Joost Vapor is the result of three brother's dedication to vaping

It's 5 P.M. on a Friday. Nestled inside an unremarkable looking strip mall is a vapor shop called Joost Vapor. When the door is opened, the shop has a full crowd. Three boys in their college football jerseys lean over the counter, looking at the novelty batteries particularly the one with the silhouette of a woman. A gentlemen in his early fifties, holds a starter kit in his hands as one of the owners instructs him on how to use his new e-cigarette. A boyfriend-girlfriend pair is stationed by the sample wall. Their favorite flavor? Lemonade stand. The owners scribble juice orders in neon markers on little black dry-erase boards. A mother and father and son stand together with their new e-cigarettes (the son has never smoked, but now has a kit with juice with 0mg nicotine content). A hodge-podge crowd with one thing in common—they're ready to vape.

Joost Vapor is the result of three brother's dedication to vaping—Paul, Josh, and Dan Sears. It began with Paul working at a family members vapor shop. When Paul decided he wanted a more innovative business, he began to mix juices in his basement. At the time, Josh was also making juices. On the weekends, the two would go to bars and vape in front of the smokers outside to promote their product. This July, they opened their first shop in Grandville. Within the three months Joost Vapor has been in business, they've opened a second location in Comstock Park.

            What exactly is vaping? Vaping is the term used when e-cigarette users use their e-cigarettes (replacing smoking) and vapers are the users (replacing smokers). It is called vaping due to the vapor that is released into the air after a user exhales.

What is an e-cigarette? An e-cigarette is a device that heats e-juice (nicotine liquid) into a vapor for vaping. The e-cigarette was created and patented in 2003 by Hon Lik, a pharmacist in China. In 2006, e-cigarettes were introduced to the U.S. In 2012, Lorillard Tobacco Company purchased the privately held e-cigarette company called Blu. Blu e-cigarettes use a rechargeable lithium battery, a vaporization chamber, and a cartridge. They look like a cigarette and have a LED light at the end that lights up to simulate the burning end of a cigarette. To someone unfamiliar to the vaping world, this is what an e-cigarette looks like.

The e-cigarettes that Joost Vapor sells are different. Instead of a cartridge, customers can choose to use a cartomizer, clearomizer, or a rebuildable atomizer to hold their e-juice. Instead of having only 7 flavor choices for juice, Joost offers 100. In addition to more flavors, Joost mixes all their juice in the back room of their shop for each individual customer as they order it. In addition, the nicotine levels in the juice can also be customized from 0mg-32mg. But it's not just the juice that is customizable at Joost, customers have a wide range of batteries to choose from from small pen-like batteries to ones the size of a light-saber hilt. There are accessories such as lanyards and color options on certain items.

Jason “Yoda” Sperry, a Joost employee, has been vaping for 4 years and has extensive knowledge on all things vaping. Before he became a vaper, he was a pack-a-day smoker. While Sperry was a smoker, he was also a heavy asthmatic who needed to use his rescue inhaler 4 times a day. “My roommate and I bought a kit online for $90 and split it. Now I only have to use my rescue inhaler 4 times a year, and I have a lot more energy.” Sperry tried to quit cold turkey and by using the patches, but he found himself snacking too much and the patches made him nauseous. “Using an e-cigarette feels like you're still smoking. It gives you the hand-to-mouth habit and oral fixation aspects of a cigarette. You can choose and change the nicotine level when you vape. I went from vaping a juice with nicotine to a juice with no nicotine at all.”

Dan Sears is the youngest of the three brothers who own the shop. When asked what his customers look like, he replied, “Our customers are normal everyday people who want to switch from smoking to a safer alternative. People want to be there for their kid's birthdays. When I was 3 years old I remember crying for my mom to stop smoking. For a kid, the biggest fear is losing their parents—it's the worst thing imaginable.”

In addition to creating an alternative to smoking, e-cigarettes have created a hobby and a community. Sperry is one of many people who have turned their vaping into a hobby. “It's a new way to play. I always have to have the newest things, the newest toys.” This hobby has impacted the technology of e-cigarettes sold today, such as battery mods. “Mod batteries get their name from people having to create and customize their own battery. A couple years ago, there were no big batteries, no huge units, people had to make them. One of the first mods was created using a high-end police flashlight for a battery that would last a day without dying. The mods that people create determine what products hit the market.” Some mods Sperry has seen are creative and eclectic—e-cigarettes that look like Altoid tins, a mini Pac-man machine, even Arizona tea cans that look like tea with a straw. In addition to modding, Sperry also attends vapor conventions. “Vapor conventions are all about sharing new technology and new juices. It's a whole community dedicated to enjoying the experience of vaping and improving every aspect of it.” Some of the popular vaping conventions are Vape Bash in Chicago, Vape Expo in Ann Arbor, and  Vapor Con East in West Virginia. Sperry describes the experience, “There are 600 people in a room with clouds of fog where people create friendships, share juices, and have contests and activities. Most of the time, it's a group of people sitting and vaping from 1 P.M. to 6 A.M.” In addition to the friendliness within the group it also extends to outside of the community. “If we see a smoker walking near the convention, we'll take them inside, put a starter kit in front of them, and say, 'If you stomp your pack of cigarettes on the ground right now, we'll give you this kit.' We care about people. There's a big push within our community to pull people off of cigarettes. Every one of us has been a former smoker, we want everyone to quit cigarettes.”

The friendliness of this community extends to the atmosphere of Joost Vapor. The owners are down-to-earth humble guys, wearing t-shirts with the company logo printed on them usually taking drags off their own e-cigarettes. When asked what he thinks the future of Joost Vapor, Dan Sears says, “E-cigarettes aren't going anywhere, and we want to be a part of it. We want Joost to be a household name.”