The History of GRAV
Their products being a staple amongst many online smoke shop retailers today, GRAV (formerly GRAV Labs) began as pet project for founder Dave Daily, who would have never expected his first invention would spawn a multi-million dollar company. Before the year 2004, herb enthusiasts were creating gravity bongs using discarded bottles and household materials. Becoming quite good at constructing these makeshift gravity bongs, Dave was told by a friend he should try selling his creations online. So, Dave went about finding wine bottles he could convert to gravity bongs and finding accessory parts he could by in bulk.
After launching and marketing his product, Dave was working both his business and working as a mortgage loan processor. The popularity of his Gravitron bong at shows led to his product being sold in headshops. Excited by the success, Dave purchased glassblowing equipment to create more water pipes. Near the beginning of his entrepreneurship, high-quality glass was seeing more demand. For this reason, Dave decided to create his pipes from borosilicate glass, which is a thicker and safer material that standard glass. In fact, it is considered medical-grade and is durable even at high temperatures. Today, almost all of the products are still made from borosilicate, save for some smaller quartz pieces.
Innovative Designs
One of the most recognizable pieces to come out of GRAV is the Helix Classic Hand Pipe, which was a joint effort between Dave and glass artist Will Menzies. Eventually Will separated from GRAV to explore more artistic versions of the helix under the company American Helix, while Dave continued producing innovative designs. Dave and GRAV still support Will and pay him royalties for using the helix designs in their products. Today consumers can find the iconic helix shape in mouthpieces, water pipes, and hand pipes made by GRAV.
Other notable designs include the Upline bong, which utilizes a series of percolators in a thin design to offer extreme filtration to the users, and the Upline Steamroller, which transfers the upline idea into a hand pipe. Another ingenious concept, STAX, is the first modular smoking system that allows users customizability and creativity with each session. One of the pieces users can pair with the system is the Glycerin Coil perc. Users can freeze it before a session to provide them with ultra-chill hits later on.
Reliable Wow-Factor
Although GRAV pipes may not wow a user based on artistic value, their innovative and highly scientific designs continue to amaze the herbal community year after year. What first attracts many users to GRAV products are the almost hypnotizing functions, but the high quality glass and inventive percs are what keep consumers coming back for more. GRAV is one of those companies that continues to produce amazing products, and the sales speak for themselves. If you haven’t tried a GRAV product yet, there are many options to choose from. If you like to test before you buy, ask one of your friends, as one of them is bound to have a GRAV product in their stash!
- SMOKEA Blog
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