We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alejandro Badillo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Alejandro thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
Since I have started my usage of recreational Marijuana, I had used alot of different ways to enjoy my smoking, from blunts to bongs, and I had always been facinated by the diferent tipes of pipes and bongs, I would buy different bongs at the smoke shops whenever I would broke mine or got bored of it, but mostly I would break them by accident.
One day I was getting ready to go out and I was holding a beer bottle and a bong in one hand, and the lighter on the other hand, thats when I realized that both of those are made of glass, and the bottle gets trown in the trash after I drink it, I was really high and a little drunk when I was thinking that It would be great if someone would recycle those bottles and do something with them, like a bong, but I never tough I would be the one doing them. I remember seen some home-made bongs out of plastic bottles, im not sure how safe they are but I remember see them at friends houses, but the idea of making bongs out of used liquor bottles was really in my head, and I wanted to try it, I google “how to make holes in bottles”, and to my surprise, there are people doing bongs out of bottles already, so that made it easy for me to know what tools to get for me to start doing holes . Now in order for me to be able to hold the downstem to the bong was another challenge, first I wanted to weld the glassdownstem to the bottle, but it was impossible because in order to melt glass it was to be really hot, and for that it would burn the labels on all the bottles, and it would defeat the purpose of them. I learned that the hard way, because I bought all the equipment for glass melting and welding, but I fould out that , that Idea was not going to work, I had to find another way to hold the downstem, I did some research on the internet and I fould this commercial not toxic glass glue that I have to cure with UV Light, I ordered it to try and so far it been working great. Now another challenge that I had , was grettin empty bottles to make the bongs, for the most part, I drink beer, so I didnt had any liquor bottles in the house, and my parents arent big drinkers neather, so the house was empty of glass bottles, I knew I was gonna need to get them from somewere else. I decided to go to the local bars and restaurants , and start asking them if they could save the bottles for me, I would take a small plastic crate with me, so they could just throw the bottles there and I pick them up every other day, most of the time , the bartenders and the managers were really nice about it, I would explain to them what I was doing with them, and they would enjoy my idea and save alot of bottles for me, one of the main restaurants that has helped alot is “URBAN SOMBRERO” located in Denver, highly recomended, good food and great service.
So now that I knew how to make the bottlebongs, and I had a resource on getting the bottles, I needed to know how to sell them and where, I’m not a bussines person, I know nothing about marketing or anthing about bussines, I whent to Pickens Technical College in Aurora to study machine tools, so I know how to make things, but not how to sell them. The only thing I could think is just walking to the smoke shops and offer my product, I remember the movie “The pursuit of happines” and in the movie Will Smith was walking from doctor to doctor to sell his xray machine, that inspired me to do the same with my bongs. I would go to the local smoke shops, and for the most part also they were really nice with me and my products, and I have sold bongs on the same day that I went to show them a the shops.. So far I have most of my sales and products on our website MILEHIGHBOTTLEBONGS.COM . Doing the little marketing that I could on the social media, like Instagra and Facebook , and also walking to the smoke shops has make me grow my bussines and me also personaly.
Now that I have the website and the resouce, I continue to make the bongs better and getting new bottles more consistent, last year I created a new way to make the bongs, I make them with removable downstem now, is easier for the costumer to clean them and you can change the dowstem if you want, also I make the shipping crates out of wood and I engrave them personaly, even the wood that I used is recycled from old shipping crates that find around the warehouses. So far I been selling all over the country and also a few sales on Canada and Colombia. Im plaining to expanind my bissines more and making better products and more variety, of them, also one of the main reasons why I started this , is because I want to go the local art shows and events and meet people and also sell my bongs, I cant wait for summer to start and get to the shows to meet people.
Alejandro, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
We at Mile High Bottle Bongs, we provide smoking accesories, for all out smokes out there. Our main focus is making bongs and pipes. As our name implies, our bongs are mande out of bottles, that we recycle from all over the city, from bars to restaurants, also the ones that we drink ourselfs we end up using.
