoke. “I’ve never been a big cloud guy; I’ve always been a big flavor chaser,” Malekzadeh said. “I can see the fun. I don’t see the harm in clouds as long as it’s at a vape event. I understand it brings a stigma that vapers are always trying to go for big, obnoxious clouds. As long as it’s a proper event, I don’t have a problem with it. Don’t be a jerk. Use common sense. I think the competitions are fun for the people that want to participate, and I want to support people who want to have fun while quitting smoking.” While it’s important to have fun, Malekzadeh also encourages advocacy at his meets. “We try to stay active in our community and active in advocacy. We have to be our own voice. We have to write letters, we have to go to the capitol. While Not Blowing Smoke may be a face of the industry, we all have to show that we are not blowing smoke.” For more information, follow @apollo.lounge.

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DEPARTMENTS

Compiled by Erin Hedrick and Alyssa Stahr

The world of vaping is an industrious community full of innovative people looking to create what they hope will be the perfect e-liquid flavor. VAPE is here to hopefully shed some light on some of these new liquids. Sadly, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no way we could cover them all in every issue, but our goal is to showcase a variety of the newest e-liquids on the market to you, our valued readers.

Freedom Rings from Phat Vapes

This 70 VG/30 PG e-liquid is a spot-on Bomb Pop. @phatvapes on Instagram

So, sit back, relax and enjoy this round of Just In Juices!

Frequency from Electric Lotus Frequency combines three unlikely companions into a deliciously unique trifecta of e-liquid flavor, blending a warm lemon danish with a cinnamon churro, then wrapping them with a creamy cookie pie crust. http://www.millennialvape.com/

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#PeachYogurt from Cloud Ready Vapor

Taking the world of social media by storm, this satisfying blend of succulent peaches and creamy yogurt is a sensation that you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t afford to pass up. http://cloudreadyvapor.com/

Coconut Grove from Shipwrecked Vapor

Yakuza Ninja Sauce from Infinite Vapor

Enjoy the good life of the underworld with bits of lemon/lime, grape and other bountiful fruits. Being the boss tastes good, but cross the Yakuza and your vape experience will be limited. http://infinitevapor. com/yakuza-ninjasauce-30ml/

Blue Blood from Civilized Vapors

Coconut Grove is a sweet and silky chocolate blend with smooth, creamy custard and balanced with rich caramel and subtle coconut undertones. http://www.shipwreckedvapor.com/

Mourning-Moki from Vapergate

Moki, part of the Mourning series, is a fruity cereal flavor with marshmallows in milk. 120 ml pricing is available. http://www.vapergatejuice. com/

Succulent blueberries and fresh raspberries come together perfectly for a smooth fruit bend with a hint of tart. http://civilizedvapors.com/#

Koi from Inkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d Vapor

Koi tastes like ripe strawberries folded into authentic Greek yogurt. http://www.inkdvapor.com/

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Nephos Pixels from East Coast Liquids

Sweet and tart; simply delicious. Conjure up memories of old-time candy shop sweets with this light vape featuring a hint of tart. eastcoastliquids.com

Sunrise from Snow Cap Vapory

Sunrise is a cool and refreshing pineapple, strawberry and coconut Hawaiian shaved snow flavor with condensed milk drizzle. @snowcapvapory

Yummy Gummy from Klout 9 E-Liquid

KLOUT 9 is fruit and candy e-liquid line. The name Klout 9 has multiple meanings. Klout spelled with a “K,” a fun and quirky way of spelling Clout, means “to blow or hit” and also means to have power or influence. Klout 9 similarly sounds like Cloud 9. When someone is on Cloud 9, they are at the highest feeling of elation and well-being. This line is 70 VG/30 PG, meant for cloud chasers and flavor enthusiasts. Yummy Gummy is a classic green gummy blend of green apple, kiwi, watermelon and lime. www.vapersindustry.com

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The Don from MN Moonshine

The Don is a peach tea flavor blended with a slight hint of Bourbon, giving a refreshing yet robust flavor profile. The Don is a true 90/10 VG/PG e-liquid that offers unparalleled flavor combinations due to the company’s mixologist. http://www.mnmoonshine.com/#!home/c1dxd

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Zelena from TruvĂŠ Vapor Inc.

The queen of TruvĂŠ, Zelena is a mixture of pear and coconut with a delicate note of bavarian cream. http://truvenyc.com/products/zelena

Citron from 3rd Rock Organic

Citron is a crisp and clean blend that includes a sweet, lemony, rich berry base combined with a surprisingly refreshing, yet gentle apricot finish. Purchases: www.ecigpatriotvapes.com Wholesale inquiries: www.3rdrockorganice-liquid.com.

