By Timothy S. Donahue
The Champs Las Vegas trade show, held July 23–26, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, underscored just how quickly innovation is reshaping the nicotine and cannabis product landscape. With 708 exhibitors—up from 606 in July 2024 but down from February’s 839—the show offered a cross-section of trends that are likely to define both categories in the near future.
From clear-tank vapes to high-dose functional gummies and novel oral nicotine products, the expo reflected both a race for differentiation and a steady push toward multi-use platforms.
Clear Tanks Take Center Stage
The most visible trend on the vape floor was the explosion of clear-tank devices, a design shift that allows consumers to visually monitor e-liquid levels. “A clear tank allows you to instantly see how much e-liquid is remaining, preventing unexpected dry hits and burnt tastes,” exhibitors explained at the Foger booth, which was widely credited as a trendsetter for the format.
Brands from across the supply chain jumped in. Feelm unveiled its Clear Cave alongside next-generation devices like the Aura 50000—a disposable pod with adjustable cooling and a dynamic emoji display—and the Duo Powerbar, which integrates a charging dock, according to a report from Maryna Gudym, Business Development Manager for Wingle Group Electronics.
Other suppliers echoed the theme. Geek Bar’s Clio X, Nexa’s Flex, iJoy’s XP50000, Movkin’s Curved 50000, and Lost Angel’s Mate 50K all leaned into transparency. U.S. distributor Social Distro LLC offered a different spin: its Pac Bar line limited itself to tobacco and unflavored variants, emphasizing simplicity over novelty.
Not all exhibitors chased clear tanks. Flum’s Utbar 50000 pushed adjustable flavor mixing (three primary and four secondary levels), while Mr Fog’s Switch gave consumers cooling control. Meanwhile, Kumi Six showcased disposables filled with 6-methyl nicotine, a controversial synthetic analog that may fall outside traditional tobacco tax structures.
Growth of Cannabis Vaporizers
On the cannabis side, wax and oil pods dominated. Exhibitors from legacy players to startups emphasized higher-capacity, multi-function devices.
Trinity Labs drew attention with a universal pod system compatible with flower, wax, oil, and 510 cartridges. CCELL, long a category leader, unveiled Mixjoy disposables featuring its 3.0 bio-ceramic heater, alongside the Pulse Puff pod system with a built-in display.
One emerging theme was strain-mixing hardware—disposables equipped with dual tanks or magnetic linking to blend flavors. As Wingle Group noted in its analysis, these designs “enable users to connect two devices together to mix flavors,” signaling a shift toward greater personalization.
U.S. heritage brand Big Chief highlighted its Duo oil disposables and a dual 510 battery with water chamber, while PAX prepared its Flow vaporizer for release in August 2025, combining conduction and convection heating for dry herb users.
Changing Scope of Modern
If vaping showed incremental hardware tweaks, the modern oral category exploded in scope. Nicotine pouches, strips, caffeine orals, and even arecoline (betel nut extract) were on display.
Lucy Goods continued its push with flavored nicotine gum and its Breakers pouch line featuring flavor capsules. Sesh+ emphasized its Swedish-made pouches and gum portfolio, while PIK offered a broader mix: 5 mg and 16 mg nicotine pouches, 25–100 mg caffeine pouches, and 20 mg CBD pouches.
There was also Str8up, which promoted “tax-exempt” pouches filled with Novatine, a 6-methylnicotine derivative. The company claimed Novatine “acts faster on the body than nicotine and nicotine salts” and binds to similar receptors to produce heightened effects.
Meanwhile, Rif2Go presented ultra-thin pouches using DURAPress drug delivery technology—claiming much faster nicotine release compared to traditional modern white pouches.
On the innovation fringe, Spike unveiled arecoline pouches, derived from betel nut extract, while Elux showed caffeine-functional pouches infused with taurine, Alpha GPC, and L-theanine for focus and recovery.
Potency on the Rise
Cannabis edibles were everywhere, dominated by gummies but increasingly branching into drinks.
Black Bunker introduced Nano THC gummies with packs ranging from 900 mg to 30,000 mg total CBD content. Kush Kube’s Blast Off! line featured 500 mg per gummy, while Wunder leaned into mushroom-adjacent blends with Amanita muscaria and blue lotus.
Drinkable cannabis showed new breadth: Torch launched flavored THC-CBD lemonades and teas, Uplift offered 10 mg Delta 9 shots, and Stiiizy expanded into hemp-derived THC seltzers and 100 mg elixirs. Adaptaphoria positioned its THC seltzers as “micro-dosed functional beverages” with adaptogens such as Rhodiola and Ashwagandha.
From Fringe to Mainstream
If nicotine and cannabis hardware were the established draws, kratom and kava may have been the fastest-growing segment in terms of exhibitors. Products spanned chewable tablets, shots, powders, and blends with caffeine or other botanicals.
Brands like EVO pushed kratom pouches marketed as “fast-acting,” claiming effects within 30 seconds, while Lit Culture offered kratom-infused honey and drinks. U.S.-based Kavana merged kratom and kava into shot-style “spirits.”
Mushroom products, largely non-psychoactive, emphasized functional benefits. Day Tripper marketed gummies and shots with Lion’s Mane and Cordyceps, while Culture Shrooms offered mushroom-infused teas and coffees with added caffeine.
Samples Still Rule
Exhibitors leaned heavily on sampling, supported by banners, branded giveaways, and aggressive promoter engagement. Stands often featured bold visual cues—such as cars, oversized displays, or branded mascots—to capture foot traffic.
Inside the Market
The 2025 summer Champs show confirmed that hardware and ingestible innovation are diverging: vaping is consolidating around clear tanks, adjustable flavor/cooling, and display-driven disposables, while the oral and ingestible categories are fragmenting rapidly into caffeine, CBD, kratom, kava, and mushroom niches.
For manufacturers, the clear tank surge suggests a fast-follow imperative. As Foger emphasized, consumer visibility over e-liquid levels “improves the overall user experience by simplifying maintenance and providing higher utilization in comparison to cotton tanks”. Retailers, meanwhile, face the challenge of assortment management as pouches and edibles multiply across categories.
The convergence of nicotine and cannabis with caffeine and adaptogens also raises regulatory questions. Novelties like 6-methyl nicotine, arecoline, and high-dose functional gummies may attract scrutiny from regulators. However, as Champs Las Vegas has made clear, innovation is moving faster than regulation, and the next battleground for suppliers may be compliance as much as consumer demand.
