It’s no secret that recreational cannabis is a swiftly growing industry. However, it’s still a bit taboo. But what would happen if it became a part of mainstream shopping and a highly accepted part of society for all kinds of people? Well, Higher Standards is on a mission to find out.
Higher Standards is a cannabis accessories brand that sells everything from glassware and cleaning kits to high-end accessories and its own recently-dropped HS Streetwear capsule collection. The luxury cannabis-inspired brand opened its flagship store in 2017 in the Chelsea Market of Manhattan in New York City. It’s going to be opening its second brick and mortar location at the Ponce City Market shopping mall in Atlanta, Georgia on April 20th.
In addition to its own line of products, Higher Standards also sells high-end products from a variety of other popular cannabis brands like Storz & Bickel, LEVO, Grav Labs, Puffco, Tree Trunk, and PAX. While there is no cannabis for sale at its brick-and-mortar locations, Higher Standards offers a small selection of high-quality CBD items meant for self-care.
Higher Standards aims to encourage an elevated lifestyle through both its many luxury cannabis products and through its in-store experience. The retail staff members are knowledgeable about everything you need to know about marijuana and the products they sell. At Higher Standards, you can get a retail tutorial in how to vape, grind, decarboxylate (roasting cannabis buds), press, dab, roll, and hoard cannabis.
“As consumers continue to be educated about cannabis and begin to see cannabis more easily integrated into their lives, we’ll start seeing cannabis brands targeted specifically and successfully at the luxury consumer,” says Higher Standards General Manager Eric Hammond. “Higher Standards is not a cannabis brand, but a lifestyle brand rooted in cannabis culture. Cannabis use really is a lifestyle for many people, so naturally cannabis brands are lifestyle brands.”
Overall, the brand was founded on the idea that it’s meant for smoking connoisseurs who live an elevated lifestyle. The long-term goals of Higher Standard are to add dispensary counters if marijuana becomes legalized in New York state, continue growing their retail business through pop-up shops in states where cannabis is legal, and eventually end the negative stereotypes that are often associated with the cannabis industry.
When all is said and done, Higher Standards might be among the first cannabis brands in what could become the norm in cultivating and capitalizing on a luxury cannabis consumer. It’s certainly trail blazing the way for the acceptance of the cannabis industry currently, and it will only continue to do so as more states legalize the recreational use of the substance.
“For us luxury cannabis is about accessible luxury — not exclusive access, and certainly not exclusion,” says Hammond. “It’s about an experience, not a price point. We sell all of our products at competitive prices, but we try and provide an elevated, luxurious experience around them, and we hope that they enhance and elevate our customers’ self-care rituals at home, both through the quality and beauty of the products and by providing the tools and encouragement to keep them clean.”