The Buddha from Karma Liquids

Satisfy your cravings with this intoxicating banana split, garnished with shredded coconut and tasty marshmallows. www.karmaliquids. com

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THE

JUICE JUDGE Words and photos by Steffanie Atkins

Decoded ‘Big Foot’ 3 mg VAPE - 4 THROAT HIT - 4 TASTE - 2 So, I vaped and vaped and vaped and hoped that eventually I’d taste something, just something to give me a reason to love this flavor. That never happened. It’s a “mini doughnut” flavor, although I am not sure how a flavor can have a size but that’s beside the point. There is a slight doughnut aftertaste, but that’s it. It needs a flavor, or a sweetener or something. Doughnut flavors are difficult. They seem super plain as compared to my favorite thing to eat; there’s something missing and I’ve yet to find one that gives me that doughnut satisfaction. This e-liquid is no different. It’s not a bad flavor, it’s just lacking. The vapor production was above average and there was a good, strong throat hit, but without that added something, I couldn’t really rate the flavor any higher. I will say that I like the styling of their bottle. It’s a flat black, which is different than most e-liquids, and I like that sort of thing.

The Juice Judge Judges are picked from respected members of the vaping community to give unbiased reviews of e-juice. The VAPE Verdict is reached by an initial blind taste test, and the review is written afterward. Want to have your juice judged? Email jj@vapemz.com. Reviews do not reflect the overall opinion of VAPE Magazine Steffanie Atkins is the self-proclaimed most pickiest vaper she knows. She has to be head over heels in love with a juice before she vapes it regularly. A baker and a foodie, Atkins is particular when it comes to taste and flavor. She loves long walks on the beach, candlelit dinners, tattoos, art and rocking her face off at concerts. She is forever on the search for the perfect Oreo flavor.

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Doc Brown’s Private Stock E-Liquid ‘Blood Elixir’ 3 mg VAPE - 3 THROAT HIT - 1 TASTE - 1 Not to be crass, but Doc Brown’s “Blood Elixir” is doo-doo. There’s no real flavor at all. I’m still not exactly sure what it was supposed to be. It’s just so blah. No real flavor profile. When I find a flavor that I’m clueless as to what it’s supposed to be, I read the cards that come with the bottles. This one says ‘So delicious, you won’t want to share.’ Well, I certainly won’t share, but not because it was delicious. Sorry Doc Brown. Vapor production was average, but there was no throat hit and the taste was just no.

Evil E-Juice ‘Morning Murder’ 3 mg VAPE - 3 THROAT HIT - 2 TASTE - 3.5 The name of this e-liquid is a bit scary, not sure murder is what I think about for breakfast … but it was a good e-liquid. It’s a orange creamsicle/fruit loopy flavor. I enjoyed it. There’s a tad more orange than a real fruit loop medley, but I dig it. The vapor production was average and the throat hit was a little lacking. But, I gave the flavor above average rating.

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Dilligaf Vapors ‘Burlesque’ 3 ml VAPE - 3 THROAT HIT - 3 TASTE - 3.5 I never would have thought of putting grapefruit and peach together, but Dilligaf does in this blend. It’s actually pretty good and it’s unique, which is awesome. A lot of flavors taste the same or are similar blends so it’s refreshing to find an e-liquid that is just different. My only complaint, and it’s not a scored section but it’s something to be noted, this was the only flavor that I got this month that did not have some sort of childproof cap. I have kids, so this is super important to me and should be to most vapers. The vapor production was average and the throat hit was there and solid, which I also like.

ADV Vape Gold ‘Watermelon Cucumber Mojito’ 3 mg VAPE - 3 THROAT HIT - 4 TASTE - 4 I love when a flavor profile says the flavor should be this … and it is! When I first vaped this e-liquid, I knew in an instant it was a mojito. There is no doubt about it at all. The watermelon is understated, but I think that it’s good like that. I think too overbearing and it may have turned into a weird toothpaste flavor. But the blend of the watermelon and the cucumber was pretty awesome. It’s a classy, smooth, clean vape and I really enjoyed it. The throat hit was strong and solid, which is also pretty great and vapor production was average. But, I was really impressed with this e-liquid. And I felt pretty classy vaping it!

