The Digger One Hitter
by Jeremy Norrie
In this issue we will get a chance to talk with one of my good friends in the industry. I met him in Amsterdam, it was my first time seeing his product THE DIGGER ONE HITTER (www.thediggeronehitter.com) and we have been friends ever since. Now he has added a new product to his line up and it has been SMASHING the competition. The new smoking related products are giving rise to the industry.
There are a few real clever people out there coming up with new ideas and new designs every day, with Jonny B on the cutting edge. THE DIGGER ONE HITTER took the regular one-hitter to a new level, but now with the SMASHTRAY (www.smash-trays.com) , the average ash tray has been lifted to new highs. All these new innovations are bringing the products of the past back in a big way. We were lucky to get a chance to talk with Jonny B so you can hear first hand about his awesome designs and the erupting smoking product industry.
Thanks for taking the time to do this interview and be featured in Treating Yourself
Jonny B: You Bet Jeremy, I love TY and tell Marco I’ll see him in Amsterdam!!!!!
Tell me how u got started in the smoking products industry & how you came up with your first product “THE DIGGER ONE HITTER” ?
Jonny B: It was really by accident. I have been a LONG TIME FAN of the Dugout and One Hitter Bats, and one day back in July of 2009 I was on vaca-
tion in Maine when I dropped my ceramic one hitter. I was pissed because I wasn’t anywhere near a smoke shop that I knew of, so I had to think like Macguyver. When I dropped my ceramic one hitter, it put a perfect chip in the end of the bat that gave me the idea to put several more of these “SHARK TEETH” on the end of the one hitter to create a “Grinder Tip”, which made the performance of the “Old School Flathead Bats” (which suck because they compact the material down into the dugout and its very hard to get out) work WAAAAAYYYYY Better. So when I got home I bought a bunch of “Old School Flathead Bats” and started grinding Sharp Serrated Teeth into them that angled inward. All my buddies loved it and wanted one because it real-ly did work much better than any of the current bats. So then I started looking for manufacturers and started the whole process of development and tooling, and marketing at trade shows (which I love) all over the world. That’s the story behind THE DIGGER ONE HITTER. It was literally sitting 3 inches from my nose for YEARS, LOL….
Did you have any interesting problems developing the product?
Jonny B: TONS!!!!! My VERY first order of 50,000 units came in poorly packaged and all 50,000 Diggers were scratched. I couldn’t deliver them to my customers in that condition. Normally I would have been screwed in this sit-uation, but my manufacturing plant was INCREDIBLE
about solving the problem and paid for all the units to be replaced. They told me that if they didn’t like my new Patent Pending Design so much, and weren’t my exclusive manufacturer, that I would have had to EAT IT. I finally had to have my plant individually package each Digger so they wouldn’t rub against each other in transit, and the problem was solved. That was a great start!
I also had an interesting experience on my way back home from the official launch of THE DIGGER at The 2009 High Times Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam. Homeland Security and Customs didn’t seem to agree with me that my 1600 Diggers were intended for tobac-co use only. They held me for hours, tore me and all my stuff up, missed my connecting flight, it was a nightmare that ended with an article on the internet titled “Cannabis Cup Competitor Apparently Had Too Much Fun in Amsterdam”. I could go on and on with some CRAZY stories……
How has the product come along, and are there any new directions you plan to go in the future
Jonny B: The Digger is gettin
Bigger!! We have been picked up by most of the major distributors in North
America, and we are starting to push it in Europe along with our newest product
THE SMASHTRAY. This month THE DIGGER was in SKUNK Magazines TOP 50 MUST HAVE
PRODUCTS article, and we have been steadily get-ting bigger orders over the
past 18 months since we launched it. Our website is really starting to pick up
as the word gets out and more stores carry it. We are com-ing out with a new
type of Digger in the near future geared towards the medical community, but its
still in the patenting process so it’s on the DL for now.
