Smoke Up, Adult Retailers!

CHAMPS Trade Shows — the largest and best-established counter-culture trade expo, primarily serving smoke shops — invites the adult sector to join in the fun and the profits.

(Note: This story appears in the December 2023 issue of SE Magazine) 

Adult vendors, distributors and retail buyers attend numerous tradeshows each year to see most of the same faces, show after show. The exclusivity of adult B2B tradeshows is invaluable; no price can be placed on the re-convening with industry friends and communing on industry trends. A potential pitfall, however, is that a certain staleness may result of that consistency, perhaps even a dullness. 

Meanwhile, an established show series with entirely different company has been slipping past the adult category year-after-year, because it’s not marketed strictly as “adult,” although the shows include now a number of well-known adult names as vendors and sponsors.

CHAMPS Trade Shows is a counter-culture B2B trade expo primarily serving the smoke shop industry, but as more adult stores are selling smoke products (and vice versa), it’s gradually expanding into the adult industry. Since 1999, hundreds of exhibitors have met at regional CHAMPS Trade Shows in cities across the US, with their “national” shows being held annually in Las Vegas. Thousands of buyers from all over the world converge at these shows which provide for the counter-culture industry at large, in a big way.

“It’s our goal for you to still see those same faces you’re used to seeing, but make a new friend, as well, at every show,” invites Cam Jennings, the Adult Section Director at CHAMPS Trade Shows.

Jennings shares that, in addition to some of the bigger names in adult products — from Doc Johnson to Maia Toys — small, newer counter-culture companies like Lustella (a sexually-enhanced hazelnut spread with cocoa) and Punchkins (plushie toys with adult words), which haven’t yet featured at the regular adult shows, are now exhibiting with CHAMPS. 

To put it simply, “The benefit of attending a CHAMPS show is finding the best new high-margin items that you can put in your store to increase profits,” asserts Jennings.

Not just a pipe dream

A major player in retail nationwide, CHAMPS Trade Shows began 25 years ago with Jeff Hirschfeld, the Founder, Owner and President, selling handmade water pipes out of his garage. As Jennings describes it, “Gage Water Pipes” was as low-budget as a product company could get — the primary product was water pipes fashioned out of large drink cups like the ones which can be bought off the Las Vegas Strip.

“They cut the tops off of them, sanded them down and turned them into bongs,” according to Jennings.

The pipe company was getting by just fine attracting retailer interest at ASD (the “Affordable Shopping Destination”), until the largest, and most comprehensive consumer-goods Tradeshow of its kind booted alternative lifestyle companies like Gage Water Pipes out of their show, having determined that their product was “drug paraphernalia.” Hirschfeld rolled out of this setback with his own Tradeshow, which he called “Contemporary Tobacco Accessories,” or “CTA” and had his first show in Las Vegas at the Gold Coast Hotel with around 35 booths, in an 8,800 square-foot hall.

“And here we are today celebrating our 25th anniversary with 31 employees and six shows in five different markets,” notes Hirschfeld.

Now CHAMPS caters to roughly 20,000 counter-culture outlets across the country, the majority of which are smoke shops. CHAMPS premieres on both floors of the Las Vegas Convention Center every February and July, as well as offers a show in Atlantic City, Chicago, Denver and rotating around Florida annually — with 2024’s Florida show set to take place in Fort Lauderdale.

“I believe most of the adult stores should offer some smoke and tobacco items, which can help their ends, and the adult manufacturers can help our smoke retailers, so that all of our retailers can maintain vibrant and profitable business.”

 

– Jeff Hirschfeld, Owner and President of CHAMPS Trade Shows

Pass it to the left

In addition to meeting new retailers in the adult sector at CHAMPS which aren’t well-established amongst the adult tradeshow circuit, Jennings suggests that there’s a lot to learn from meeting with other vendors in the counter-culture industry as large, especially with retail ideas being exchanged between the adult and smoke sectors. 

One benefit for smoke shops selling adult products is that the regulations on certain smoke products are getting stricter as they’re undergoing scrutiny for legality across the country, including products which contain Delta-8 THC, flavored vapes and even Kratom in some states. Adult products, on the other hand, which have been around the commercial public longer, come with clearer zoning laws.

