Glass pipes can truly become a work of art, especially if they’re made by hand. One Illinois-based business owner is connecting the dots between community, cannabis and the importance of locally made goods.
Chris Piazza’s roots as a glassblower made him realize his dream — to show off the beautiful, handmade glass from local artists around the U.S. Ever since, he’s been sourcing these products to dispensaries with his company CannaDevices, truly bringing out the art in cannabis.
CannaDevices glass pipes are blown by hand by skilled glass blowers that use sophisticated tools and techniques. The glass is manipulated and warped at a high temperature when it is malleable. Since it’s made by hand, every glass pipe is unique and the artist can create intricate designs and patterns.
Jumping at the Opportunity
“I was a glassblower for 10 years prior to CannaDevices, and I saw where things were going,” Piazza says. “I had a partner that had connections in the cannabis side of our industry and my view of the future is that dispensaries will swallow up all of the smoke shops. So this was the logical path forward.”
From there, Piazza was able to create a business that supports American artists and create local jobs. He is also working on building an international supply chain to help make CannaDevices competitive against the bigger companies in the industry.
Piazza learned a lot from The Legacy Market, where he worked prior, that helped him to build CannaDevices. “I learned about supply/demand, pricing power, unique product differentiation, customer service, risks and benefits of terms and B2B vs. B2C.”
Overtime, Piazza created relationships around the world to expand CannaDevices’ product offerings outside of American made glass products to include direct to manufacturer accessories ranging from batteries to rolling trays and everything in between.
Currently, CannaDevices is only B2B and Piazza says there is never any interest in going B2C.
The Artists Behind CannaDevices
Compared to other competitors, CannaDevices is the only scalable American-made glass pipe distributor, according to Piazza. The company has a huge network of artists all across the country that they work with.
When looking to partner with new artists, Piazza says they have a special process in place. “We show them the styles that we need made, look at their samples, and then have a five-step onboarding process that allows us to curate the artists that are a good fit for our team,” he notes.
CannaDevices has depth of manufacturing of each product, rather than a single artist making each style. This unique style of a supply chain allows the brand to produce American pieces at scale, according to Piazza.
“90% of these designs are my products that I have been making for 10 years, so no one can say that we took these styles from anyone else. Look out in the near future — we will be bringing out some higher end, limited quantity pieces, as well,” notes Piazza.
Top Selling CannaDevices Products
Each product category in CannaDevices has its highlights, but Piazza says the Frit Handpipe outperforms. For custom accessories, the 55mm Zinc Grinder and Small Metal Tray also sells quite well.
“We are rolling out an entirely new and expanded product offering of brand-able accessories like new grinders, different tray options, dugouts and many more items,” Piazza says. “Plus, our new catalog will include a full suite of general promotional merchandise like lanyards and beanies.”
