Brett Harris, CEO & Founder of LuvBuds – Interview Series

With most cannabis and ancillary businesses heavily focused on individual state markets due to the prohibition of interstate commerce, it is easy to assume that executive-level decisions regarding international trade would not create many ripples across local industries. However, the reality is quite the opposite—particularly for smoking accessory manufacturers and distributors, as well as the complex technological logistics underpinning their production processes.

For a deeper look into the mechanics of building a massive distribution company for smoking accessories, and to explore how recent economic policies by the Trump administration—such as tariffs—impact product manufacturing, MyCannabis.com spoke with Brett Harris, CEO and Founder of LuvBuds.

What topics in marketing did you study while at the University of Arizona? What student organizations were you involved in while attending there?

At Arizona, I studied Marketing and Sociology, which to me were really two sides of the same coin. One was about how to get people to buy in mass, and the other was about how mass behavior is influenced socially. One was business, one was science, but they were closely connected in my mind. I was always more interested in what actually works in the real world than in theory for theory’s sake.

The biggest education I got, honestly, was starting and running my first business while I was still a student. I had a tour company that handled student vacations for spring break and ski weekends, and I learned more doing that than I did in any classroom. Nothing sharpens your instincts like having to sell, organize, deliver, and make money while still trying to pass your classes.

What were the most useful and valuable lessons in sales and marketing, and also supplier/vendor relationship building, that you learned through your roles at companies such as Ten Strawberry Street? How did those roles prepare you for founding LuvBuds and all that goes into running that company?

Those roles taught me that sales is not about talking people into things. It is about listening, solving problems, and building trust over time. The best relationships are always mutual. If you can help the decision-maker make their life easier, grow their revenue, improve their margins, and look smarter to their boss, you are not just a vendor anymore, you are valuable.

At Ten Strawberry Street and in other roles, I ran operations, sales, pricing, new revenue development, factory relationships, and rep management. All of that came with me into LuvBuds. Our business lives right in the middle of sourcing, pricing, logistics, merchandising, and relationship management, so those early lessons were not abstract for me. I still use them every day. I have always believed in mutual benefit. If the other side wins, we usually win too.

What would you say were the defining moments that led to the creation of LuvBuds? What gaps in the cannabis accessories industry did you hope to solve with the company?

The defining moment was realizing how immature the cannabis industry really was in the early days, especially on the retail side. Everybody was focused on flower, headlines, and the gold-rush energy of legalization, while one of the highest-margin categories in the store was being treated like an afterthought.

Earlier in my life I had success in business, which led me into consulting — which is really just a fancy way of saying, “I know something you don’t know, and if you pay me, I’ll teach you.” When cannabis legalized in Colorado, I had already moved to California, but it became obvious to me pretty quickly that moving back to Colorado was in my best interest. This new industry desperately needed real operators, real systems, real tax strategy, and real retail thinking.

I saw a chance to help build the picks-and-axes side of the business. I believed I could bring sourcing, merchandising, pricing discipline, and structure to a part of the industry that badly needed it. Being from Colorado gave me an early advantage, but even then I had no idea how fast the industry would grow or how badly the category we built would be needed.

What were the first products that LuvBuds offered on their platform, and how has the catalog of offered products evolved from the founding in 2015? How did you accomplish those expansions?

In the beginning, it was the core basics: glass, grinders, papers, cones, storage, and the everyday accessories dispensaries needed to function. Early LuvBuds was also heavily consignment-based, and we made a lot of lifestyle products with our own branding on them.

From there, the catalog evolved fast. We built relationships with larger brands like Zig-Zag, RAW, High Hemp, Puffco, and others, while also expanding globally through sourcing and importing. Over time, the mix became much broader and much more sophisticated, including vape hardware, batteries, display systems, merchandising tools, and a wide range of retail support products.

The way we accomplished that was pretty simple: we listened. I used my e-commerce background, importing experience, sales management, and product-development background to build a company that customers did not have to think twice about using. I have always wanted my companies to be the easy button. Better, faster, easier — that is the goal.

From a manufacturing standpoint, what are the most difficult types of accessories for LuvBuds to produce or procure from other brands? Why are those processes so difficult?

That answer has changed over the last twelve years. There were times early on when cones were simply unavailable, period. We had to fight like crazy just to keep customers in stock on basic, important items. During COVID, we were buying truckloads of masks, nitrile gloves, and hand sanitizer just to help our customers stay open and functioning.

From a pure manufacturing standpoint, the hardest categories are usually the ones where safety, design, consistency, technical performance, and quality control all have to work together. Electronics, batteries, and advanced vape hardware are difficult because there is very little room for error. Customized glass can be difficult for totally different reasons — craftsmanship, lead times, repeatability, and breakage.