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Cumulo Raptor VAPEMZ.COM

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Cumulo Raptor

I was born and raised in Calgary Alberta, Canada, born into the hustle and bustle of the big city. I moved around a lot and have lived in many cities across Canada. I recently spent five months traveling in Southeast Asia and in doing so I discovered a lot about myself and who I want to be. I am a huge fan of music; country and rock are my go-to genres, but I will listen to anything with a good beat. I am an artist, a business owner, a promotional vape model for multiple juice companies, a daughter, a sister and a best friend. The reason I began to vape: I am a survivor of stage four neuroblastoma, an aggressive cancer that attacked me with a total of seven tumors. I was a smoker for 12 years before I discovered vaping. I knew that if I didn’t quit breathing in those deadly chemicals, there was a much higher chance I would come out of remission. I truly believe that vaping changed and continues to save my life. My very first set up was a Kanger Tech Evod (gotta start somewhere); I used these for about three years before finally upgrading to the Innokin Coolfire. The clouds! I was instantly hooked and knew I had to get bigger, juicier clouds. It wasn’t a week later that I switched to the Smok Xpro M80 Plus. It just kept getting better. Thanks to Mike at Queen City Vapors (Regina, SK) I am now learning the basics of building coils with the Cumulo box mod and an Infinite V3 RDA. Now, vaping is one of my biggest hobbies. I think it is fair to say that I am pro vape. If you don’t think it will work for you, try anyway. Shops have experienced staff that can talk you through everything from how to use a vape pen to how to do a quad coil build. I’m not going to say it’s not intimidating, it is! However, it is also very much worth it. One piece of advice to someone who is going to a shop for the first time: Don’t settle for the first flavor you see; try all of them! This is going to be key in switching from tobacco to a vape. It’s much easier to stomp cigarettes when you have a flavor that you love.

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My favorite shops: North Island Vapors (Chris Roffey sold me my first vaporizer) Queen City Vapors (Mike has been so patient showing me the ins and outs of RDAs) My favorite Mods: Smok Xpro M80 Plus, Cumulo Raptor Favorite Juice(s): KV2 by VIP, Dylz Nutz by VIP and PBOMG by Strange Clouds Vapor Co. Jenni Dawne IG: @xox_cloud_beauty_xox Photographer: Jennifer Blair with JB photography Gmail: xoxcloudbeautyxox@gmail.com

Smok Xpro 180

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VAPE Talks Shop: The Vapor Store – “We’re the biggest little shop in town!”

Words and photos by Erin Hedrick “Addictions are not a fad.” “I am not afraid of any government regulation at all—I welcome it.” Kurt Huels knew he wanted to own his own business, and in 2008, a spark was ignited that later would fuel his drive to open The Vapor Store, located in Lake St. Louis, Mo. Huels comes from a large family; he is the youngest of nine. “My whole family smoked … I think there’s over 30 people at family functions that would be outside smoking, year after year,” he said. “I smoked for 16 years.”

The shop, which opened on June 10, 2014, is 800 square feet and holds a juice bar, an incredibly comfortable couch, four glass display cases, a newly renovated ceiling and two ADA-grade cork dartboards (but I’ll come back to those). The store is conveniently located right off of one of the state’s main highways, and is the only brick and mortar vape shop in the area. The Vapor Store is staffed with six employees, not including the owner, who serve a customer base of more than 1,700 individuals.

In 2008, his father suffered from eight strokes (primarily brought on by smoking), and since then, the entire family, Huels said, has been trying to quit smoking.

“We know ‘em by name, and we track their purchases. We track their nicotine levels and guide them, in a way,” Huels said. “They can count on us.”

“It kind of exposed itself,” he said, when asked how he got into vaping. “From there, I picked up my first e-cig, and everybody was wondering what it was. I’d get one for my mom, for my sister, and became the go-to guy for it.” And thus, was the idea for The Vapor Store was born. “My family really is my inspiration. I use them for different products that come out on the market. If it can get past my mom, then it’s probably a good device!”

The juice bar in the shop is intentionally aimed away from the merchandise, so that there’s no pressure for the people coming through to purchase. Huels wanted to maintain a homey, friendly atmosphere that just so happened to also bring in money. But “only when you wanted it, and only when you were ready,” he said.

A lot of shops have catchy or gimmicky names, but The Vapor Store does not; it’s simply The Vapor Store. “I worked for a company called The Mortgage Store, and the idea behind that was that it was a household name,” Huels said. “You said our name before

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you even knew who we were, and I think The Vapor Store has that inclination.” And there is definitely some truth to that. How many times have we either said or heard, “Hey, you should check out the vapor store around the corner?” It’s like free advertising (which, coincidentally enough, The Vapor Store does not make use of; their name is primarily spread through the mouths of their loyal customers). “No one forgets the name,” Huels said.

