The Champs trade show held this week in Las Vegas was an absolute blast, at least for most. A premier counter-culture event held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the long-running trade show provides head shops, dispensaries, and other 420-retailers their seasonal supply of bongs, oil rigs, assorted paraphernalia, and alternative lifestyle attire. While there’s no weed at the show, recreational marijuana dispensaries in Las Vegas are alive and well.
With recreational marijuana now legal in Nevada, this week’s event hosted more than 420 vendors under the convention center’s massive roof. Featuring artisan glassblowers demonstrating their craft, this year’s industry-centric trade show had a little something for everyone.
On a personal mission to pick up a few new strains for review in Las Vegas, I stopped by the Champs show to covet what I can’t afford.
Below are just a few of the highlights from the 2017 Champs event.
Making the job of rolling a perfect cone-shaped joint as simple as 1,2,3, Futurola was hard to miss at this year’s event. Located up-front and center, Futurola’s presentation was high-tech and helpful for today’s modern dispensaries.
Glass, glass, and more glass
On hand and slinging their bongs and oil rigs were RooR, Grav, Custom Creations, and Nexus glass – just to name just a few.
RooR had an amazing display of some of their high-end glass. Founded in 1995, RooR has accumulated four HTCC trophies for Best Product.
Grav’s glass was stylish and featured incredibly clean lines. Highly functional pieces, Grav water pipes come in a never-ending variety of shapes and sizes.
Custom Creations by the Dab Lab offers high functionality at a competitive price. Made in the USA, Custom Creations also produces a wide array of bubblers, bongs, and dab accessories.
Nexus brought several different versions of their Puck design to the Champs show. My daily driver for several years now, the Nexus Puck enjoys a low profile and sturdy construction — a rare balance of affordable glassware and stylish durability.
As head shops were busy looking at inventory to stock their shelves, glassblowers like Russell Young were busy creating unique, one-off pieces.
Catching my eye for various reasons, the representatives for this company seemed a little indignant when I mentioned that Walmart was recently outed for selling a similar Rosin press for $299.
Grassroots California was on hand as well. Providing a critical accessory for those battling the blazing Las Vegas Sun, Grassroots California provided some stylish cover for those follically-challenged heads in the crowd.
A great show for most, there was at least one Biz Dev disaster early on. About 10 minutes after walking through the door, there was an extended mind shattering crash heard throughout the event. On scene moments after the disturbing sound occurred, the attendant at the neighboring booth still seemed shocked. Founded in 1999, the Champs convention floor has probably seen its fair share of broken glass.
Now tired and anxious, it was time to find the nearest dispensary. Firing up my Weedmaps app I discovered that RELEAF Las Vegas was just a mile away from the Las Vegas Convention Center. In a hurry to “hit it,” I packed my backpack and headed for the blistering heat beyond the convention doors.
Las Vegas RELEAF: Relief, indeed. I purchased two unique strains from RELEAF LV – Bio Jesus and A-Dub. Both testing at over 30% THC, I look forward to test driving these two strains for our weekly strain review.
Up next for the Champs trade show is the Colorado Convention Center. Kicking off Tuesday, September 19, the rolling head shop extravaganza will hit the Mile High City.
credit:marijuana.com