Most 21-year-olds are just figuring out how to do their own laundry.
But GRAV is celebrating 21 years of breaking things, making things, and completely changing how people get high.
Here’s how it all happened.
Redefining the Ritual: The Gravitron & Tasters
There’s the easy road. Safe. Reliable. Responsible
And there’s the hard road. Unpredictable. Foolish. Maybe a little crazy.
Fortunately for all of us, GRAV founder Dave Daily took the hard road.
As a young guy working in the home mortgage business in the early aughts, Dave knew that he wanted to make things. Something that would last, that was bigger than himself. And as a big fan of weed, he decided to try his hand at some glass.
Keep in mind—this was 2004, long before recreational cannabis was legalized anywhere, let alone in our home state of Texas. (We’re still waiting on that miracle.) But since you have to be at least a little nuts to start a small business, he jumped in.
Enter the Gravitron
The big idea? To disrupt the way we smoke.
The game-changing product? The Gravitron, the first all-glass gravity bong. He envisioned a future where the Gravitron was THE smoking device. The daily driver that everyone needed.
So he got to work to bring the gravity bong out of the dorm room and into the living room.
Instead of a plastic gallon tub, he used a glass vase as the foundation. Instead of a two-liter soda bottle, he swapped in a wine glass with the bottom cut off. A bit of plastic created a barrier between the two glass pieces, preventing chips. And he made the bowls himself, one at a time.
“For three years I just cut bottles and blew bowls. And for a long time I just dipped the bottom in plasti-dip that you buy at The Home Depot until I made enough money to buy the mold to make the [silicone] grommet. It took a long time…but I had friends that came on and worked with me.”
Selling his new creation was even more labor intensive. He went from headshop to headshop, trade show to trade show, making his pitch in person. (Huge shoutout to Austin icon Planet K, the first shop to sell a Gravitron.)
Shops were interested. Word spread. And soon there were 600 accounts carrying the Gravitron.
The product’s popularity hit home in 2005, when Dave went to visit his childhood friend (and now GRAV CEO) Brandon Miranda, then living in Toronto.
Brandon remembers:
“I took Dave to a smoke shop that had a lounge in the back in Toronto. And unbeknownst to either of us, they had Gravitrons on the shelf. And it was the first moment where we both realized, “Whoa, you're 2,500 miles from Austin right now.” And the people behind the counter wanted to come take pictures with him, because they were excited that he was in the shop. Up until that point, I had always thought that this was Dave's excuse not to go to law school.”
For the first few years, the Gravitron was all we offered. In fact, back then the company was called Gravitron, because that was all Dave intended to make.
But while it was popular, it wasn’t selling enough. By the end of 2007, the company was struggling and Dave was badly in debt.
Fortunately, help came in the form of a little glass surprise.
Saved by the Taster
During all his time at trade shows, Dave saw that there was a lot of pipe sharing going on, as people tasted various flower strains. (Looking back through a post-COVID lens, can you imagine?)
So he dreamed up the Taster, a joint-sized borosilicate tube with a pinch at one end to create a bowl.
There was no sales plan—Dave was just handing them out for free for a little guerrilla marketing. He brought them to Austin’s ACL that year, and dropped them on everyone’s picnic blankets. On one of those blankets sat a rep from one of his Gravitron distribution accounts. “He looks at it and he says, ‘Hey, this is pretty cool. You should come see me on Monday,’” Dave remembers.
So Dave showed up on Monday with a hastily made rack containing 50 little Tasters. And the guy bought them on the spot. All of a sudden, we had two products instead of just one.
Distributors and wholesale partners wanted in on the new release. And within six months, things had completely turned around for Gravitron.
Finding Solid Ground: Hello, Little Spoon
If people wanted more from Gravitron, who were we to argue?
Now realizing that he was more of a glass designer than a bong-industry disrupter, Dave set about putting the Gravitron spin on classic profiles that stoners have been loving for years.
Beakers and straight tubes. Sherlocks and hammer bubblers. All well-made with high-quality borosilicate and tested, tested, tested until they’re just right.
These new releases were popular with everyone—including future industry heavyweights.
