{"id":35653,"date":"2019-05-28T05:00:18","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T13:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/05\/28\/puffco-peak-brings-dabs-to-the-masses\/"},"modified":"2019-05-29T12:46:48","modified_gmt":"2019-05-29T20:46:48","slug":"puffco-peak-brings-dabs-to-the-masses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/05\/28\/puffco-peak-brings-dabs-to-the-masses\/","title":{"rendered":"Puffco Peak Brings Dabs to the Masses"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a heavy dabber,\u201d PuffCo founder Roger Volodarsky shares
\nwith me by phone. \u201cThis is a product that I made for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

His breakthrough invention, the Puffco Peak<\/a>, is a portable electronic rig designed to make dabbing accessible to a whole new generation. Volodarsky says the journey began with a genuine love for cannabis and concentrates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New Highs<\/h4>\n

A New Jersey native, Volodarsky took an ill-fated detour into mortgage finance before dropping out of business school. On a trip to California<\/a> in 2010, he encountered concentrates for the first time, describing his initial dab hit as \u201cpainful and intense,\u201d but nonetheless compelling due to its incredible potency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed like the rite of passage for giving someone their
\nfirst dab was trying to borderline kill them [by] torching a hot hit \u2014 this was
\nin a time before carb caps, before innovation caught up with the needs of
\nconcentrates,\u201d Volodarsky recalls. \u201cSo my first dab ended with me coughing for
\n25 minutes, profusely sweating on the floor, having the most intense high I\u2019ve
\never had.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Puffco founder Roger Volodarsky.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

At the time, the earliest concentrate technology was starting to hit the market, including devices like the Vapor Swing, which was just an attachment for a standard bong, available even before torches and titanium nails became standard gear for hardcore heads. In 2012, Volodarsky had a life-changing encounter with a G Pen<\/a>, one of the most popular first-generation vape pens.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d decided to spend the day visiting the world-famous
\nMetropolitan Museum in New York City, home to masterworks from Georgia O\u2019Keefe,
\nJackson Pollack, Vincent Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Edgar Degas. Using the G Pen
\nto get high discreetly amidst all this high art gave him a feeling of
\nliberation and sophistication that he\u2019d later try to bring to his own addition
\nto the pantheon of game-changing paraphernalia.<\/p>\n

Increasingly obsessed with the emerging vaporizer market, Volodarsky began reverse-engineering vape pens, seeking to improve on generic devices manufactured in China. In 2013, with a $1,300 loan from his mom, he launched his first product \u2014 the Puffco Classic \u2014 followed by an improved version dubbed the Puffco Pro that dropped in October 2014. When the Pro won High Times\u2019 2015 \u201cVaporizer of the Year\u201d title, Volodarsky knew he was onto something big.<\/p>\n

Reaching the Peak<\/h4>\n

Captivated by the idea of an electronic dab rig that would make the improvised torch-and-nail method obsolete, Volodarsky sketched the first Puffco Peak prototype in 2014 \u2014 three years before tasking engineer Avi Bajpai with actually building the device. Intended to make dabbing more socially acceptable, Volodarsky wanted to use the Peak to \u201cgive [people] a dab and have it not seem like we\u2019re freebasing hard drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back then, the bad optics associated with blowtorches and intimidating glass rigs restricted the appeal of concentrates while, at the same time, Volodarsky saw vape pens loaded with prefilled cartridges of THC<\/a> distillate explode in popularity. These simplistic devices made concentrates more accessible to more people, but the inherent limitations of vaporizing just one isolated cannabinoid meant all those newbies were getting a far less than optimal experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmoking pre-fills, it\u2019s a shadow of the experience,\u201d
\nVolodarsky explains. \u201cTHC is just one single cannabinoid and it doesn\u2019t give
\nyou all of the effects that a complete concentrate will.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
The Puffco Peak in white.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

He believed there was a way to make an electronic dab device
\nthat would offer a fully realized experience with \u201cno learning curve and no
\nstigma.\u201d But there was pushback to the idea. Even Bajpai doubted that the
\nmarket would respond. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know if people would even want [the Peak],\u201d
\nVolodarsky remembers. \u201cThey\u2019d say \u2018that\u2019s cool, but it seems like it would
\nserve a small percentage of users.\u2019 I\u2019m very proud to have proven everyone
\nwrong \u2014 including Avi!\u201d<\/p>\n

Debuting in 2018 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Puffco Peak proved immediately popular, one of the few inventions truly capable of revolutionizing cannabis use. Designed to be intuitive, the handheld device operates with a single button that cycles through four temperature settings indicated by color-coded lights. A slight vibration lets the user know when their dab hit is ready to be inhaled. Glowing reviews from the press praised the disruptive potential of the Peak, with Mashable hailing the arrival of a \u201csmart bong<\/a>,\u201d and Engadget calling it \u201cconcentrated genius<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But despite the enthusiastic media reception to the Peak, problems with the first generation of devices necessitated ongoing improvements, as users complained about short battery life and defunct atomizers. Responding with magnanimity, Puffco replaced devices \u2014 every $380 Peak comes with a warranty \u2014 and continued to refine the design. Transparent about the challenges involved in creating some- thing entirely original, Volodarsky says he \u201cimmediately got to work on revisions to prevent problems from continuing and offered no-questions-asked replacements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Authentic Community <\/h4>\n

With improved Peak units shipping out to customers today, the future looks bright for this bootstrapped business, which recently moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in order to participate in the renaissance of cannabis culture blooming on the West Coast. While Volodarsky won\u2019t release sales figures, he \u201ccan confidently say that many tens of thou- sands of Peaks have been sold.\u201d In 2018, Puffco brought in more revenue than the previous five years combined, an exponential increase Volodarsky hopes to repeat in 2019.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
A limited-edition version of the Puffco Peak that lights up at the base. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Puffco owes a large part of its success to the visionary construction of the Peak as a platform for glass artists to create custom attachments. From the beginning, Volodarsky understood that it was essential for the glassblower com- munity to accept the Peak, saying: \u201cGlass artists first added innovation to concentrate consumption technology. There\u2019s no way we can serve this community without tying in the innovators who have driven the space for years.\u201d By sponsoring the Puffco Glass Open<\/a> \u2014 a contest for glass art \u2014 the company integrates glass blowers into their brand, fostering more engagement through authentic culture rather than mass marketing.<\/p>\n

Looking to the future, Volodarsky sees this type of creativity as vital to continued growth, saying \u201cWe\u2019re not wondering how we can capitalize on today. We\u2019re wondering [what happens] if we build out a culture in an innovative atmosphere, how much can we capitalize then \u2014 and we\u2019re not done building that out yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

TELL US<\/strong>, have you ever used a Puffco Peak?<\/p>\n

Originally published in Issue 36 of Cannabis Now. LEARN MORE<\/a><\/em> <\/p>\n

The post Puffco Peak Brings Dabs to the Masses<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Puffco Peak Brings Dabs to the Masses<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m a heavy dabber,\u201d PuffCo founder Roger Volodarsky shares with me by phone. \u201cThis is a product that I made for myself.\u201d His breakthrough invention, the Puffco Peak, is a portable electronic rig designed to make dabbing accessible to a whole new generation. Volodarsky says the journey began with aContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":35654,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[584,50,240,555,655,6626,532,85,9548,10105,73,3150,9099,10106],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35653"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35655,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35653\/revisions\/35655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}