Last Updated on February 7, 2016 by Team Spinfuel
Now that the first major and historic giveaway for American Made e Juice is over I’d like to take a few minutes to acknowledge some very important people, who without their support this giveaway wouldn’t have happened, as well as take a look at some of the ‘behind the scenes’ activity you didn’t know about…until now.
An Idea
The idea sprung from the eJuice celebration reviews we published in July. Our First Annual July is eJuice Month was a huge success and it took our readership to new levels that frankly, we didn’t expect to see for several months. Our readership was on a steady climb, but this giveaway of American Made e Juice caught the attention of thousands of new readers.
After most of the reviews were published we began to see indications that a lot of great people that visit our online magazine (and will hopefully become subscribers when we go digital) really care about eJuice.
Apparently, there is a major movement underway to ignore Chinese eJuice while pushing for excellent quality of American Made e Juice. Each of the reviews we published in July saw more readers than anything we’d done previously. So we decided to do two things; continue to offer a couple of major reviews for other American Made eJuice after July, and to choose 4 eJuice companies and create a Giveaway that would wipe the slate clean after our huge disappointment with the Bull Smoke fiasco.
Historic – There wasn’t any doubt in our minds that this giveaway would be an historic moment for the vaping community. Just think about it; 4 different companies, competitors all, openly cooperating with a fairly new vaping magazine, to put together a “limited edition” run of their eJuice, presented in a limited edition box set that included a brand new Vapage Vmod 2 Premium Kit from yet another competitor (Vapor Phoenix), and each bottle displaying custom labels adorned with the words “Spinfuel eCigs Magazine Limited Edition”.
The bottles were not ‘stock’ eJuice; they were all created on a date certain (August 2nd), and packaged in a custom 60ML bottle. Each bottle was placed in red velvet drawstring bags, and laid out in the presentation box. Along with the eJuice and the wonderful Vapage, we included a 3ML syringe with a Johnson Creek Flexi-needle, a 3ML Texas Tuff Tank, a 5-pk of Apollo’s blank 510-threaded Cartomizers, as well as a couple ‘secret’ prizes that included a custom ‘shell’ for the Vapage and a pack of extra O-rings. I mean, come on, we made up 4 of these beautiful packages and gave them to 4 lucky winners. It was brilliant!
Each of the companies were handpicked for this giveaway and they accepted our concept and joined with us immediately. When it got underway they all went so far beyond the call of duty to bring it all together that without their steadfast commitment to the success of the project it would have been doomed to fail. american made e juice
All in all, the only word to describe what each of us, together, accomplished in such a short amount of time is… HISTORIC.
The Players
Here’s the breakdown of who we chose and why, and what part they played while the preparations were underway.
Ginger’s eJuice – Ginger has become a good friend of mine, we talk everyday through email, twitter, you name it, and I think we crossed the threshold of ‘good business relationship’ to ‘friends’ during the course of building the giveaway. We chose Ginger’s eJuice based on the quality of the eJuice, we became friends during the giveaway preparations because she is a wonderful, openhearted and gentle woman. She has a good business sense, and easily navigates the rough waters that vendors in the eCig industry encounter every day. american made e juice
Ginger loves this business so much that I could not fathom her doing anything else. The care she takes in developing her flavors, the actual production she goes through to ensure each bottle is consistent, of high quality, free from any sort of possible contamination, and overflowing with robust flavor is simply amazing. Throw in Grade ‘A’ customer service and you have an eJuice company that is the picture of success. american made e juice
Anyway, her role in the giveaway had become one of “cheerleader and problem-solver; Ginger is the one who came up with the blue cobalt glass bottles (if I remember correctly), she was the first to order a couple of cases and she sent them out to a few of the other companies chosen to be a part of the giveaway to ensure that every bottle was identical, and she paid for the bottles and the shipping and never asked for anything in return. Ginger wasted no time in completing each and every task assigned to her when we asked, and even when we didn’t. american made e juice
For Ginger’s eJuice flavor we chose ‘Carolina’, a smooth yet rich tobacco blend. While Ginger never said a peep about Carolina, I often wondered if that would have been her choice for the giveaway. (You’ll understand why below) Carolina blend is a big seller for Ginger and it remains one of the tobacco blends in my own rotation. Still, would it have been the one she would have wanted to include? american made e juice
If you’ve yet to try some of Ginger’s eJuice flavors you really should. My personal favorites from Ginger’s eJuice (as of now) are; ‘Vanilla Iced Cupcake’, ‘Carolina’, ‘Blueberry Streusel’, ‘Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookie’, Fireball, and Vanilla Cappuccino. I will keep these in my rotation for a few weeks and then replace them with other flavors by Ginger. Whenever I am in doubt about what I feel like vaping I know I can always look to Ginger’s for a great vape.
