Weed smoke blowers have been trending in the past year as musicians and entertainers have made use of the ability to hotbox the crowd. Today, Cookies SF launched a limited run of their new “Flame Thrower” smoke blower, which goes on sale exclusively at Cookies San Francisco.
The Flame Thrower was produced by Jeff Dick of Colorado in collaboration with some big players in Cali weed.
Dick considers himself an inventor and a maker, and over the years has built an online following by posting videos of outrageous tools for smoking weed.
The smoke blower/gun, or something like it, has been around in the community as a DIY project for years, after it really started trending around 2015. The idea is essentially to blast a group of people with weed smoke so that they all get high. Essentially, hotboxing without the box.
Dick’s version of the device was more portable and looked more like a gun than similar projects. It eventually caught notice of Cookies’s Berner.
It’s cool putting out a product that brings joy to people. It’s the best fun they’ve ever had.
Jeff Dick, CEo, Fuma Enterprises
With Berner’s support, Cookies San Francisco owner and Berner’s right-hand Stinje worked with Dick to create an order of 25 custom units to be branded the Cookies Flame Thrower.
Dick has been hard at work filling the order, since each one is handmade.
“It’s been a wild ride the past few months, Dick said. “This collab with Cookies has been a dream come true. I’ve been a big fan of the company for a while now,” Dick said. “I’m really excited,” he said.
Dick got into inventing smoking devices in order to create content for social media (see @thereal420boss on Instagram). It was a change for him from working for his family construction business, which had done all his life until a serious back problem sidelined him. After three back surgeries, he still deals with pain, which smoking weed helps with.
Stuck at home, he turned to social media. “I seen that people were doing cannabis content and I was always really passionate about cannabis,” Dick said. He says his passion came from experiencing its medical benefits firsthand.
His goal on social media was to create viral content around smoking weed in the hopes of supporting himself.
“I was just trying to make something that would make content,” Dick said. “At the time I was making cool smoking devices.”
I didn’t have an idea for it, it just kind of came together. I was sitting there looking at it like that’s really bad ass.
Jeff Dick, CEO, Fuma Enterprises
One device, he said, led naturally to the next, and he started making progress around a portable smoke blower. The first version had a backpack.
“I was trying to make a gravity bong. But I ended up just creating the original smoke [blower]. A big Ghostbuster looking unit. That’s what came out of it,” Dick says, of his experimenting at the time.
Dick says that there was no master plan behind the eventual design.
“I didn’t have an idea for it, it just kind of came together. I was sitting there looking at it like that’s really bad ass.”
Dick was getting great feedback online, and eventually reached out to rapper Baby Bash to make him a custom unit for shows.
Baby Bash’s early videos of Dick’s smoke gun went viral online, leading Berner to repost.
Since going viral, Dick received a bunch of requests for custom-made units. He’s made units for DJ Teflon, Marty Grimes, Al Harrington’s Viola, Mike Tyson, and others. He’s producing a version for Marty Grimes called the YahYah Cannon. Grimes said that the crowd has been loving the device so far.
“I love it, it’s a party piece,” Grimes said.
“Every stoner loves it and wants to take a quarter to the face. Whenever I bring it out, the energy rises wherever I’m at,” Grimes said.
He developed a smaller version of the gun, the Bash Mini Blaster, as a product for Baby Bash that immediately sold out when it dropped last month (more are in the works).
I love it, it’s a party piece. Every stoner loves it and wants to take a quarter to the face. Whenever I bring it out, the energy rises wherever I’m at.
Marty Grimes
With the limited drop of 25 units at Cookies SF, Californians now have a way to purchase their own smoke blower.
Dick says this first drop is the start of several models that Cookies will carry representing three different sizes. The first Cookies Flame Thrower is a 7 gram capacity gun, with a larger 14 gram and a smaller 1-2 gram version on the way.
To go from making online videos to a full-fledged product was a complex process that involved applying for a patent and establishing a corporation in California. As a result, Dick is now known as the inventor of the Flame Thrower and the CEO of Fuma Enterprises.
Some members of the online maker community balked on Dick going so far as to patent a product that they felt was community-developed. Dick’s patent, however, shows the extent to which his model is unique.
Another criticism of smoke guns is their inherent safety, both in use and in durability, considering most are made of plastic.
Dick says safety was first as he was developing the gun.
“I’ve been putting in the time and energy to make it legit, and engineering and designing it to make it safe,” Dick said. “My focus was safety,” he said.
The biggest boost Dick has been given during the process has been from Stinje himself, who has been hyping the drop of Cookies’s Flame Thrower since last fall.
Stinje has used his impressive social media reach to put Dick front and center of promoting the Flame Thrower.
Stinje posted on Instagram about Wednesday’s drop, writing “This is a super limited release! Shout out to [Jeff Dick] for building it! Me and him spent countless hours on the phone talking about ways to dial it in to make sure it’s as good as it can be!” Stinje posted.
“This is just the beginning!” Stinje wrote.
Stinje had shown a lot of love and support and helped get me where I’m at now. I wanted to make something cool for him to show some love back. He’s the original inspiration for the Flame Thrower.
Jeff Dick, CEO, Fuma Enterprises
Stinje hasn’t just promoted the Flame Thrower. According to Dick, he was the inspiration for its design.
“Stinje had shown a lot of love and support and helped get me where I’m at now with followers and clout. He leveled me up on Instagram,” Dick said.
“I wanted to make something cool for him to show some love back,” Dick said.
“He’s the original inspiration for the Flame Thrower,” Dick said.
Dick is excited about the launch because he loves to see the way that people respond.
“It’s cool putting out a product that brings joy to people,” Dick said.
Having seen it in action many times, Dick says, “It’s the best fun they’ve ever had.”
