Former NFL soccer participant and Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams not too long ago launched Highsman, a hashish life-style model created to empower skilled and on a regular basis athletes in addition to sports activities fanatics alike. Highsman provides premium high quality hashish in addition to a set of attire and equipment designed to enrich an lively life-style on and off the sphere. Highsman hashish options three strains curated by Williams to go with moments within the day and put you within the zone. Pregame are sativas for an energized increase; Halftime are hybrids for targeted consciousness; and the Postgame indicas supply a relaxed temper.
Inexperienced Market Report had the prospect to talk with Highsman leaders CEO Eric Hammond and Ricky Williams through the MJ Biz convention in Las Vegas in October.
CEO Eric Hammond: The corporate was established in January as a company, actually as an idea. I bought linked with the blokes round April or Might and noticed that that they had one thing so magical right here that had such potential. Then after we began discussing what this may very well be, I instantly was andI joined in July. I used to be beforehand at Greenlane (NASDAQ: GNLN) and I used to be tremendous comfortable there, however a chance to should construct a group and a hashish model like this with Ricky and construct this group was too nice to go up. So the corporate’s been in existence for a few months. However pre-revenue, our service provider attire simply launched on Monday of this week and our hashish will probably be launching the California market subsequent week. We are actually simply hitting the bottom. We’ll be coming to market in Oregon the primary week of November. And we’ll be coming into the Nevada market the second week of December.
Inexperienced Market Report Editor Debra Borchardt: Ricky, how concerned are you in selecting the hashish?
Highsman Founder Ricky Williams: I’m very concerned. It’s most likely one of the essential elements of this as a result of we’re a model. If we’re placing our model on one thing, it must resonate with who we’re. And the gorgeous factor about our group is, we’re just about connoisseurs and so I actually loved the expertise of selecting strains. Consuming the samples and having a dialog after which coming to consensus of what we need to go together with.
GMR: Completely different folks need several types of hashish experiences
Williams: There’s such a broad vary such as you’re talking of and I believe a part of this model is that we’re connoisseurs. We’re doing the onerous work and we are able to share that the hashish we offer to individuals who vibe with us, is one thing that we resonate with. And that’s its top of the range. I believe it’s a refined sort of training that… And what I imply by that’s folks haven’t skilled it and it piques their curiosity till they need to be taught extra. So like one in all our strains, cherry rice, okay? And once more, we’re sports activities and hashish. And so lots of know who Jerry Rice was so get a kick out of the identify, however really once they open the bag, there’s a scent of cherry comes out. And other people making that connection of cherry rice. And it smells like cherry. Terpenes.
Getting folks interested by terpenes. The tradition is so huge and wealthy that we need to be an introduction to individuals who won’t know quite a bit about hashish within the trade, however love the plant and need to be taught extra. As a result of that’s been my expertise and just about each single athlete I’ve spoken to that has gotten into the hashish trade, most of them didn’t devour once they performed, however as quickly as they retired and there wasn’t punishment, and most of them stated, I want I might’ve recognized about that earlier. Then all of them get fascinated about eager to be taught extra concerning the plant.
GMR: There’s been lots of dialogue round hashish and CTE and naturally, the skilled gamers endure via so many accidents and a few of these accidents have an extended tail of continuous results. And to your level, I’ve had lots of athletes say that hashish helps them for these accidents that they’re nonetheless coping with years after the damage really occurs.
Ricky Williams: All of us. As a result of each single individual that’s performed one down in skilled soccer has accidents they’re going to have for the remainder of their life. What they’ve seen from – what they discovered from all of the autopsies is one hundred percent of the brains they’ve checked out soccer gamers have some CTE. And so we all know that we’re all coping with ache and till we’re allowed to do analysis, we’re not going to have the ability to say definitively what’s going on. However I do know from my private expertise, getting off of the opioids and NSAIDs and making hashish and yoga and meditation a part of my wellness regime. I’m 44, which isn’t previous however I performed soccer very, very tough, and I’m nonetheless capable of play softball on Mondays and use my physique. And I really feel actually, actually good.
GMR: How concerned had been you with the corporate on a daily?
Ricky Williams: Each day, like huge choices, proper, they’ll verify with me. However I’m really working my very own firm.
Eric Hammond: He’s intimately concerned in sort of the directionality of the technique for enterprise. Clearly, he introduced me on and we constructed this unbelievable administration group round me to take his imaginative and prescient and convey it to fruition.
Ricky Williams: So I’m just like the GM that employed one of the best head coach I may discover. Effectively, I imply notice simply to taking part in sports activities, it’s actually concerning the group. You discover a chief and somebody who has course, you used to assist him with the group. I really feel my main function is to assist Eric achieve success and guarantee that folks give him the house to have the ability to do this.
