Not so long ago, customers, dealers, and vendors of ProVape have found a surprising “THANK YOU” e-mail in their mailboxes to face the shocking news: one of the first sharks of the vape market, the creator of the epoch-making Provari vaporizer gets retired!
In fact, the company couldn’t make it due to the new FDA regulations and restrictions that shook the world of vaping. Not every company withstood the challenges, with some of them being forced into a farewell to the business they helped to found.
ProVape pioneered in many of the vape market branches, including the first variable voltage devices. Standing firm on the quality idea, they engineered rock solid devices to survive any treatment. Their first Provari vapes consisted of high-value stainless steel, operated on 18490 and 18650 batteries and contained military grade wiring.
They were hard and heavy, with the chips designed by ProVape. Later the company issued the 18350-based vapes featuring variable wattage. Due to high-value materials and engineering, the price of devices like the Provari mod jumped up to $200, which is a lot but never hindered the growth of the loyal audience. Since 2010 the annual revenue of the company grew to $4.9 M.
Yet, not all vapers were ready to spend a fortune on dedication and loyalty, especially when reasonably cheaper Chinese clones stepped into the market. Since 2014 the newcomers offered the same range of functions and improved quality control, luring customers into the bright and competitive world of China plastic. It wasn’t hard to do, especially with the average vape price of $50.
Trading on somewhat outdated stuff, ProVape drastically needed upgrades, but with the restrictions on producing any new products after August 8, 2016, they were forced into selling the traditional stock of products with limited possibility of technical or design innovations.
That was followed by a couple of sale month, the fans of Radius and Provari e-cigs could buy them at reduces prices. After that, the company located in Monroe, WA, owned by former employees of the Washington state aerospace industry was ceased production and closed operations.
Yet, the owners of the current devices shouldn’t be disappointed as all the warranties are still valid. The company made agreements with third parties to take care of repairs. The software updates for ProVape Provari and other products were produced by January 2018.
The heartfelt farewell evoked a massive wave of customer experience sharing on social media, blog posts and dedicated websites. Most of the messages express gratitude for excellent services and quality that set the trend for the whole market back in 2010.
“Always love their products for the quality and the craftsmanship,” “They are the template for professionalism” – these lines and many others speak of the significant loss to the whole vape market and arouse worries about the next victims of FDA regulations. Peter Denholz from The Henley Vaporium accused FDA of the intent to kill the vaping industry, implying more companies to be grasping at straws in the nearest future.
We need to remind here that FDA rules have covered vape products in 2016 and have tightened since August 2018. FDA regulates the manufacturing and distribution of the hardware, materials and spare parts, such as particular types of batteries or atomizers.
The latest regulation (from August 8, 2018) requires that all the electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) or simply vape products to bear the nicotine addictiveness warning like conventional cigarettes.
There are also bans to selling vape products to people aged under 27 without identification documents and restrictions in providing marketing campaigns, which is actually the most potent hit against vapor business. According to these regulations, no free samples of vape products should be available.
In general, stepping on the path of law compliance, the vape companies are called to put stress on the primary intent of the vape market, i.e., beat nicotine consumption.
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