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The Sunday Read: ‘How Do You Make a Weed Empire? Sell It Like Streetwear.’

The Sunday Read: ‘How Do You Make a Weed Empire? Sell It Like Streetwear.’

The Daily vor 2 Jahren

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29:08

The closest thing to a bat signal for stoners is the blue
lettering of the Cookies logo. When a new storefront comes to a
strip mall or a downtown shopping district, fans flock to
grand-opening parties, drawn by a love of the brand — one based
on more than its reputation for selling extremely potent weed.

People often compare Cookies to the streetwear brand Supreme.
That’s accurate in one very literal sense — they each sell a lot
of hats — and in other, more subjective ones. They share a
penchant for collaboration-based marketing; their appeal to
mainstream audiences is tied up with their implied connections to
illicit subcultures; and they’ve each been expanding rapidly in
recent years.

All of it is inextricable from Berner, the stage name of Gilbert
Milam, 40, Cookies’ co-founder and chief executive, who spent two
decades as a rapper with a sideline as a dealer — or as a dealer
with a sideline as a rapper. With the company’s success, he is
estimated to be one of the wealthiest rappers in the world,
without having ever released a hit record.

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