Higgs: The 90s-Influenced Cannabis Brand Everyone Will Soon Be Talking About

Higgs: The 90s-Influenced Cannabis Brand Everyone Will Soon Be Talking About

Bryan Fields: What's up guys, welcome back to an episode of The Dime. I'm Bryan Fields, with me as always is Kellen Finney, and this week we've got a very special guest, Oliver Higgins, CEO and founder of Higgs. Oliver, thanks for taking the time, how are you doing today? Oliver Higgins: Fantastic, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be on this. Excited to dive in. Kellen Finney: How are you doing, Oliver? I'm doing really well, really excited to talk to you and dive into California brands and cannabis as a whole. It's just really refreshing to have a West Coaster back on the pod — we've had a lot of East Coasters recently, so really excited. Bryan, how are you? Bryan Fields: Hey, I'm doing good. And of course Higgs does have some ties to the West Coast, but I know he's frequently on the East Coast with some of his future opportunities, so I think it's fair to split that 50/50. Hey, if you had to choose a coast — West Coast or East Coast? Oliver Higgins: Don't make me do that, because I was born in New York City once upon a time, not through my own decision making. I was then moved to Los Angeles around six years old and raised there, so I'm very much a New York City person at heart — that will never change. But the ethos of Higgs is L.A. with that New York City raw, early-90s energy — everything our generation appreciates and the next generation kind of looks up to, like we thought the 60s were this mythical period. I feel like that's what kids look at with the 90s — pre-internet, pre-cell phone. I was just having a conversation with this girl who said, 'Oh my god, I can film this at the clubs in Miami,' and I was like, in college I used to bring my mini DVR camera that they'd let me film with and go back to film class and edit it. So I aged myself out right there. Bryan Fields: That's pretty wild. So let's talk cannabis — when did you get into it, how did you find your way in? Oliver Higgins: I smoked my first joint at 13 years old playing GoldenEye on N64, summer of middle school. Smoking weed in California was just part of what you did growing up — it wasn't like we didn't drink or have high school parties, it was just kind of a West Coast mentality. But I was in college in Miami, came home one summer, and medical cannabis in California quickly became a mainstream thing. I went to a guy, got a medical card, and that day bought plants and planted them in my garage. I grew weed for ten years as a hobby because it was just a fun thing to do — legally. Nothing better than growing your own stuff. Bryan Fields: Getting started, was there a thought during that period that you'd start your own brand, or did it just trickle into fruition? Oliver Higgins: It was a side hobby thing. I went to film school in L.A., thought I'd be a director, which I kind of did after college — started my own production company and went to work for an HBO writer on a couple shows. Not disillusioned by Hollywood exactly, I just grew up in that world and it felt small, and I wanted to do something else. It was either keep making films, maybe move to New York or London, or stay in California because I love the Southern California lifestyle. A friend opened a dispensary, knew I grew, and said, 'Hey, why don't you grow for the dispensary and rebrand the store?' About six months in, that got shut down, and at that point I was like, well, I'm full in on cannabis — this is what I've always wanted to do. I'd started clothing companies before the film company, so I thought, how can I do that under one banner? Being a joint smoker, I wanted to create the product I'd want for myself. Bryan Fields: You started growing in a garage — how quickly did it scale? Was it one plant with one light? Talk us through the progression. Oliver Higgins: We basically turned my garage into a smoking den — like That '70s Show, the garage where all the bad things happen. There was a little four-by-four closet and I said I'm going to grow weed in there one day. I'd been to Amsterdam a bunch, loved that culture, so I ordered seeds from Barney's and the Grey Area, some of their Cup winners, and started growing in that little four-by-four with old-school lights. Within a few years the entire garage was a full-on grow — a tent for veg, double flower rooms, you'd walk through one room to get to the next. I actually just tore the whole thing down recently — my neighbors were moving and had one of those big cargo containers, and I figured there'd never be a better time to get rid of it all, so I skill-sawed and hammered the entire structure apart and tossed the lights and grow gear. It was hilarious, but a bit of a melancholy moment too — tons of history just tossed out. Now people ask if I still grow, and I say you're either a farmer or you're something else. Even as a hobby grower, I've got tomato plants now, and if I'm gone a few days it's not the same. I wish I still had some of those lights to grow personal strains — I'm a big California sativa guy. Bryan Fields: Take us through the origin of the brand and the early product portfolio you envisioned. Oliver Higgins: I was a joint