With the debut of its second location, cannabis-focused wellness brand dosist is cementing its place as an industry leader. Here, CEO Gunner Winston spreads the gospel.
Despite being available at more than 100 dispensaries in California alone, you decided to open not one, but two dosist boutiques in L.A. Why did you feel the need to do so? I can’t think of an aspirational product in the world [whose] brand doesn’t have [its] own retail—from Apple to Chanel to Nike, even Ray-Ban. It’s the only chance you really have to truly bring your brand to life the way you want to.
You first opened on Abbot Kinney, and now, here you are on West Third Street. Why did you choose these particular locations? When you show up next to Gjelina and across the street from Warby Parker, you start putting yourself in the conversation of a discerning consumer who cares about what they put in their body and who’s probably a global citizen. That’s who we are as a brand. West Third fits that bill again. We have The Grove right here, a wonderful shopping mecca of world-class stores—sweetgreen, Verve and Belcampo. It’s a wonderful area, the L.A.-West Hollywood-mid L.A. area that’s so fundamental to who we are. We’re very much for globally productive citizens, not people looking to get ripped and stoned.
How do you differentiate dosist from other cannabis brands out there? There’s cannabis, and then there’s wellness and dosist. We are always trying to pull ourselves out. We don’t deny cannabis, but it’s just an ingredient. We are a modern wellness company, and cannabis is an ingredient we use.
How is dosist innovating within the wellness world? We innovated with our actual product, the dose pen—[it offers precise dosing in different formulas like Bliss, Calm and Passion]—which elevated the category of vape pens. And we did the first and second branded retail: no one else has done any yet. With our next product, which will be coming out in the next couple of months, we’ll elevate another category, once again focusing on dosing. It will not be vape pens. So we’re going to continue to broaden, but only if we can do it really well.