The Glass Gripper

by Jeremy Norrie

There are many different aspects to the culture and personalities involved in the cannabis industry.

Traveling the world, we get to meet people from all over, and recently we met the man behind the Glass Gripper, Mr. Philly Blunts.

His product is simple but very useful; as such, it has taken off like wildfire.

He was recently the host of a huge party during the CHAMPS 2011 event in Las Vegas. We tried to get some time to do the interview then, but it was too wild, so it had to wait till now.

His party was at the Palms Casino, but it wasn’t in a club or a bar. No, this party was at the private Hugh Hefner Penthouse Suite. That is right, and it was all decorated with classy Playboy memorabilia and what have you. Somehow, there were Vortex Glass & Gravity Vortex pieces all over. My friend Isaac from Dub Glass was giving guests dabs upstairs, and White Deer from Essential Vape came by and made a generous donation. This place was absolutely epic and totally amazing.

The suite had its own elevator, for starters. There were a few bedrooms; one had a bed that automatically rotated, while another had a TV that came out of the bottom bedpost. There were pictures of playmates and Playboy logos all over the place, with the most unreal pool outside that had glass walls revealing the hottest view of the Las Vegas Strip. At the edge, it was a straight drop down 30-plus floors. There was one room with a wall of windows that had big-screen TVs mounted so you could see the incredible view right behind the TVs. There was also a huge performance from some great hip hop stars; it was hot. That place was at a level not many people will ever reach in life, and thanks to Glass Gripper, we were able to party like cannabis rock stars that night. When the smoke was clear, we were finally able to sit down and talk with Phil from Glass Gripper and find out a little more about his story and his great ideas.

Thanks for taking the time to talk with us for our readers this issue. I am sure there are a number of them using your product already. Tell us first about how you entered into the cannabis industry. I understand you used to own a head shop?

Philly: It’s my pleasure to have the opportunity to speak with you guys and share my story. It all started when I moved down from New Jersey to Sarasota, Florida, in 2004. A few years later, my brother and I opened a pizzeria on Siesta Key called Solorzano Brothers Pizzeria. I then noticed a smoke shop going out of business and realized I had to capitalize on this opportunity. We then opened a smoke shop selling fine cigars, tobacco, beer, wine, glass pipes, and other tobacco accessories. After interacting with customers, I realized that there was a high demand for some kind of protection for your glass pieces of art. One night, when I was extremely high chill-in’ at the crib, I came up with a genius idea. I found some soft foam material in my kitchen, cut it to size, and glued it to the bottom of my bong. After putting the material on the bot-tom, I couldn’t believe the difference: no more clinking, chip-ping, or breaking my bong ever again! And that’s how Glass Gripper all started.

Do you have any strange or interesting stories from those days? Anything weird happen at the shop or any incredi-ble customers?

Philly: LOL! I could write a book with all the stories I have from my smoke shop, and soon will. It just so happens that my smoke shop was located on this little island called Siesta Key,

where tons of beautiful people come to party and get wild for spring break. Luckily for the ladies, Glass Grippers are great bikini tops and leave no tan lines, wink wink.

Was the product a success right away? What things did you do that worked to grow your company? And how popular is the Glass Gripper now?

Philly: The product was an instant success with customers. Everyone that walked in wanted a Glass Gripper. What really launched my product was when I came out in two different magazines in the same month, High Times and Skunk Magazine. This all happened while I was at the Champs trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2008 promoting my product Glass Gripper for the very first time. After returning from the trade show, orders just kept coming, in and that’s when I real-ized this was going to be something big. Now I travel to shows all around the world, to places such as Vegas, Cali, Amsterdam, Spain, Toronto, and many more to come. Glass Gripper is now known worldwide.

The party at the Hugh Hefner Villa Suite at the Palms was incredible! There were free food and drinks with live per-formers and tons of smokers, but no problems! How did you pull that off?

Philly: I’m glad you guys at Treating Yourself magazine had an incredible time at my penthouse party. I’m so happy every-thing went so smooth, considering the amount of time and effort that was put into this event. I wouldn’t have been able to pull it off without the help of all my wonderful sponsors

and friends, including Treating Yourself magazine, Green Glass Clean, Vortex, Tokeez, Hemp Beach TV, The Digger One Hitter, Mike’s Worldwide Imports, Smoke Clear, Alternative Lifesystems, Skunk Magazine, Henry Hemp, Geno’s Wholesale, Big Magazine, Zong, Blue Dot, Magnum Detox, I Network, Los Marijuanos, Swisher Streets, Skywriter, Sota, and everyone else who showed love for Philly Blunts and the Glass Gripper party.

Should we be expecting more big things like this from your company? Can you tell us about any projects you have coming up in the future? And lastly, what’s the best way for an interested reader to get more info about how to buy one of your products?

Philly: That was my first Glass Gripper party and certainly not my last. One of my newest projects is an up-and-coming rap-per that goes by the name of Sota. I had him perform at my Vegas Hugh Hefner Penthouse party and he killed it! You can listen to his music, book him for events, and support the movement by going to glassgripper.net. Readers can find out more information and also buy my product at glassgripper.net.

Thank you for taking the time to talk with us. We all look forward to what Glass Gripper is going to do in the future!

Make sure you all catch up with us again next time. I hope you will be able to use this article to find yourself a Glass Gripper. Maybe you have been thinking about some way to protect your water pipes, and this will help you find what you needed. Next issue, we will talk about more cannabis-related news.

If you enjoy these articles, follow me @Professor420 on Twitter for more personal stories and behind-the-scenes details and pictures from my articles, including things that don’t make it into the magazine, and get them as they hap-pen live. Also, don’t forget to check out www.FutureofFighting.com to bet on fights and get the latest news about UFC and other mixed martial arts. Also, 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.