smoker, so I wanted something cool and chic that you'd put on the table. The design happened kind of serendipitously — I was in the Hamptons one summer for some weddings, brought my skateboard, have funny videos of me holding onto ice cream truck carts on the highway out there. I met some kids working at the Double RL store in East Hampton, living in this big house together, and I was telling one of them about my idea to start a joint company. He said, 'Hold on,' went inside, and came back with cigarettes his buyer brought once a year from China — I think they were called Harmonization — packaged like a nice cognac or tequila presentation, opens up with four packs on top, four on the bottom, hand-picked-looking tobacco. I said, that's what I want Higgs to look like. I bought a single-injector machine and, in my loft downtown, made single cigarettes by hand for two years. Bryan Fields: Was there a moment you realized the brand was starting to pick up and people were identifying with it? Oliver Higgins: We were kind of two years too late and two years too early — we launched right before legalization. As a medical/caregiver product, Higgs was only on shelves for a few months, then off shelves for a year. That broken momentum, from new packaging to new rules and regulations, was a real early tribulation. I rented a place downtown waiting on a license for a year and spent a lot of the company's money doing what we were told we needed to do. Bryan Fields: In those early days, were you using flower you grew yourself, or sourcing? Oliver Higgins: A friend who grew up in the Carmel area — I was a licensed medical caregiver — grew things like Green Crack and a few other fire strains. It was an easier model since there was no track-and-trace, but the joint itself is still an imperfect product to manufacture in this industry. I'm not an edible person, but I'd almost rather be churning out thousands of edibles on a modern factory recipe than dealing with pre-roll manufacturing the way it still is — even the big players are basically running knock boxes with 40 people in a warehouse. Bryan Fields: What do you think is needed to get pre-roll manufacturing to the level you're envisioning? Oliver Higgins: Someone actually being able to invest in the capex for real machinery — not at a crazy interest rate, with real banking, because we just don't have that kind of infrastructure. It's going to take a lot of R&D, too — cannabis isn't consistent like tobacco, you can't just run it through a modern cigarette machine and expect it to burn the same. The cheaper stuff will end up looking like tobacco — a cheap pack of low-quality outdoor flower — and there's a world for that, but it's not what we're trying to do. We want to stay premium. Kellen Finney: It sounds hard to invest in something like that because of how fragmented the market is — a machine like that could probably supply the whole state, or the whole country. Oliver Higgins: Exactly — talk to any modern distribution company, it's like Coca-Cola, you have main hubs and it disperses from there. I'm not going to six different factories in six different states and countries to check on procedures. Bryan Fields: How many struggles along the way? Was it as seamless as you're describing, or a million obstacles? Oliver Higgins: Absolutely not seamless. I'm so invested — I put everything into this company, I will never let it fail. I've lived at home at times just to keep it running. I don't even know if I could go into every detail, but every little thing has been a struggle. And then people don't pay you — we still don't have great accounts receivable — you're trying to operate a real company and not getting paid by people who've already sold your product. Bryan Fields: That's an important thing to remember — even doing everything right, people around you outside your control can really hurt a smaller brand in ways that could kill you, in a way that wouldn't sink a bigger company. It shows how interconnected this industry is. Oliver Higgins: Completely. We don't have a deep bankroll, so there are months where it's like, this payment isn't coming in, what do we do? That's just being a business owner — problem solving all day. That's probably my greatest skill set as a founder/CEO. Bryan Fields: Given everything, has staying focused on pre-rolls helped keep your eye on that one product, or has it been more complicated? Oliver Higgins: I thought so at first, but no — I wish we'd added jarred flower from the start. We now have a full range of products because a single category, especially one that's not infused or some specialty item, just can't move the needle for a brand anymore. You need access to more customers, and the next generation of kids isn't even smoking flower, they're smoking vape, so I have to hedge toward that. Now I'd say we're a flower company with jarred flower, pre-roll joints, and live resin vapes — still one focused segment, not going into edibles or beverages, but not as narrow as we could be. My advisors and mentors always say stick to it and be the best version of that — companies like Jeter have done that well, though they almost invented a new product category (infused pre-rolls) that took off in California and then worldwide, giving them a