Vape Dudes – Ah, Vape Dudes. These guys, Chris and Jennifer, are special people as well. It is easy to overlook the fact that they are the busiest two people in the eCig business when they produce such a large number of choices with such a high level of great-tasting flavors. There are just too many flavors that I enjoy by Vape Dudes that I wouldn’t even try to write them all down. american made e juice
Something you may not know about Vape Dudes is that each and every bottle (and that means hundreds of bottles each week) are mixed by Chris himself, one bottle at a time. How he does it is beyond me, but he does. In my rotation today I have their Pineapple Upside Down Vape, Bananas Foster, Island Coconut, Peach Cobbler, Nutty Blonde, Blue Honey and Banana Cream Pie. Every single one is delicious, with tons of vapor and flavor. american made e juice
We chose Vape Dudes for one reason, their great tasting eJuice. I didn’t know Chris and Jennifer at the time, but I did know I wanted their eJuice to be a part of the giveaway. I sent them an email explaining the giveaway and they instantly accepted. When it came to deciding a flavor I wanted it to be Island Coconut. Chris pushed back some and insisted that it be Blue Honey instead. Boy, am I glad he did. I was unfamiliar with Blue Honey back then, but as soon as I vaped it I knew that he had made the right call. american made e juice
My only concern with Vape Dudes was that whenever a deadline approached, or whenever we had a question or concern, they were always late in responding. While each time was nerve-racking they never let us down. american made e juice
Vape Dudes not only sells some of the best eJuice on the planet they also sell a wide selection of hardware, accessories, and supplies…and at really good prices. Now if only they could hire enough people to meet the demands of their growing business so Spinfuel can communicate with them faster… J
Mountain Oak Vapors – These guys have the slickest operation of the 5 companies involved. I mean ‘slickest’ as in the most professional, most efficient, most, well, serious, business. MOV were the ‘adults’ in the group. Steve Nair was often the lifesaver as well.
Steve Nair, and his wife Brandy Nair, own and operate Mountain Oak Vapors. The recent opening of a new brick and mortar store can attest to the huge success, as well as business acumen, of the individuals behind MOV. But it was Steve’s ability to think on his feet, make fast decisions, and solve immediate problems that made the biggest impact on the giveaway.
The silver foil labels on each of the 4 bottles were designed and manufactured by Steve and Brandy. They also shipped the labels to the other eJuice companies so that they could apply them to their bottles and ship the finished product directly to Spinfuel HQ. Without those special labels, without Steve’s design skills, quick thinking, and willingness to go all the way is something I will never forget.
For the giveaway I wanted Mountain Oak Vapors to use their “Heavenly 7” or “Legendary” flavors (they were my favorites at the time) and they, like Vape Dudes, pushed back and flat out told me that it was going to be their “Classic CountRY4”. This was another flavor I was unfamiliar with (remember, for the most part I do not participate in the eJuice reviews), but when I loaded up a Texas Tuff Tank with this original take on RY4 I was in vaping heaven. This is one of the best, if not THE best RY4 variation-on-a-theme in all of the known universe. Had the limited edition collection not include Classic CountRY4 I don’t think it would have received all the accolades that it has.
I’m not as close to Steve Nair as I’d like to be. I don’t think it’s because of anything that had happened during the giveaway because our communication during the time was excellent, we responded to each other’s email immediately (99% of the time). I think the reason is pretty simple, Mountain Oak Vapors is a hugely successful company and it’s growing fast. With the recent opening of the new storefront, as well as creating new flavors and filling orders for existing flavors there is precious little time left over for non-business communication. One day I’d like to be able to call Steve a friend… his contribution to the giveaway was ‘historic’.
