Nicotine levels in many commercially available e-liquids, Sutter said, can be as high as 24 milligrams. Levels in Ponyboy juices range from 18 mg to zero. However, it is what isn't in the juice that makes them different than cigarettes.

"A cigarette has over a thousand chemicals in it, including arsenic and an unending list of carcinogens," Sutter said. "The juice for the e-cigarettes has four ingredients. Even the top studies I have seen show it giving off nine chemicals. So you go from a thousand to nine."

It was the partners' own experiences with smoking that got them involved with vape culture socially and as a business.

"I had a heart condition at 30 years old and I was forced to quit smoking by my doctors," Vickers said. "I had a friend working in a shop like this and he invited me to give it a shot. Within three days I hadn't touched a cigarette. It has been almost two years."

Sutter owns a gym in Waterloo called Battleground Athletic Research and Development where he helps people get fit and healthy, yet he smoked for 27 years.

"I smoked since I was eight years old," he said. "I tried everything to quit."

He said he stopped smoking and started vaping nine months ago.

They opened the first Ponyboy Vape shop in Waterloo six months ago and the second in Guelph last month after noticing a significant number of the customers in Waterloo were from Guelph.

It is named after Vickers' favourite character, Ponyboy Curtis, from a novel by S.E. Hinton called "The Outsiders" and the 1950s theme is reflective of their rebellious cause.

"It's not your regular '50s, with the diner, convertibles, roller skates and poodle skirts," Vickers said. "It's the tattooed, greaser subculture '50s."

Despite their youthful outlaw image they don't market to young people.

"Our stores, since we opened, legislation or not, are a 19-plus," said Sutter. "You can't see any of our products from the window."

Visitors can relax on the couches or sit at the tasting bar and sample a long list of flavoured juices developed specifically for Ponyboy Vapes.

Many of the flavours have a '50s theme, such as a navy-cut tobacco flavour called J. Dean, a peach and pear flavour named Monroe, a Hawaiian-themed flavour called Presley, and Chuck Blueberry, which tastes like a blue slushy.

Some of their clientele are hobby vapers but most are smokers trying to quit. While Sutter and Vickers are notably short on scientific proof supporting the efficacy of vaping as a smoking cessation tool, they say the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming.

"It is so popular because people are seeing results," Sutter said. "They say there are no scientific results but I think the growth of the industry and the number of people who aren't smoking is pretty good results. You don't have to spend a billion dollars on a study to find that out."