JUUL arrived late compared with pens and box mods, yet it became one of the most widely used vapes within a few years. This article covers how the device works, what was sold alongside it when this was written, and where the company came from.
How the device works
The idea behind JUUL is to strip vaping down to as few steps as possible. It has a battery and a heating element like any vape pen, but there is no tank to fill. Each pod is sealed and arrives already loaded with the company’s nicotine salt e-liquid.
There are no buttons or switches. A sensor detects your draw, switches the battery on and vaporizes the liquid. Because the pod is closed, liquid does not leak out through the mouthpiece and there is nothing to spill during a refill. An empty pod goes in the trash and a fresh one clicks in.
The body is roughly as long as a cigarette but flat and rectangular instead of round. That makes it lighter and easier to carry than bigger pens and mods.
Devices, kits and pods
When this was written the device was offered in two finishes, slate and silver. Bought alone, it shipped with:
- the JUUL device
- a USB charger and charging dock
- a limited one year warranty
The starter kit contained the same items and added 4 pods. Replacement pods were sold in a 2-pack or a 4-pack.
The pod range ran to 8 flavors:
- Classic Tobacco
- Virginia Tobacco
- Menthol
- Mint
- Mango
- Cucumber
- Crème
- Fruit
Every flavor came in 5% nicotine. A 3% version existed for Virginia Tobacco, Mint, Mango, Cucumber, Crème and Fruit.
Where the company came from
Adam Bowen and James Monsees started JUUL. The two met in 2002 in Stanford University’s product design program, where they wrote a thesis together. Both smoked cigarettes at the time, and their project was a product that would mimic smoking instead of replacing it.
After Stanford they founded Ploom in San Francisco, a tobacco start-up whose heating element turned tobacco into vapor. Ploom later became PAX Labs, which added marijuana vaporizers to the line.
In 2015 the pair turned to nicotine salts, the form of nicotine taken from tobacco leaf. The PAX Labs liquid combined glycerol, propylene glycol, natural oils, extracts and flavor, nicotine and benzoic acid, and it carried more nicotine than ordinary e-liquid. Its throat hit, lung inhale and tobacco taste were also closer to a cigarette than a typical pen or mod delivers. That liquid, in a pod, became JUUL.
How fast it grew
Fast Company reported that more than 16 million devices were sold in the 2 years after launch. By the time of this article JUUL was described as a billion dollar company holding over half of U.S. vape sales, and it had started selling in Canada, the U.K. and Israel.
Nicotine is addictive, and these products are for adult users only.