“The first trip that I took with Dave, after I came on full time in 2019, we went out to LA and we met with [a guy who is now a big name in e-rigs]. And he had a GRAV Hammer Bubbler that he bought when he was 19 or 20. It was the first piece that he saved up to buy. And he talked about how it was well-crafted and well-designed, but it was within reach of his finances at the time. He was excited to show his friends. And he still has it on his shelf…so these pieces are really sentimental.”
The star of the classics, in Dave’s eyes, is the GRAV Classic Spoon, launched in 2014. “I’m so proud of it,” Dave says. “I designed that spoon personally. If there’s one thing in the catalog that’s unequivocally mine, it’s this.”
A large bowl capacity, ease of use, and the inverted ash-catching mouthpiece—at a super approachable price—made people sit up and take notice.
Dave says:
“The Classic Spoon is still a lot of our revenue. There are tons of spoon colors and options now. We’ve got Sandblasted, Wig Wag, Frit, all these different versions. But it’s all the same mold, all the tried-and-true GRAV Classic Spoon.
And my bold claim is that this is the best-selling single item that has ever been sold in smoke shops. Now granted, there have been vaporizers and other types of devices. But apples to apples, show me another glass pipe that is more successful. There isn’t one.”
Under the GRAV Umbrella
At the same time that we were perfecting the classics, we were also collecting and creating additional product lines.
Some were developed entirely in-house, like the STAX modular system that let you build your own bong.
Some were designed in collaboration with great glass artists, like the Upline collection created by future GRAV lead designer Micah Evans (with some help from Dave).
And some were designed independently, and then brought on in a partnership. That was the case with the popular Helix, which creates a whirling smoke vortex thanks to the three air intake holes. We worked with the inventor, William “BoxFan” Menzies, to manufacture and distribute his design.
While we loved (and still do love) these products, they came with a conundrum. Who is Gravitron? Where do all these sub-brands fit in? We were a product brand, but seemed to lack a clear identity. #smallbusinessproblems
So we realized that the name “Gravitron” was no longer quite right. Instead, we became Grav Labs, and later, just GRAV®. This simple umbrella let us consolidate all product lines under a single, clear brand.
As CEO Brandon Miranda says:
“If you make a great product, eventually the mark on it has its own weight. And that became the GRAV® brand. The logo is more iconic than any single product.”
And what did that brand mean?
“For me, it's all about crafting the ritual of consuming cannabis. We think about that ritual of consuming cannabis more, I would argue, than any other company out there. The moment that our brand really is wrapped around is that moment of consumption. Either by yourself or with a group of friends or a partner, what is happening in that moment?”
New Energy for New Designs
After working with Micah Evans on the Upline, it was clear that this was the guy to usher in GRAV’s next phase. So we snapped him up, and he became GRAV’s Lead Designer in the summer of 2016. His design philosophy for the brand?
“No matter how affordable or simple we want any product to be, there has to be one intentional design element that makes it GRAV. And that could be just a transition from round to flat. Just little design details that don't necessarily add time or cost to the product, but that separate it from everything else on the shelf.”
Obviously, the first job for this legendary glass blower was to design a Dugout—made of aluminum. But Micah was game, and he set to it.
Soon he’d created the Orbis dab rig line, and the Small Wide Base Water Pipe—still one of our most popular pieces.
Designing new products for GRAV wasn’t without its challenges. As an independent artist, Micah could make something new, tweak and iterate for months until he was happy, and promote it on Instagram. Then he could move on to the next thing.
But working for GRAV, he had to think on a much larger scale and a different timeline.
“You need to get all that iterating done before the product is ever really made. We don’t necessarily have the time to make it out of glass for three years until I nail the one I like. So it’s interesting to try to get all that iterating done in your mind.
I trained myself on CAD software, and I know what glassblowers need to know to construct things. So I was able to streamline those blueprints to be more tailored to the glassblowers. I was able to get a product that looked much more complex production-wise, but required the same amount of time and the same number of motions on their end.”
For Micah, the culmination of everything he had learned was the Wedge Bubbler. It was his favorite when he made it in 2020, and it still is today.
