Why bongs made by an Edmonton company are getting international plaudits

CTVNews.ca Staff, with a report from CTV Edmonton's Dan Grummett

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An Edmonton business is garnering international attention and aiming to shatter any remaining stigma of using cannabis with its fresh take on smoking pot: ceramic bongs that can double as art pieces.

Brnt Designs, which was started by a group of University of Alberta students trying to capitalize on Canada’s legal recreational marijuana industry, is shattering its sales goals and rapidly expanding its business.

“We were actually just working out of my parent’s house,” Andrew Feltham, Brnt’s chief design officer, told CTV Edmonton. “We kind of took over the den. It was a bit of a disaster. We had so much stuff in there.”

The ceramic bongs feature a hexagonal top and base and are meant to be functional art.

“You can actually leave it out on your table and you don’t have to be embarrassed and hide it as soon as someone’s coming over,” Paige Hodgins, Brnt’s chief development officer, said.

One year after Brnt’s founding, its products have gone from turning heads at trade shows to garnering international recognition – even being featured in Rolling Stone magazine’s 2018 cannabis gift guide.

“When the in-laws come over, you can pass it off as a vase,” wrote Rolling Stone, adding, “but honestly, aren’t we a little past hiding?”

Feltham said the international acknowledgement is a “cool feeling.”

Brnt’s products are now in 60 stores across Canada, with sales eclipsing $500,000. It is expanding, hiring more people and opening a second office in Toronto.

“Never in a million years did any of us think this bong would’ve done what it has done,” Feltham said.

RELATED IMAGES Brnt's ceramic bongs feature a hexagonal top and base and are meant to be functional art.