GMR: There’s been a lot dialog round celeb manufacturers. A pair have been profitable such as you talked about Cookies and-
Eric Hammond: Only a few have been profitable.
GMR: What makes you assume you may be profitable?
Ricky Williams: Effectively, I imply I perceive I’m a celeb, however I get just a little offended once I get lumped in a celeb model. As a result of it’s not like I’m tagging my identify onto one thing. That is my life. So I believe we epitomize what a celeb model ought to be. These different examples, it’s folks attempting to, it’s a cash seize. Folks attempting to get in. However even, to me, I consider a model, proper. You set a model on this, so folks know. That is my life. And it’s my life, the entire story of being in that place the place everybody advised me, you simply threw your life away for a drug. It was in every single place. And in every single place, 99.9% of individuals would agree. This man simply threw his life away. And I needed to sit with that and say, “Am I actually throwing my life away?”
What am I going to do about this? And I stated, “Effectively, I’m not shopping for that story. I’m going to do me.” I simply saved trusting myself and shifting in that course and it’s come full circle. And I believe, you spoke of Texas, they only put mine and Earl Campbell’s identify on the College of Texas soccer discipline. And most of the people, in case you return to 2004, proper, folks can’t even think about that that was doable. It simply reveals such as you’d be prepared to be your self and keep the trail, good issues occur. I’m generally known as a soccer participant, however anytime you see something written about me as a soccer participant, otherwise you speak to anybody about me as a soccer participant, hashish is at all times the following subject. So for me, they’re intertwined.
I’m not like a celeb coming in. I’m simply exhibiting up with the model and for me, it’s utilizing my celeb to create, to open doorways. To create a secure place for folks, to be sincere about their hashish use. It’s about all of the elements of themselves. I believe sure people who in the event that they wore a shirt with a weed leaf on it, proper, their mother and father would give them a tough time. Proper. Those self same children are available in carrying a Highsman shirt, proper. It may flip into dialog between a son and a father. Proper.
GMR: It’s an incredible play on phrases too. I imply, that-
Eric Hammond: The model new is unbelievable. To select up what he stated, why we will probably be profitable and I really feel like others have struggled is the authenticity. Sort of all the things Ricky simply talked about. This isn’t, you recognize, it’s one factor for a celeb to smoke weed and assume that that’s sufficient for them to be an authority and to place their model on it. And simply hope that individuals will purchase it as a result of it says their identify as a result of that’s what our tradition is into. However the hashish trade isn’t each different trade. It’s nonetheless a little bit of a vice it’s nonetheless very cultural pushed. It looks like the hashish trade is seeing via these surface-level enforcements and it’s simply not working.
We haven’t even actually been capable of get out and yell it from the highest of our lungs as a result of we’re so new however folks really feel it they usually get it they usually know that this isn’t a celeb placing their identify on one thing. That is greater than a man that simply smokes weed. That is his life. And we’re hoping that we’re now using that to have the ability to develop this group and this platform that’s positioned on the intersection of sports activities and hashish.
Ricky Williams: I’m guessing you may relate to this, however what I’ve began to comprehend is that just about everybody that’s open about their hashish use has needed to go to via the identical factor I’ve needed to undergo. Is realizing you’re doing one thing that most individuals have determined it’s not factor. And having to be public about that. And so once I have a look at this model with the suggestions that I’ve gotten from so many individuals that I met is how impressed they had been in their very own private life. By me standing up and never mendacity about my hashish use, and the way it’s helped them be themselves. That’s what Highsman is about. In that Highsman is about that feeling that you’ve got whenever you, like, you’re feeling good since you trusted your self. And also you see it, proper. As a result of to me… I’ll simply rant just a little bit. However to me, like in my life, I spotted-
So like via the entire thing, you recognize, me utilizing hashish was one thing was the factor I used to be most ashamed about. I used to be most afraid if folks discovered that I used hashish, like my life goes to be over. That’s why I actually truthfully thought that. I actually… I had that second the place I spotted my life’s not over and I really felt higher. There was an enormous weight lifted off of my shoulder.
GMR: Like you could possibly be your self.
Ricky Williams: Like I may very well be myself. And that’s once I began to get pleasure from my life extra. And I began to attain my achievements, my accomplishments personally, and professionally. Had been extra significant. All the things was extra significant.
GMR: Possibly. I imply, do you’re feeling, since you had been capable of personal who you had been and never should sort of conceal or really feel such as you had been sort of hiding.
Ricky Williams: Yeah, precisely.
GMR: Now unexpectedly it’s like, that is me and I’m good with it.