“Zoning is rather clear these days on what you can and can’t do with adult novelty,” explains Jennings. “And where smoke shop guys are losing revenue on over-regulated products, we recommend that they stock adult novelty.”

Meanwhile, in the adult sector, a gap exists where video used to reign supreme, for instance. Stores are in need of converting that space previously dedicated to DVDs, and for some, smoke products have been the answer.

“Video used to run the adult space, and right now, it’s dwindling on the shelves,” Jennings continues. “This is why we’re encouraging adult boutiques to open up a smoke section to fill that space. Start with some cash register items, such as rolling papers and detoxes, continuing on into the slightly larger devices that are packaged like adult novelty, such as PuffCo, Dip Devices, Studenglass and Stache Products, which come in boxes that are easier to shelve than traditional glass products.”

Jennings perceives the dipping into sales of either product category as a mutually-beneficial relationship which will keep the counter-culture industry thriving at large, and he envisions one large industry in the future, sheltered beneath the counter-culture umbrella.

“There’s no reason we can’t all be family,” he says. “At the end of the day, we just want small businesses to thrive, and we do everything that we can to cater to that mindset.”

Lighting up the retail shelves

Adult retailers who are concerned about confronting the zoning laws of the smoke world for their own stores can rest assured that CHAMPS operates fully legally and has no direct affiliation with anything drug-related.

“There is a common misconception about CHAMPS that we’re a cannabis show,” shares Jennings. “We don’t have any dispensary booths or booths selling cannabis. They’re more than welcome to come as buyers, but we are a counter-culture show, not a pot show. It’s just that most everybody likes pot here.”

Selling smoke retail doesn’t necessarily involve cannabis and shouldn’t really be marketed that way depending on what state the shop is in. In fact, Jennings shares that the highest-selling smoke shop products right now are nicotine vapes. 

“Nowadays, almost everybody is seen on the street holding a vape pen,” adds Hirschfeld. “They’re holding a tobacco item. Those items are nice, especially for an adult store where space is at a premium, and they have to justify every inch of it — vapes are very profitable, with little breakage, and they don’t take up a lot of space.”

Flowering the counter-culture

According to Hirschfeld, despite the impact inflation continues to have on the economy, the state of counter-culture retail is stronger than ever.

“Even if the economy is bad, ‘sex, drugs and rock and roll’ always sells,” he says, adding that, “I believe most of the adult stores should offer some smoke and tobacco items, which can help their ends, and the adult manufacturers can help our smoke retailers, so that all of our retailers can maintain vibrant and profitable business.”

Previous adult sponsors at CHAMPS include the trusted and well-known names of CalExotics, Doc Johnson, Shots America, Lustella and Magic Silk, under their Exposed and Male Power lines.

“At CHAMPS, we do some things that are sort of unheard of in the industry,” Hirschfeld ensures. “Most tradeshow events just sell as many booths as they can. We don’t concentrate too much on booths; we concentrate on the retailer, because the retail is what makes everything go around. We also have an arbitration system for any order that’s placed at CHAMPS. Whether you’re a buyer or a seller, we back all the orders. It begins with one of my people and if it goes beyond him, it actually goes to my desk. We get involved, and we do that totally free of charge.”

Don’t get caught in the ‘time warp’

The first show for CHAMPS of 2024 will be right after the Super Bowl, February 14 through 17, in celebration of CHAMPS’ 25th anniversary, and Jennings anticipates it will be the largest show on record. 

“As far as adult novelty goes, we are looking at quite the expansion for our 2024,” he shares. “We had almost 10 times as many adult boutique buyers as we did last year at our Florida show.”

“2024 looks like an amazing year,” adds Hirschfeld. “We’re very fortunate that we’ve been with the convention center 20 years, so we get prime space and times. A lot of people are going to be in town for the Super Bowl, and we open up that following Wednesday. We do understand that Wednesday is Valentine’s Day, and that’s why we went with a little different pattern for the show — where we normally don’t go into the weekend, we’re going to be opening Friday and Saturday, so if the store just can’t justify getting out of their location Wednesday or Thursday, they can still come out Friday and Saturday. We invite all counter-culture players to come down to Las Vegas and see our show, as well as the five more we have coming up in 2024, and beyond.”

For more information, call (818)-741-2142 or visit champstradeshows.com.