Now, a lot of the pressure comes from cost, tariffs, fuel, and global supply-chain instability. So the challenge today is not always whether something can be made. It is whether it can be made reliably, affordably, and in a way that still creates value for the customer. Our job is to identify the hard parts early and come up with creative alternatives that make our customers’ lives easier, even if it is difficult on our side to manage.

Based on previous sales data and customer reviews, what product type has become the most popular and best-selling? What do you think goes into its massive popularity?

These days, vape products are clearly one of the top categories. Hidden-vape SKUs, new styles, and value-priced options have all done very well. At the same time, cones are still king, along with hemp wraps and batteries. The reality is that the biggest winners are usually not the fanciest products. They are the simple ones.

Simplicity and value always win the day. A product does not become a commodity by accident. It becomes a commodity because it solves a need simply, reliably, and at the right price. A Bic lighter, a simple 510-thread battery, a cheap two-and-a-half-inch pipe, or a three-inch chillum may not be glamorous, but those are the products people come back for over and over again. Keeping our customers in stock on those core winners is a major priority for me.

What hardships or unexpected issues did you from suppliers or other parties because of the association with cannabis consumption?

Almost everything is harder when your customer base is tied to cannabis. Banking was harder. Insurance was harder. Payment processing was harder. Getting traditional credit support was harder. Even suppliers and service providers that should have understood the opportunity were often hesitant because of the stigma or because they just did not understand the industry.

We had to make major changes in our lives and business structure to deal with tax burdens and operating realities. I had to buy out a partner. We were unable to get a traditional line of credit early on. Then you layer in things like the PACT Act, which forced us to change how products are shipped and delivered, often at higher cost.

The truth is, we have been battle-tested in a million different ways, but those hurdles have made us better. They force creativity, discipline, and resilience. We win because we care more, and because we have been forced to learn how to keep moving when most people would have quit.

How have the various tariffs that the Trump administration has enacted impacted your operations and relationships with vendors? How have you adapted to the issues caused by tariffs?

Tariffs create pressure all the way through the supply chain. If you import heavily from Asia like we do, higher duties do not just hit one line item. They affect cost of goods, pricing decisions, margin, vendor negotiations, and long-term planning. That pressure eventually shows up everywhere.

We have adapted the same way disciplined companies always do: negotiate hard, diversify where possible, buy smarter, protect important price points, and stay close to our factory relationships. I have spent far more time flying to China and India in recent years than I did in prior administrations, because those relationships matter more when the pressure is on.

Tariffs have forced us to become leaner, more strategic, and more focused on value-added products that justify the work. Uncertainty is often as disruptive as the tariffs themselves. When the rules keep moving, planning becomes harder. So our answer has been to stay nimble, stay close to the source, and keep creating value.

How do programs like LuvBuds’ “Smoke Shop In A Box” program and LuvBuds University help dispensaries and other cannabis businesses improve their product knowledge and understanding of the brands that LuvBuds offer? What all goes into organizing those programs?

Those programs are built to remove guesswork and help retailers operate more professionally. Smoke Shop In A Box gives stores a curated, thought-out way to build the category instead of throwing products together randomly and hoping for the best. LuvBuds University is designed to help educate teams on products, brands, use cases, merchandising, and how accessories should function as a real profit center inside the store.

What goes into those programs is a lot more than just product selection. It is sourcing, training, brand alignment, display strategy, category planning, and understanding what actually works in a real retail environment. We are trying to apply the best retail practices from similar industries to our customers’ benefit. None of this is magic. It is just disciplined retail, and cannabis needs a lot more of it.

What are some exciting plans for the future with LuvBuds? Especially if more states legalize cannabis in the upcoming years, how do you envision the company expanding alongside that growth?

Everything about LuvBuds right now is exciting. We have nearly completed a major technological overhaul internally, and some of the friction customers may have felt dealing with us in the past is being eliminated. We have upgraded leadership, improved systems, built a stronger sales structure, and launched a pilot we believe represents the future of cannabis retail.

As legalization expands, I see LuvBuds growing not just geographically, but in sophistication. The future is better systems, better merchandising, smarter assortment, and more intelligent use of data to improve performance at the shelf. Cannabis retail is going to become more disciplined, more performance-driven, and more professional over time, and we intend to be right in the middle of that evolution.

We have been through every battle along the way, and every version of the company seems to come out stronger than the last. That gives me a lot of confidence about where we are going next.

Thank you for joining us, Brett! For more information on LuvBuds and its featured brands, please visit its website.