Ricky Williams: And taking part in on phrases right here, I imply my religious perception is all of us have some sort of increased function. But when we’re too involved with what different folks assume, we’re by no means going to even concentrate on what our increased function is. I realized that the onerous method. However so grateful that I did as a result of if that hadn’t occurred, if 2004 hadn’t occurred, and I had simply been corridor of fame soccer participant. Initially, I most likely wouldn’t be right here and the general public that come as much as me and work together with me, they’d simply need to speak about soccer. Which soccer is nice, but it surely’s not that attention-grabbing to me anymore. However now the people who I meet and issues that I’m doing are…. I’ve realized a lot about enterprise. Proper. Earlier than as a soccer participant, enterprise was prefer it’s so boring, it’s for another person. However this has actually bought me engaged and I’ve realized a lot previously 5 years and all of this as a result of I failed a drug check.
I actually have discovered the next function. The people who I’ve touched. Once I retired other than the hashish, the actual purpose I retired is, once I was a child and I, once I determined I wished to be knowledgeable athlete, is as a result of there was one thing transcendent about skilled sports activities. No less than from my little 12 yr previous thoughts. Okay. After which once I bought to skilled sports activities, I used to be like, eh, like this isn’t it. However after all the things occurred with hashish and I began and I bought into the trade and I began to attach with folks, have this gentle bulb like, oh, that is what I used to be in search of.
One thing that’s larger than simply me that I can, that we are able to all share. And that’s our experiences. And so it’s only a entire story to me, is what Highsman is about. And this concept of not only a model, however a dwelling story that everybody can interact in. Everybody can replicate on their lives in instances the place they believed in themselves and it went nicely. And that feels actually good. The extra we are able to do this’s… And even for me, once I placed on these garments, I really feel one thing.
Ricky Williams: Once I was in faculty… there’s a practice in faculty soccer. The place the NCAA drug checks the athletes randomly annually. So perhaps 5 guys on a group randomly will get drug examined. However contained in the group, the coach has the flexibility to drug check guys as a lot as they need or not. Okay. And so for probably the most half, the coaches know who on the groups smokes and doesn’t smoke. And if there’s ever a man as a result of groups solely have 85 scholarships. So if there’s ever a man that the coach desires to run off. Proper. And he is aware of that they smoke. He’s getting examined. As a result of the college insurance policies, you fail drug check, you’re expelled. So the schools would use that to get scholarships again. Okay. And it had occurred to a participant, good friend of mine once I was at Texas. And it actually left a mark on me. However whenever you see the larger image, you notice what was occurring. And greater than that, there’s so many nice athletes that we’ll by no means learn about as a result of they’re run off due to the stigma. And it’s so ubiquitous in sports activities that the coaches say, “For those who smoke pot, you’re going to be a loser and we’re going to run you off.” Proper. It’s like a marketing campaign in opposition to it. You recognize? And so I believe, I really feel like one in all my legacies right here, as a result of that nearly occurred to me. Nearly occurred to me.
However I used to be adequate. I used to be adequate that they saved bringing me again. Proper. I used to be the one which made it. So I really feel like I’ve a accountability to create an area for guys like me. Extra open-minded guys that like hashish and love sports activities. Or there’s room for that on this world. As a result of to me, figuring out myself and I’m not good, however I’m a extremely good man. And for somebody like me to not be capable of do what I really like and taking part in the NFL as a result of they discovered THC metabolites in my urine. There’s one thing amiss by that. It’s not solely a loss to me, but it surely’s a loss to skilled athletes and it’s a loss to the NFL. We have to change that.
GMR: I really like the identify. I believe it appears to be like wonderful. I actually like, I just like the simplification. I like simply the font and the H’s.
Eric Hammond: All the things is completed with intent too. For those who look within the H, there’s a hidden 34, which is Ricky’s quantity.
GMR: Oh my goodness. I didn’t see that.
Eric Hammond: It’s like a FedEx arrow, when you see it, you may’t unsee it. We play off like a pleasant heritage sort of varsity font. So it has that genuine really feel.
Ricky Williams: What I really like is the H as a result of after we had been working with our designer, he didn’t have the entire Highsman. He simply created this H. So I noticed the H and it jogged my memory of Mighty Mouse as a result of it has this like uplifting transfer. It was the primary time that I’d ever checked out a emblem and felt one thing. It was this like uplifting feeling and simply trying on the emblem, I felt uplifted. I stated that that’s the texture that I’m in search of. After which I stated, are you able to construct out the remainder to spell Highsman within the varsity font. And he labored on it and we noticed him and I stated, that’s it.
GMR: And it’s attention-grabbing what you had been saying was with the preliminary subject with hashish. And other people’s pondering that you just had simply screwed your life and tousled your profession and blah, blah, blah. And as a substitute it sounds prefer it’s actually really allowed you to faucet into a lot private potential that perhaps you won’t have tapped into had you by no means gone there.
Ricky Williams: That’s Heisman. You bought it. That’s Heisman. You bought it.
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