Back in 2016 I was getting gratudated from Pickens Tech, .for Precision Machining. That carrier is about knowing how to use machine tools, cuting mettal, drilling, grinding, keeping your area clean and also the main objective is to make good quality parts for the comstumers. Learning machining was always a dream for me, since I was a child I always liked making my own toys, or making just diferent projects, also I remember opening my toys to see how they work, and trying to put it back togheter , that didnt always worked tho, but the main this is that I was always trying to learn how stuff works and also trying to do my own inventions.
When I got my first job as a machinist at Tag Team Manufacturing, that gaved me more confidence to work more on machines , and be more confident about myself. On my free time (when the boss was not looking ), I would use their machines for tying to cut holes on the bottles, I needed to get the rigth materials and drillbits for it, it tooked alot of trial and error for me to find the correct way to do it, I broke somany bottles in the process that I cant event count , but that all it takes, keep trying and learn from your mistakes. After knowing how to make holes, and knowing how to glue the downstem to the bottle, it got a little bit easier after that. Now that I needed was the website, I designed it my self, and Im the one doing all the work on the website, I add the products to the page, I take the photos of the products, even that was a learning experience. I needed to learn how to take good photos of my producsts so it lookes really profecional, everithing I haver near thanks to YOUTUBE.COM , I saw videos that gaved me alot of ideas on how to take good pictutes and make the website look better.
It takes me about a day for finish a bong beguining to end, from graving the empty bottle to having it ready for shipping the next day. I always make sure that the lable and the bottle looks as clean and good for the costumer, all the bottles are clean end disinfected before shipping. Im always looking for ways to improve on the quality and variety of the bongs, by investing in better tools that work faster that can save ,me time, and make the bongs look cleaner and better quality. Also as I mention before, I found a new way to be able to add the downstem to be removable for the costumers, that makes it alot easier for them to clean them and chanse the downstem if they needed to.
One of my main goals this year is to make more colaborations with local artits of Colorado, I did one before where they painted a clear bong with their art, it tooked really awesome, and I added photos of that bong here to this interview, and of course or number one goal is to keep on making good quality products and keep on adding more variety of bongs and pipes.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One of my qualities that I had before, is that I wanted my project or everithing that I was doing , I wanted it to come up right the first time, projects that I did as a hobbie, I always maked sure that it camed up as good and perfect for my liking on the first time. When I was in High School I started building miniature firures . like Gundam models, they were not easy todo but if you follow the instructions, it will come up as a nice action figure. I was used to making them as good and clean on the first time, by being pacient and reading carefully the instructions. Specialy since they are a bit expencie and they are no spare parts on the box.
With the bongs is nothing like that, I had to forget that everithing will come up right on the first time, I had to do alot of prototipes but also learning on the process. Is ok to fail as long as you keep going and most importantly is learnig from the previous mistake. Me having to break somany bottles on the process of cutting them, buying unessesary tools thinkin that will make it easier for me on the process, then realizing that it was just not wath a needed and just wasted money and time, but is also fun and I get to learn alot more in the process, is not frustrating aslong as I see progess and find new ways to replace what didnt worked before.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Of course, morst of my jobs when I was younger has been all over the place, from fast food, telemarketing, computer teacher, insurance sells man , I done it all. The moment when I decided to be a machinist, I was working for an insurance agency, I jsut knew that I didnt wanted to turn that into a carrier, I didnt wanted to make that for the rest of my life, I had been there for 3 year, and I didnt wanted 3 years more, it was a good job, good schedule, but it was not what I was looking for, ever. So I decided to go back to college, as a machinist.
One of the main reasons to be a machinist is because I wanted to use my hands, Imagination and tools skills on a carrier and explore more way that I can manufature metal. Also been a machinist requires alot of creativity of problem solving, wich is is one of the things I like doing.
Contact Info:
- Website: MILEHIGHBOTTLEBONGS.COM
- Instagram: MILEHIGHBOTTLEBONGS
- Facebook: MILE HIGH BOTTLE BONGS
- Youtube: MILE HIGH BOTTLE BONGS
Image Credits
BRANDON MENDOZA