decade-long head start. Same with 710 Labs in their lane. Kellen Finney: That resilience and ability to pivot — recognizing when a competitor is shifting a category and deciding whether to adopt it or avoid it — is a big challenge. Oliver Higgins: Totally, and I never think 'Jeter's doing this' or 'this brand's doing that, I want to do that too' — that's not my focus. My focus is what do I want to do; those trends happen on their own. I tell cultivators the same thing — stop growing a hundred strains chasing the next new thing. Look at companies like Alien Labs [referenced as 'antibiotics' in the raw transcript] — 'here are the four strains we've grown for three years that you love and want to consistently buy.' You don't need constant variation as a recreational customer, even if you do as a grower who smokes everything. Bryan Fields: Is that something you actually set with your cultivation partners — grow these four strains — or do they present options to you? Oliver Higgins: It's been a mixed bag. As we've grown, we have more sway to negotiate — we can say, give us 100 pounds of your best flower, we'll sell it, versus if you only sell five. I want consistency, and I'd like to bring our genetics from state to state, even if they won't grow identically everywhere. I'm an old-school guy — I like the original strains, so I'd rather go back to a few classics with some seasonal strains mixed in, rather than everything being hyper-hybridized. Bryan Fields: Which strains come to mind? Oliver Higgins: All sativas, Green Crack, any original Trainwreck, there's a Cat Piss strain I used to love, and some old-school Northern Lights for an indica — the classics before everything got crossed. I think those are due for a comeback. I've talked to breeders who are literally holding onto seeds and clone mothers of some of these, waiting to bring them back. Bryan Fields: How does a brand like yours competing in California get mentioned alongside names like Lady Gaga and Harry Styles? Oliver Higgins: I think it's just doing quality work. Being in L.A. gives us access to some of these people, but they're not repping stuff just because — I've never paid any of them or made promises. It's more like, 'Yo, look what we're doing,' and they've genuinely liked it. We also did a lot of clothing and apparel when we first launched, which I'm hoping to get back to, because that's how you build something beyond just sending someone a product. Kellen Finney: From a merch standpoint, was blending the brand and the clothing part of the original concept, to help customers identify with it? Oliver Higgins: Absolutely — clothing is what I love most, honestly. Finding fabrics, sourcing downtown in the Santee Alley — that's what brings me the most joy about Higgs. Because cannabis is so operationally tough, I've had to focus so much on regulations and expansion that the clothing side hasn't been as strong as I'd like recently. But it has to be there, otherwise people won't identify with the brand. I don't want Higgs to represent 'I want to go get messed up this weekend' — I want it to represent golfing, surfing, skating, watching movies, and grabbing a pack of Higgs because that's the activity you want to pair cannabis with. If you can show that's what your brand is about, you've built something real — not just a short-term collab chasing someone else's audience. Bryan Fields: How many iterations did the logo and packaging go through to get that clean, understated look? Oliver Higgins: I built the first boxes by hand with an X-Acto knife and super glue, made 40 to 60 prototypes, stamped them myself with an O stamp in different colors, then sent the best version to a factory to clean up. My first hire was a designer, Hannah Chung, who could get inside my head and add her own value. We synced on an early-90s California color palette mixed with minimalist design — I never wanted it to scream cannabis in your face; that's not what elevates cannabis into the mainstream. It happens to look very 90s now, which is comforting since most brands have moved on to chase new trends. Bryan Fields: The product inside is flower — what's the motivation behind going outdoor? Oliver Higgins: It's actually different depending on the market. In California it's greenhouse — deep greenhouse — with a farm partner growing some of the best flower in the state. You can hit outdoor-equivalent quality in California doing it that way. In Michigan we grow indoor because they can't match California's light depth outdoors at the same quality. As we expand, since I don't have one central distribution hub, I have to adapt sourcing state by state or country by country while maintaining the same quality standard, so customers never feel like they're getting a lesser product depending on where they buy it. Bryan Fields: How does the conversation go with a cultivation partner about what has to check the boxes to be used in Higgs product? Oliver Higgins: Honestly, that's mostly dictated by the consumer. The 'social smoke' low-THC brands just don't work because consumers don't want them, so we have to hit certain THC thresholds — I can't sell something at 16% and have it work. It's not about weird synthetic terpene profiles smelling like strawberries and whipped cream; it's