Q & A With E-Gen April Feature
EJM: “Let’s start at the beginning, how did you come up with the name Solace as your brand name?”
eGen: “When we thought about the core elements and essence of a great product, we kept coming back to the
ideas of comfort, serenity and peace of mind. Nowadays there’s so much noise, commotion and
stress in our daily routines that people rarely, if ever, have a moment to just stop and enjoy the present
moment and or find some solace. Solace is about helping people find those moments in an otherwise
chaotic and constantly changing world.”
EJM: “Solace is a pioneer in the nicotine salt industry, can you describe how you conceptualized the idea for nicotine salts and how you knew it would be a winning product in the world of vape?”
eGen: “We always believed that there was a piece missing when we used conventional vapor products. Just
the sheer fact that as consumers we jumped from one brand and flavor to the next constantly was
indicative that there was something that needed to be adjusted. The evolution of devices to be smaller
and have lower wattages also played a critical role. As devices became smaller, the right quality
product was needed to satisfy customer demands. It was out of these pain points that we decided to
begin manufacturing and developing nicotine salt flavors of our own towards the end of 2015.
At that time, there was no other open bottle nicotine salt company on the market and there was also
very little demand. We focused on three key concepts:
1. Making great products
2. Building a great experience
3. Taking care of our customers first.
These three notions are the foundation of what we hope to propagate as our company’s core values
and message. Since conception, nicotine salts to us have been one of the next and final steps in the
constantly evolving vape industry. As individuals that have been in the industry for some time, none of
us have seen the brand retention and consistency that Solace has had over the last 2 years.”
EJM: “You consistently win at many vape shows around the world, can you tell us your proudest moment?”
eGen: “Though we have won awards for our product, our proudest moments are when we hear about our
customers experiences. A large number of our customers are ex-smokers and have been able to kick
the habit using Solace. Everytime customers call us to tell us about their experiences quitting
smoking it motivates us to push our message harder to a wider audience.”
EJM: “Everyone has a story to tell when traveling, what was the wildest happening on a trip you have taken when going to a show for Solace?”
eGen: “One of our trips to China for a tradeshow definitely has to be one of the sketchiest. Anywhere, from the travel time there and within the country, including a 5 hour speed train. To individual stories from our partners consisted of the foods we ate, to the places visited and witnessing how powerful the country is.”
EJM: “Not only are Solace Salts successful your Salty Man line is a top brand as well. Can you tell us how you came up with the idea?”
eGen: “The idea behind Salty Man was to build and create an explorative playground of unique, compelling and exotic flavors that few have ever tried before. Whereas Solace is designed for a more casual vaping experience. Salty Man was created for the more adventurous vapers. Now that Salty Man is becoming a staple in vape shops across the nation we are getting great customer feedback from a wide range of different people and we look forward to seeing it continue to grow.”
EJM: “Your flavors are pretty special can you describe how you create a flavor, name it, and test it?”
eGen: “All of our flavors are developed by one of our co-founders Brendan McDermott. Arguably the best
mixologist west of the Atlantic. Brendan has had years of experience developing unique flavors
and products within the vape industry. His process is highly secretive. That being said, all of our
products undergo a number of different chemical and safety tests to ensure they maintain the same efficacy, quality and taste that sets our products above the standard. With that being said, PMTA’s should be a breeze.”
EJM: “Tell us about the re-launch of the solace flavor: Lemonade”
eGen: “Our lemonade flavor was released a long time ago among our initial flavor launch. Though we got
great feedback for it, we decided to withhold it from our customers to test a more specialty flavor like Red Hot. Now that nicotine salts have become more popular, we have relaunched the flavor to
the mass market. Lemonade is a sweet and refreshing combination that vapers of all sorts will thoroughly enjoy as the spring months and warm weather begins to roll in. You should wait and see what else we have up our sleeve; aside from collaborations, partnerships and OEMs of course.”
EJM: “You have re-launched your new Lemonade flavor exclusively for a time with Midwest Goods; What made you pick Midwest Goods to launch the new flavor?”
eGen: “Midwest Goods is an incredibly prestigious distribution channel that respects our vision as well as the goals for our brand and products. We enjoy working with partners that share this same vision and place long term growth and success above short term profits and gains. As we continue to grow this category together and as one of the first distributors to build the category with us. Midwest Goods presented a great opportunity to push the brand further.”
EJM: “Do you have favorite pod systems to compliment your nicotine salts?”
eGen: “We prefer not to pick favorites and there are too many great devices to choose from. That being said, we love the products being designed by a number of companies that are coming out right now.”
EJM: “What’s next for Solace?”
eGen: “Solace is working on a number of secretive projects with some large scale partners. We will continue to innovate and disrupt the industry and that’s exactly what we intend to continue doing
now and into the future.”