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Meet Alan Bader of Elevate Accessories in RiNo

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Alan Bader.

Alan, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Before graduating from the Art Institute of CO for Industrial Design, I began working as a freelance designer for a small, high-end, wood jewelry company. Eventually, that turned into a full-time job where we grew the company from 4 employees to 19 employees, and I greatly evolved as a designer. I decided to branch out on my own to start offering product and brand development to other clients, starting my first business. After a few years, I changed my focus to the emerging legal cannabis industry.

At the time the cannabis industry was ripe for new and innovative ideas and was lacking in high-end design. Spending the previous six years developing others’ brands, I felt like it was time for me to create my own; and the cannabis industry was the perfect place to carve out a niche. With that in mind, in 2014, we launched Elevate Accessories. Elevate had its ups and downs over the next five years, and I even went through a business accelerator to help get the company to grow even more.

That experience taught me a lot about managing and growing a business and eventually, I sold Elevate to a large distribution company. Part of the deal was that I would be hired on as the Product Engineer for the whole company, overseeing product dev for multiple brands, including Elevate. It was a dream come true, and now Elevate is making leaps and bounds from where it was before. Which brings us to today.

Great, 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?
Finding the right partners for the business was tough, but it helped me hone my communication skills and helped me feel more comfortable talking money and business politics with partners, suppliers, and new hires.

Also, one of the most difficult times in the history of the business was when I was badly injured in a climbing accident and had to bring on additional help when I wasn’t ready for it and had to pull cash from the company to cover medical expenses. That hit took a long time to recover from (both physically and financially).

Also, Elevate started as a 100% US-made product line. Nowadays, it is a mix of overseas and US manufacturing. That was a tough call to make but the business needed to increase margins to be able to reach a broader customer base.

Please tell us about Elevate Accessories.
Elevate is a cannabis accessory brand that was born out of a need to see more professional style smoking accessories in the market. That was over five years ago, and now Elevate is part of a growing movement to bring the industry into the 21st century. We provide thoughtfully designed products that are made with very high-quality standards, and we do that while also providing top-notch customer service.

As we look to the future of smoking accessories and of the acceptance of this lifestyle, we see more adoption of products like ours, designer style, bulletproof quality. We will continue to offer our customers more and more options from a variety of materials, with wood a central focus of product lines.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Stubbornness. A willingness to continue pushing through the hard times even when it seems like a lost cause. Also, adaptability. Each day can be totally different from the day before and as business owners, we have to be able to work within the ebbs and flows.

Pricing:

  • Colfax Dugout Kit = $70
  • Mighty Hitter Pipe = $25
  • Joint Tip Kits = $15

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