about hitting real numbers that make sense to the customer. Bryan Fields: Do you sample the flower yourself before it goes into a Higgs product? Oliver Higgins: There's not a single Higgs flower I haven't personally tried. I've picked everything within the range of what I want the brand to be. Bryan Fields: Has there been a strain you loved but that didn't fit the Higgs brand? Oliver Higgins: Sure — even our indicas, I don't want something that's a heavy, sleepy indica that knocks you out immediately, because that's not what our consumer wants. In California we categorize things under simple umbrellas — uplifting sativa, happy hybrid, carefree indica — and then tell you what's inside, but it all has to fit an overall feeling I want the customer to have. Bryan Fields: Have you considered spinning off a sub-brand for strains that don't fit but are still great? Oliver Higgins: Honestly, I don't have the bandwidth to think about a sub-brand. I'd rather put that effort into building a fence around what we're already doing well, plus the ancillary lifestyle side — we now have our own custom rolling papers and custom grinders with our friends at Crush — rather than chasing new product categories. Bryan Fields: How do you balance resources between doubling down in your current markets versus expanding to new states? Oliver Higgins: We've launched into four U.S. states but are currently only really active in two — some didn't work out. Earlier in cannabis, there was a rush to chase every new state opening up, which spreads resources too thin. California taught me early that it couldn't be our only market, but chasing every opportunity isn't right either. This past year has been about making sure we're doing well where we are, plus already-planned Canada launches, before deciding the next strategic moves — including licensing our brand to bigger MSOs who already have infrastructure in markets we're not in. Bryan Fields: Those are lessons learned the hard way? Oliver Higgins: Completely. I've thrown out bins of old packaging and prototypes I'll never use — it felt like throwing away money. People who say 'I'd love to start a brand, I grew in my closet' don't realize how many opportunities for failure there are and how much consistent resilience it takes. I couldn't do what I did seven years ago again today — I launched with almost nothing, grew outdoor flower, built prototypes, and slowly got enough traction to raise a little money. I got into cannabis at maybe the only time you could still do that; trying to break into alcohol now would take $10 million just for advertising. Bryan Fields: What was the biggest difference between the markets where you succeeded versus where you didn't? Oliver Higgins: Colorado went through so many industry shifts — deli-style shops, then MSO-heavy, then supply shortages relying on outdoor harvest — that it was hard to keep up. Oklahoma is another one where, in hindsight, it's very visible why it didn't work. Being mature enough to say 'this isn't working, let's move on' matters, because there will be other opportunities. This industry can shift from legal to illegal overnight in a given state, but there's still a lot of time and a lot of unopened markets left to approach with what we've learned. Bryan Fields: Is operating in Canada significantly different from Michigan or California from a compliance and packaging standpoint? Oliver Higgins: Yes — Health Canada requires eight different rotating warning labels, and you can't really brand the inner packaging. Our U.S. box has Higgs branding no matter where it goes, but as soon as it's opened in Canada, the product inside is in a plain white-and-pink regulated box. So you have to reinforce the brand identity through other means — clothing, events, budtender education, promotions — even more than usual. Bryan Fields: Let's talk about the events — Buds on Rose. What was the inspiration? Oliver Higgins: Throwing parties and events is one of my favorite things in the world — I've been doing it since after my high school prom. I don't love brands that just sponsor things without owning the message, so whenever I throw something, I want it to clearly be Higgs presenting it. Our launch party in Venice had a backyard show with a legendary West Coast rapper performing intimately for 200 people. Buds on Rose was a way to get the whole community on Rose Avenue in Venice involved in a 420 celebration — I rented a house at the end of the street, got local business owners on board, ran promotions with a local spot's pancakes-and-margarita special, free haircuts at a nearby barbershop, discounts through Rose Collective, and then threw a party with bands at the end. We basically closed the whole street in Venice for about five thousand dollars. Bryan Fields: That seems like an incredible return on five thousand dollars for brand equity. Oliver Higgins: Honestly it should have cost a couple hundred thousand dollars for that kind of exposure. Everyone talks about wanting to build community, but a yoga session on the beach isn't building community at scale — you have to think bigger. Bryan Fields: Any events since then? Oliver Higgins: Nothing quite at that scale — that was right before COVID. I've got some fun ideas for satellite pop-ups