Huels’ deep connection to the area shows. “I was born and raised in O’Fallon. My dad built one of the first homes in Lake St. Louis in the early ‘70s. We live in Lake St. Louis, we grew up in Lake St. Louis, our family and friends are in Lake St. Louis, and we’ve always wanted to be here. This was an opportunity to give back at the same time and have that level of commitment to the city,” he said.

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DEPARTMENTS Huels’ mother is the one who actually found the shop’s location: a strip mall that has only ever been owned once—by the building’s original owners. “The tenants are all 30-year tenants. Once you establish here, it’s not going to change every two years, and we went in with that idea. And let’s support small business!” Huels said.

In the 18 months that the shop has been open, VVC is the only other e-liquid line that has touched the shelves of The Vapor Store. Huels also has worked closely with VapeWell to create a line of e-liquid unique to The Vapor Store and named after the shop, which has seen tremendous feedback. In fact, Huels has gotten calls and emails about their Lakewater e-liquid flavor (named after a delicious drink found down in the Lake of the Ozarks) from people across the country.

Lake St. Louis is known for its strict regulations, but Huels argues that it is to protect, not deter. “People asked us, ‘Why would you want to open in Lake St. Louis? That’s one of the hardest areas to open a business,’ and that’s for a good reason.”

As I mentioned before, The Vapor Store houses two leagueready dartboards, which were given to the shop by members of the American Darters Association.

He feels secure in his position in the city, and certain that he won’t be seeing any competition nearby. “There were three other vapor companies that wanted to open in this city, and we were the only one to get approval because we were willing to work with them [the city].”

“They approached us,” Huels said. “The Katee Hessler Foundation came in for donations one day, and of course, we [contributed]. And, as a result, we wound up running into the head of the ADA. He wanted to host a dart league here. They run it and everything. Each game costs $.50.”

“We don’t just jump onto the hottest thing, which I think a lot of people appreciate,” Huels said. “Everything we have, we use, and we continue to use.”

The league operates every Wednesday; however, the boards are open to the store’s customers during its hours of operation (10 a.m.-8 pm. during the week, and noon-5 p.m. on Sundays).

Very rarely do patrons of The Vapor Store visit other shops. Huels and his team have worked hard to build a shop and lounge that promotes customer loyalty. They give back to their customers by means of a points system—every dollar spent in the shop earns points; once you earn enough points, you can trade them in toward the purchase of new vape gear.

“A lot of bars and places have anti-vaping rules, and here they can still enjoy that,” Huels said. “As a result, ADA members come through here, and sometimes they pick up a vape. There’s been 20, 30, 40 people who’ve quit smoking with no push from advertising—just by coming in for the dart league.”

The shop is home to 47 flavors and two companies: VapeWell (both their original and premium lines) and, as of last month, Villainous Vapor Co. “We don’t have a contract with them, just a handshake, but I’m honest with them,” Huels said. “I do honest business with them. We didn’t want to be the ones to put out new juice every week, because we don’t know what goes in it; we don’t know the quality of it.”

Huels and The Vapor Store also support local artists by hanging their work (or sitting on it, as the couch in the shop was crafted by one such artist) for both display and sale. “It changes pretty frequently, since the artwork sells so fast,” Huels said. The profits go back to the piece’s creator. All in all, The Vapor Store is a small, heart-felt shop that has all the tools it needs to grow into something even more awesome than it already is. “Addiction is not a fad,” Huels said. “And we don’t plan on going anywhere.” For more information, visit http://www.thevaporstore.com/.

Mike Pilla, Danielle First, Kurt Huels, Justin Hennen, Devin Ell, Christian Heinz and Jon Rhymes VAPEMZ.COM

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VAPING 101 The Questions Everyone Asks Words and photo by Erin Hedrick

(whether they admit it or not)

Questions are inevitable. They come up in our everyday lives, and they most certainly come up when getting into a new hobby. While vaping is arguably a smoking cessation tool, as well as a growing hobby, questions still arise. You’ve entered a brand new world just ripe with possibilities, but the information can be a bit overwhelming. Together we’ve combed over a lot of information, but you’re undoubtedly left with questions still—specific questions that don’t always come up in beginner columns like this. So this time around I’m bringing you Vaping 101: the FAQ Edition. Now, hopefully an employee (if you purchase in-person from a shop) explains some of these to you, but just in case …

Erin and her new Kangertech Subox Nano

How long will my battery last?

OK, so this one depends on a few things: first, what battery model do you have? Second, how often are you hitting the device, and third, what sort of device do you have? Mod users have to take additional variables into account, such as voltage and wattage, in addition to the ones previously mentioned. Most batteries can last anywhere from five to six hours to a few days. I’ve had batteries (my Jellyfish, for instance) last for a week! Then again, I’m not constantly puffing, so my experience in this department may not be the best to go off of (haha).

