Dank Dads: Father’s Day cannabis trends

Some of the most popular Father’s Day gifts advertised in 2019 included fancy coffee canteens, high end slippers, kindles and great grilling products. According to the National Retail Federation, spending on Father’s Day gifts were expected to reach a record high of $16.0 billion. On Father’s Day weekend cannabis sales in California, Colorado, Washington, and Nevada were above $50 million. Although it is hard to know how much of that went to cannabis gifts for dad, there’s some interesting trends that could bring some light to the question.

It’s apparent that there are fishing dads, grilling dads, beer dads, sports dads, and a new category of weed dads. There are number of reasons why the dad demographic chooses cannabis, and with legal markets creating a more casual conversation about marijuana, it’s no wonder that many spouses, partners and children would have chosen to bestow their fathers with the gift of weed.

What Dads Love

As the legal market for cannabis has become more commonplace, there are increasing opportunities for people to buy great gifts for the cannabis users in their lives, specifically dads in this case. 

When analyzing 2019 Father’s Day weekend sales across Colorado, Nevada, California and Washington, there are certain categories and segments that had a notable increase in sales, compared to prior weekend sales. Shoppers were most interested in mocktails (cannabis infused cocktails that replace alcohol with cannabis extract), resins, and cannagars (cannabis cigars). These products are notable plays on traditional Father’s Day favorites, like bar supplies and cigars, but with a unique cannabis twist to them. 

Other categories with notable growth rates for Father’s Day weekend included: lip balms (79% increase), breath strips and sublingual pouches (55% increase), topicals (10% increase), and beverages (7% increase). Not only did these segments experience growth compared to previous weekends, they are also more nuanced products that don’t have the same rate of sales as more popular products like flower, edibles, and vaporizer cartridges. Perhaps consumers felt more comfortable purchasing these products as gifts, and marijuana loving fathers may be the right market for it. Interestingly, these same categories grew during Father’s Day 2018, suggesting that it isn’t a fluke.  

Some of the specific products that had  an increase of sales included items like high-quality vaporizers from Pax Labs, curated edibles like Kiva Espresso Beans and select premium flowers from BeKind, that were advertised as not only great gifts for cannabis loving fathers, but also starter gifts that allow dads to explore the medical side of cannabis. 

CannaDad Trend

Regardless of the reasons, though, Father’s Day weekend proved to provide great cannabis opportunities for both dads and dispensaries. All told, as explained before, more dollars were spent on certain categories and segments that could be considered cannabis “gifts”, a trend saw in 2018 and 2019. Given how much more accessible cannabis has become in recreational markets, we only expect the trend of giving dad cannabis on his special day to grow in popularity.