coming, and this spring there will be a Higgs Invitational Golf Tournament tied to the launch of our first clothing capsule collection — more news coming soon. Bryan Fields: How much product do you bring to these events? Oliver Higgins: You can never bring enough. Pre-rolls are the defining product of our brand — even our minis are recognizable as Higgs without even seeing the logo. Even when I go out to dinner socially and bring a couple packs, I never come home with any — I always end up giving them away. Bryan Fields: Let's talk about California specifically — how challenging is it really, from your inside perspective? Oliver Higgins: It's worse than people think. On a government level, they don't understand the root problem — you can't run a successful legal industry with this much taxation alongside this large a black market; they need to meaningfully address one or the other, and they're not doing either well. It's not really about competition or oversaturation — it's that you simply can't run a profitable business here under current conditions, and if it's a choice between paying you or paying the tax man, most operators will pay the tax man. It almost feels designed to let everyone fail first so a more consolidated, top-down version of the industry can move in. Bryan Fields: California isn't even one market — it's fragmented city by city. Oliver Higgins: Right, and then there's the 'burner distro' issue — product legally shipped out to states like New York in bulk. What happens when New York doesn't need all that flower anymore and two major supply states are suddenly serving one market? That's why we've positioned ourselves as more than just a California cannabis company — I think that's the only way to survive. Big MSOs will come back into California whenever they want, but many got tired of bleeding money there; it's not worth fighting for slim margins in California when there are less competitive, more guaranteed markets elsewhere. Bryan Fields: Were you ever close to closing up shop, and what changed your path? Oliver Higgins: Every month for seven years I've wondered if we're going to have a company. The most important book I've ever read is Phil Knight's Shoe Dog — the first fifteen years of Nike (before it was even called Nike) were the same struggle, wondering if it would ever come together, selling tires out of his car, taking side jobs, but always believing it would work. That's the only mindset that works — if you don't believe it, it will fail. I don't like to lose, and I'm never going to let my company fail. Bryan Fields: Dream smoking session, three people alive or dead — who are you picking? Oliver Higgins: Bob Marley, Bill Clinton... I don't know who else fits the trio, but honestly I'd get along with almost anyone. I'd also love to smoke with Willie Nelson, even though everyone tells me that's a terrible idea, like the song 'I'll Never Smoke Weed With Willie Again.' Bryan Fields: Five years from now, what have you accomplished? Oliver Higgins: We've launched a bunch of clothing collections, we're in a couple more countries, we're finally in my home state of New York, we're at my alma mater University of Miami in Florida — basically places I actually want to live too. Just keep expanding and keep doing what we've been doing, building something people respect and like. Bryan Fields: What did you get right when you started in cannabis, and what did you get wrong? Oliver Higgins: I got right the direction I wanted the brand to go. I got wrong how hard third-party advertising and celebrity association would be for cannabis specifically — even authentic smokers' brands haven't necessarily taken off the way celebrity brands do in other product categories, because it doesn't feel authentic to consumers the way it does with, say, sneakers or spirits. Bryan Fields: Prediction time — do you think events like Buds on Rose become the norm, and how do they grow over the next decade? Oliver Higgins: Yes, I hope so, as long as people understand a cannabis event isn't just for cannabis consumers — it has to be about the good time overall, not just marijuana, if you want the industry to become more mainstream. I'd love to throw a Higgs Music Festival within the next decade, with our own artists, like an elevated, treasure-map version of Buds on Rose — not just a booth at Outside Lands, but presenting the whole festival. Kellen Finney: My prediction is more cannabis form factors showing up inside non-cannabis events generally — conferences offering both cannabis and alcohol options — plus a lot more infused dinners and consumption lounges. Bryan Fields: I think you're both right, and I hope we get to a point where cannabis consumption in public settings is viewed the same as someone cracking a beer at the beach at noon — normalized, and the stigma continues to come down. Bryan Fields: For listeners who want to learn more about the merchandise and events, where can they find you? Oliver Higgins: Start following @Higgs on Instagram — you'll start seeing drops and events, including the golf tournament we mentioned. That's the best way to get access to us, or email me directly. Bryan Fields: Awesome, well, thanks for taking the time, this was a lot of fun. Oliver Higgins: Thanks, guys.