Life & Work with Alejandro Badillo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alejandro Badillo. 

Hi Alejandro, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
Hello, I’m Alex, I been doing this business for just a little more than 2 years now here in Colorado. Since I been living here for 20 years, I saw the legalization of cannabis and the raise of a lot of potential businesses. 

The Idea of recycling Liquor bottles and making them into bongs it came up to me one day when I was holding a beer and a bong on the same hand, starting the weekend ready to hit the bars in LoDos, and I realized that a bottle would be a nice thing to turn into a bong, especially because I would break a lot of my own bongs and I would hate to spend more money every time I would break or lose one. 

I have a career in machining, so I know how to use and run machines that are useful to make things out of wood and metal, drill presses, band saws, etc. I remember that I learned how to drill holes with a special drill bit in ceramic for construction purposes, so with my knowledge of machining and my addiction to marijuana and alcohol, it was only a matter of time before I came out with the idea of making bogs out bottles for myself, 

After making a few bottles for myself and showing my friends my project, a lot of them encouraged me to advertise them online and on the smokeshops all around Colfax, At first, I was a little shy going to the shops and showing them my bottlebongs, but for the most part everyone is been really supportive and nice with me, We have a lot of different styles of bongs, also we have 6 packs of beerbongs, were we give you 6 bongs for you and your friends, and you can chose the beer brand that you want us to make it out of. 

So far, we been doing a lot of sales all around the country, also we have made sales to Canada and Colombia, we handmade every bottlebong to order, we use 100% recycled materials, starting with the bottles, the shiping crate, and the wrapping, great quality materials, and great prices. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely hasn’t been easy along the way, first I needed to find out how to make the hole in the bottle, I had to do a lot of research on the web and YouTube on videos showing me how to cut glass without breaking it, specially making holes in bottles. After that I had to figure out how to weld the downstem, to the bottle, I tried using a small blowtorch for the first bongs, that didn’t worked since I needed to heat up the entire bottle and that would ruin the label, after that I found a great way to put them together without having to heat up the bottle or use any fire at all. 

Another struggle I had was getting the bottles, I do not drink them myself, since I mostly drink beer, and all my bongs and liquor bottles. I had to go to a lot of different bars and restaurants where they would allow me to get the old bottles from them, some places told me that they had a guy already getting them, that the city require them to throw them in the trash, or they just simply couldn’t do it, but I found a great Grill bar called “Urban Sombrero’ in Denver, they have provided most of the bottles for me. 

After having my first bottles done, I needed to find out where to sell them, I don’t have any idea how to do marketing or business, but by seen videos on Instagram, YouTube and other websites were they also sold Bongs and smoking accessories, they gived me a lot of ideas on how to advertise my products, take great photos, make videos, and even starting my website. MILEHIGHBOTTLEBONGS.COM 

We still have a lot more ideas and new products coming soon, better quality and more styles, this is just the beginning, I see a lot of potential in Colorado and all around the world of this product. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I try to keep myself busy all the time, my other business that I have is garage door installation, “A.B. GARAGE DOORS AND SPRINGS”, that my main job where I been doing it for 5 years, my uncle Gerardo teached me about the construction business and how to do the job. I do installations of new garage doors, new openers, brokens springs, and just about any service that you will need for you garage door. 

2 times a week I go to “Muay Thai Academy of Colorado” were I get a great workout with my teammates, and learn great defense skills. I highly recommend it; the instructors and the people are all very nice. Colorado is a great place to do a lot of great outdoor activities, specially up in the mountains, I love taking a new bong that I had just made with me on my backpack, and use it on a top of a mountain after a good hike. 

Recycling is a big priority for me, as you can see by my bongs, the bottles are recycled by me getting them from the restaurants, the shipping crate I do it myself out of used wood I find outside of warehouses, and the cardboard for wrapping the box is recycled from the garage doors that I install on the daily basis, aside from the, I use a lot of recycled wood to the furniture for my house and decorations, that another business I might start in a few years from now, who knows what I do next. 

What do you think about happiness?
To be perfectly honest. it doesn’t takes a lot to make me and keep me happy, it can be from visiting and spending the day with my family, or just staying home and work on my projects alone on my house. Denver has a lot of great places in the city, I also enjoy going to a nice new restaurant, walk around Broadway at night, or going camping to a nice lake. 

Using my imagination is also another thing that keeps me happy and busy, doing bongs and coming up with new ideas and styles sure keeps me on my toes for the customers that wants different styles of bottles. Exercising also keeps my mind clear and focused on all my projects and businesses that I have in mind, as I mentioned before I joined a Muay Thai class a few months ago, but also bicycling is a huge sport I love and I’m interested in specially here in Colorado since is so nice riding around your bicycle in the mountains. 

Pricing:

• liquor bottles usually from $30 to $60
• 6 pack of bongs is $50 – $60

Contact Info:

• Email: MILEHIGHBOTTLEBONGS@GMAIL.COM
• Website: MILEHIGHBOTTLEBONGS.COM
• Instagram: MILEHIGHBOTTLEBONGS
• Facebook: MILE HIGH BOTTLE BONGS
• Youtube: MILE HIGH BOTTLE BONGS