For years I lamented over the effort to find great pipe tobacco. So when Chris Nickols, (the web developer of who specializes in heavy traffic e-commerce websites) asked if I’d be interested in starting an online pipe tobacco retailer – I giddily said ‘hells yeah.’
After almost a year of researching pipe tobaccos from all over the world (for “r&d reasons only”), we leased a little back-alley space in old town pasadena, got our tobacco license, and launched a pipe tobacco shop.
Then it closed 6 months later. It turns out that just selling pipe tobacco isn’t a great business model. We still paid all our bills though, and hosted tons of pipe enthusiasts from around Los Angeles.
Honestly, it was a lot of fun, and I’m glad we made something new.
Like to take a peek?
Here is a Mood board that friend & colleague Chris Dewan helped us dial in:
Later my artist friend Shane Edelman helped us dial in the branding for signage and the final jars.
[jars picture]
Tons of other friends helped along the way, including Will Keeler, Marc Ritzma, Austin Obrien (who shared the tobacco space during the week!), and many more.
Only onward and upward….