Virgin Vapor – Annette, the owner and artisan for Virgin Vapor is the one person I had the least communication with. Once we decided that Virgin Vapor should be a part of this (because of her Dark Roast Turkish Coffee flavor) I emailed her and in a few hours she responded. She loved the idea and she was “in”.
Annette is not only the flavor artisan behind Virgin Vapor, she is also the one that mixes each flavor, bottles them, and gets them ready to ship. Her assistant is a desperately needed part of the Virgin Vapor business because, in my thinking, Annette is the artist and she needs to create.
Ginger shipped Annette the 60ML blue cobalt bottles, but because of the intermediate communication with Annette there was always a “wait and see” period. It came down so close to the wire that Steve had to send the custom labels to Spinfuel, while Annette shipped her bottles to us where we applied the labels for her.
Virgin Vapor is an “organic” eJuice label and as such it reaches a slightly different audience than the others. The business is thriving, and Annette is always on the go creating new flavors and making eJuice for the never-ending orders. If you’re into organic eJuice and haven’t yet sought out the delicious concoctions from Virgin Vapor you should.
Vapor Phoenix – These guys, especially Adam, played a vital role in this giveaway. Without their contribution of the 4 brand new Vapage Vmod 2.o Premium Kits the giveaway would have lacked one very important part; a great piece of hardware to vape all 240ML of limited edition eJuice!
The involvement of Vapor Phoenix came about late in the game. Spinfuel had recently reviewed the Vapage Vmod and were more than impressed with its performance. Once the review was published and we were reviewing the stats on how well the review was going over (how many people were reading it against how many people were reading other articles) we knew the Vapage was going to be a popular bottom-feeder PV. Hell, we thought it was great; light-years ahead of the Boge Revolution. So we emailed Adam, told him about the giveaway and how a PV like the Vapage would be the “cherry on top”. A couple of hours later Adam got back to us and said they would love to be a part of it.
Within 10 days of their acceptance the 4 Vapage PV’s arrived, drop shipped from Vapage itself to Spinfuel. Without telling us Vapor Phoenix threw in some ‘goodies’ to include with the Premium Kit, which included cool ‘shells’ for the Vapage and an extra pack of O-rings. We were mightily impressed with this generous offering that just as they had done we decided to keep it a secret as well. We left these off the “official” prize list and as we shipped out the prizes we tossed in one of the shells and a pack of the O-rings. The winners were delighted, surprised, and they loved them.
Final Thoughts
And there you have it, some of the ‘behind the scenes’ action that went into creating the vaping community’s Historic Giveaway. There were moments of exhilaration, moments of stress, and moments of surprise, but I wouldn’t change a thing.
To the 4 winners of these great prizes I wish you all the happiest of vaping times, and when you vape all that special limited edition eJuice with that awesome PV from Vapor Phoenix, remember all of them. I hope all of you become loyal customers to each of the companies involved. But most importantly, just enjoy the prizes!
To the companies that made this all possible; Ginger’s eJuice, Vape Dudes, Mountain Oak Vapors, Virgin Vapor, and Vapor Phoenix, thank you all for your kindness, generosity, commitment, and passion each of you gave toward this wonderful and historic giveaway. Each of you participated in this historic event and by your actions you’ve made the entire vaping community a little closer. You showed us all that there is a time for competition and a time for cooperation. All of you showed all of us at Spinfuel that the vaping community is full of great people.
To our readers; even though you didn’t win this time keep in mind that Spinfuel will continue to put together great giveaways because we care about each of you.
And finally….
We all had these huge grins on our faces when we were placing the prizes from this giveaway in the shipping boxes and prepping them for shipment. We all wanted to see the looks on the faces of the winners when they opened them up and marveled at all the great things inside. We tried to create something memorable, something of value, and something that will provide the winners with dozens and dozens of hours of pleasure. We hope we have succeeded.
John Manzione, with Julia Barnes and rest of the Spinfuel Staff