“It behaves like a piece that has three or four chambers, but it’s just one. And it fits in your hand beautifully. It bubbles beautifully. It was the first time I made something that I loved and I would use every day. And I still do. When I want to give someone a piece, I dig one of those out and tell them, ‘This is my favorite.’”
The Culture Shift
Any industry is bound to change over 21 years. But holy cow, has the world of weed seen some major, epic, cataclysmic shifts. And those changes have touched every part of GRAV’s operations, from what we make to how we get it into your hands.
What’s Changed: How You Smoke
Now that many markets offer legal recreational weed, and others have decriminalized at least some hemp-based products, the way we smoke has changed.
As Brandon explains:
“Smoking used to be a really clandestine activity. The idea was ‘Somebody’s gonna call me because they picked up a baggie, and everybody’s gonna meet up at their place and sit around a room and smoke out of their bong.’ To the 21-to-35-year-olds today, that’s kind of laughable. Why are you making such a big deal out of it? Like, I’ve got some weed in my backpack, do you want some?”
This change means that the smoking ritual is now often more personal than communal. And where smoking weed together used to be “the event,” it’s now a supplement to other events, like hiking or going to a concert. Once upon a time, smoking weed at a music venue would get you kicked out. But these days, the bouncers aren’t sniffing the air trying to hunt you down.
And this change for you means changes for us. While we still love big bongs, we also make more pieces that reflect this new “smoking on the go” landscape. Smaller pieces. Travel pieces. Pieces with drop protection.
Case in point: the Octo-Taster with Silicone Skin.
“I think this is my favorite product. And it’s a real ode to Micah,” Dave says. “It’s so smart, the way it was designed with the cover, so you can pack it and carry it with you.”
What’s Changed: Where You Shop
The way we reach you has also changed dramatically.
Back in the early Gravitron days, it was actually easier to find our people. You were at headshops. That was the only place you could get a bong back in 2004. So that’s where you could find us.
These days, hoo boy, do you have options!
And that means we have to be wherever you are.
We’re still in headshops, physical and online. But now we’re in dispensaries and vape shops. Convenience stores. Cash & carry stores for our wholesale partners. We have a few products on Amazon. Our Cannabis Spirit is in liquor stores.
And of course, there’s grav.com. We launched online sales in 2017, which meant expanding our warehouse team to fulfill your orders. And it’s a damn good thing we did, because it was the lifeline that kept us going during COVID.
What’s Changed: The Expansion of the Ritual
Like we said, smoking weed doesn’t mean “gathering around the bong in the basement” anymore. The ritual has changed, and that means meeting you where and how you want to get high—and offering you the best way to get there.
Sometimes, that’s smoking out of glass. Sometimes, that’s packing a quick cone, which is why we recently released our Quartz Tip Cones.
And sometimes you don’t want to smoke at all. So we created GRAV Cannabis Spirit, a weed-forward drink that honors the plant.
There are so many rituals now, so many ways for people to enjoy cannabis. And we want to be at the forefront of all the rituals that speak to us and to you.
The GRAV of the Future
So, what’s next?
Here’s what Brandon had to say:
“Grav has always been a flower brand. So what we’re doing is doubling down on our historic roots of smoking flower out of glass. We think about the ritual over and over again. GRAV has always been for the heavy cannabis consuming audience, and we will continue to focus on that.”
Micah agrees. “I think you’re going to see some very unique and well-thought-out designs that are confident steps in the GRAV direction.”
We’ll leave you with a story from Brandon, just for fun:
“So I pull up to a liquor store to meet a rep in downtown Nashville last month. And a guy comes out of the store that works there, and he does a backflip in the front parking lot and was like, ‘Holy shit, GRAV’s here.’ Turns out, he's a cheerleader for the Tennessee Titans. So the backflip was kind of on-brand for him, but he was just super fucking excited that we were showing up at his place because he knows the brand and he's a huge fan.”
We are so damn grateful to still be here, making the products that you love so much you do backflips over them. Thank you for coming along with us, whether you’ve just found us or you’ve been ride-or-die since those first Gravitron days.
It has been a wild ride and one we wouldn’t trade for anything. And there’s a lot more to come.