Why did the light on my device change color?

Your battery is dying! Quick, recharge it or swap it out (it’s not a bad idea to keep a spare battery fully-charged at all times)! If you run your battery’s juice all the way down, you’ll most likely notice a decrease in overall performance.

My e-cigarette is producing an odor when I use it. Why isn’t my device working? What’s up with that? There are two possible answers here. If what you’re smelling smells good, and is in line with the name of your e-liquid, that’s what it is. That’s perfectly normal. Now, if what you’re smelling smells burnt, that’s not normal. Well, it is, but not in a good way. It could be a sign that you’re low on e-liquid or that your wick is going bad—both which are common issues with e-cigarettes and easy fixes.

Hopefully this is an easy fix. Press the “on” button on your device five times, rapidly. The light around it should flicker, and then bam! You’re good to go. If it still isn’t working, your battery may need to be charged.

How long will my coil last?

Again, this one depends on a few things. Typically, though, a few weeks to a month, depending on how frequently you use your e-cigarette.

It’s gurgling when I try to inhale. What’s with that? My throat hurts when I vape. Why is that? This is another common issue that every vaper faces at some point or another—usually many times over. Generally speaking, leaks and floods result from adding too much e-liquid to your device. Check for loose pieces, too, which could cause the same thing to happen.

Vaping is a different experience than traditional smoking, and it does require a bit of a learning curve. You may also be vaping at too high of a nicotine level, which can cause stress to your throat.

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Newbie A-Z

How long will a bottle of e-liquid last me?

Well, that depends entirely on how much you vape. I’ve seen a 30 ml bottle last people months if they’re casual vapers. I’ve also seen a 30 ml bottle last just a few weeks.

Are e-cigarettes cheaper than analogs?

In the long run, most definitely. A good kit can cost you around $100, but if used as a smoking cessation tool, you will definitely be spending less on e-liquid, etc. than packs of cigarettes. Keep track, if you’d like. Before you switch to vaping, track the amount of money you spend on analog cigarettes. Then see how much you spend the following month on e-liquid and compare.

Should I use e-cigarettes to quit smoking?

This is really a personal choice; however, I’ve seen plenty of people successfully quit smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes by vaping. The health benefits are nothing to scoff at.

How similar is vaping to smoking?

Very similar—enough to convince even the most seasoned of smokers. The vapor feels and looks like smoke, and it delivers nicotine in a similar manner. And, it satisfies the hand-to-mouth habit we all know and love.

Can I use my e-cigarette anywhere?

Well … this is an ongoing question. While there are no federal laws (as of the time this article was written) overseeing the vaping industry, every state has different legislation pertaining to the industry. Private businesses also reserve the right to ban vaping on their premises. Please be respectful of other’s policies. Smoking has a bad enough reputation, and we don’t want that for vaping!

I use my e-cigarette more than I smoked. Is that all right?

Well, in my opinion, anything is better than actually smoking. Many people report vaping more often at first than they ever smoked. This could be for a few reasons. One, it’s more convenient than lighting up. Two, if you’re using your e-cigarette to quit smoking, it could be a result of consciously breaking a familiar habit. Three, you may be using too low of a nicotine level than you’re used to, which is causing you to feel the need to use your e-cigarette more frequently.

What’s the difference between e-juice and e-liquid?

Nothing. It’s just a matter of preference in terms. They’re one in the same, however many companies prefer the term “e-liquid” to be taken more seriously.

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Throat Hit: A sensation the vaper feels in the back of his or her throat as he or she inhales an e-cig. The way a throat hit feels varies per user and depends on a few factors: nicotine level, e-liquid quality, proper vaping usage, etc. Base Liquid: This is the liquid to

which nicotine and flavoring are added create e-liquid. The two most common base liquids are known as VG and PG.

Propylene Glycol (PG): Natural,

colorless, odorless organic compound that is classified as “generally recognized as safe” for use as a food additive by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

Vegetable Glycol (VG): An organic compound used to sweeten various products.

Cut/Cutting: The process of diluting

e-liquid to achieve the desired nicotine level.

Drip Shield: The drip shield is a round

metal or plastic tube that slips over your atomizer. If leaking occurs on your atomizer, the liquid will leak into the drip shield instead of leaking onto your device.

FDA: The abbreviated form of the (U.S.) Food and Drug Administration.

Head: A slang term used to encompass

all attys, cartos, clearos, etc.

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