Eleanor is one of Forti Goods' large capacity storage pieces.
MILWAUKEE – From art-piece glassware to boutique dispensaries, the cannabis industry is growing up, and new direct-to consumer furniture startup Forti Goods wants cannabis storage to grow up with it.
“I was looking to create something that was a little more secure and permanent for cannabis users who are maybe parents or are looking for something more fitting for the way they consume cannabis,” said Sharon Kevil, founder and CEO. “There’s a lot of bags and boxes for cannabis, but … we wanted to give it a proper place in the home with furniture and reflect the way its use is changing.”
As of early December, cannabis was legal for only medical use in 22 states and was legal for medical and recreational use in 14 states.
But what does furniture designed for marijuana look like? In this case, a lot like pieces you might find at high-end furniture stores, with prices to match. Forti Goods’ line includes credenzas, side tables, coffee tables and cabinets, all equipped with a carbon filter lining to neutralize the scent of cannabis and a lockable drawer that is controlled via the Forti Goods app and charged with a USB cable. The company’s collection also includes accessories like jars and rolling trays and specialized storage pieces for things like joints and vapes.
Sharon Kevil poses with Forti Goods’ Geraldine display cabinet.
“We wanted to make sure that we’re getting cannabis out of the shoe box or Mason jar and into well-crafted furniture that is secure, controls scent and organizes your stash while preserving safety and potency,” explained Kevil. “We chose an app after looking at keys and seeing problems. We kept coming back to the thing that everyone seems to have with them at all times, their phones. People also have an added layer of security on their phone with lock codes and an app login.”
Kevil is a self-taught furniture designer, who — after spending more than a decade in interior design — turned her talents to developing furniture for Kohl’s. After years working in the furniture development process, witnessing overseas working conditions and pollution, Kevil is committed to designing what she called, “anti-fast furniture.”
Ultimately, the company chose to manufacture in the U.S. and uses FSC-certified woods and water-based finishes. Components not made by Forti Goods, such as the replaceable carbon filters and drawer pulls, are also sourced in North America.
Sustainable sourcing is not cheap, though. Side tables from Forti Goods start at $1,850, and items such as Geraldine display cabinet start at $4,050. Everything the company has available on its site right now is available for presale, as part of its launch earlier this month, and has an eight-to-10-week lead time.
“We want to protect the environment, our customers and our workers in this process,” noted Kevil. “And that can cost a little more.”
But, price has not been the biggest hurdle so far. Despite the strides that cannabis use has made in both legalization and social acceptance in the past few years – it is the most commonly used psychotropic drug in the U.S. – promoting and selling furniture designed openly for cannabis use has been challenged by marijuana’s still-evolving legal and social status.
For example, the company’s launch was delayed when its e-commerce site was categorized as “drug paraphernalia” and was shut down. Additionally cannabis is not currently legal in Kevil’s and the company’s home state of Wisconsin.
Although Kevil hoped that a change is on its way in Wisconsin and other states, the legal status there has made finding a payment processor and bank difficult, and it brought up lots of related questions around marketing, advertising and selling in states where cannabis is legal as well as those where it is not. While many marijuana-adjacent products and stores get past those issues by labeling their products for tobacco or general smoking use, Kevil said she wanted to be more transparent.
“We thought, should we just call it locking furniture and be done with it?” said Kevil. “But I think because this product was envisioned and thought out with cannabis in mind – we made all of the design choices for how you get in and out of the furniture for cannabis, thinking about what’s the safest storage method around children and what’s the easiest access method if you’re aging in your home and using cannabis – that throwing that by the wayside because it isn’t legal yet in all 50 states was a disservice to the product.”
So, Kevil is taking time familiarizing herself with all the legal necessities of how to advertise and spending a lot of time with the company’s legal team. At the end of the day, her business premise is built on the reality that furniture cannot actually be used to consume cannabis and the contention that it is not created to conceal cannabis but to keep it safely away from children, much like a gun safe.
At this writing, plans for a full-scale marketing program have pushed into the new year as the company prepares for the legal side. In-person promotions, events and even product placement in interested retail stores are all on the table once the COVID-19 clears up more in the U.S.
According to Kevil, new opportunities in the cannabis industry open up every day as more states legalize it. Cannabis is the first industry, Kevil said, that she has seen open up and “give women and marginalized people an opportunity to build wealth” while exploring new opportunities and gaining a larger stake hold in the industry as a whole.
“We want to continue to destigmatize marijuana use, and we want to break the outdated stereotypes,” concluded Kevil. “You can Google ‘bar cart’ right now and thousands of buying options come up. Why should it be different for cannabis?”
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January 04, 2021 at 08:47PM
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