Now tell me about the SMASHTRAY
Jonny B: THE SMASHTRAY KICKS GLASS SO “TAP THIS” Y’ALL!!!!!!!! It’s a fireproof, non-toxic rubber / silicone material that we had BREWED up to mold into ashtrays,
SO YOU DON’T BREAK YOUR GLASS PIECES WHEN TAP-PING OUT ANYMORE. We have several shapes, colors and sizes, and are doing a lot of customized ones for all kinds of different people. We just whipped up some for The Kottonmouth Kings, HEMP BEACH TV, Nug Magazine, Swisher Streets, and a custom football shaped one for 420 FOOTBALL. These things are AWESOME!!!! And they also fit your beer can (or soda) to become a non-slip coaster, great for boats, cars, and RV’s. We have TONS of different designs and molds in the works.
How has the product been received by the indus-try?
Jonny B: AMAZINGLY GREAT RESPONSE… People love this thing and we can’t make them fast enough. We have been picked up by the big distributors with this product recently and its JAMMING!!! Our new SKULL mold is EVIL, and we just started making Glow In The Dark SMASHTRAYS too.
Any plans for future SMASHTRAY designs or new ideas?Johnny B: Too many to list. We can pretty much make anything you can imagine. We have some really talented etchers, sculptors, and mold makers who come up with some pretty cool stuff in our “Creative Meetings” (I never miss these meetings, WAAAAAYYYY too much fun). When the fog clears and the ashes are swept up, we are amazed at how many new ideas we realized we came up with at the meeting. I think we have come up with a new
COPORATE MEETING TECHNIQUE for companies to draw the creativity out of their employees…LOL
Is there anything in general you are working on or have plans for in the future?
Jonny B: I’m doing a lot more with HEMP BEACH TV (www.hempbeach.tv <http://www.hempbeach.tv> ) late-ly, which is a blast and the show is really growing. We just filmed a GREAT episode from CHAMPS, and I did a seg-ment on on my first ever DEADLIEST CATCH TUNA TRIP . I had to eat the live beating heart from my first Tuna (So Nasty!). I’ve also been starting to work with some other inventors of products that I think have some great poten-tial. I’ve been coming across (or stumbling into) a lot of people on my insane travels with great ideas for products, but don’t know what to do next, so I come in and help. I help them with Sourcing and Manufacturing, as well as Financing and Sales and Marketing. Its really hard to pick which products and inventors to work with because of all the time that goes into coming out with a new product, but if I have a good “Gut/Lung Feeling” that “it’s a good product for smokers” then I’ll do it. Time is really the most limiting factor in our lives, and I HATE to waste it, I’m only here once!
Thanks again to Jonny B for taking the time to talk with us and good luck in the future. I am sure these products are going to get even bigger. Especially the “SMASH-TRAY” that seems like something that will literally be in shopping malls all over the USA and the world, I LOVE mine. The time to shine in the smoking product industry is right now, and loads of people are trying their hand at a new idea or a new way to revolutionize the old. It is a great way to break in to what could be a very lucrative future. Good luck to everyone trying to jump in, and may you find your genius idea.
Make sure you all catch up with us again next time, if you ever use a one-hitter you will have to check out “THE DIG-GER ONE HITTER (www.thediggeronehitter.com) ” and everyone should check out the “SMASHTRAY (www.smashtrays.com) ” for their home or office. Maybe you have been thinking about some way to be a little more stealth, or you need an ash tray that you can really use for smacking that last bit out of a used pipe and not worry about breaking your glass. Next issue we will talk about more cannabis related news. If you enjoy these arti-cles, follow me @Professor420 on Twitter for more per-sonal stories & behind the scenes details & pictures from my articles, including things that don’t make it in the magazine, and get them as they happen live. Also don’t forget to check out www.FutureofFighting.com <http://www.FutureofFighting.com> to bet on fights and get the latest news about UFC and other Mixed Martial Arts. Go to www.RLDDVD.com for the very best DVD about Amsterdam’s Red Light District. Take it easy, have fun, don’t believe the hype! Find success and make it work for you. Good luck.