Photo Provided by Julia Loni Turner
Julia Loni Turner, the creator of the cannabis accessories storage company—Nekktar— has created a new way for consumers to travel with their bud while keeping it safe and fresh—the Buzzboxx.
The Buzzboxx is appealing to the eye and small enough to have on-hand while traveling or at home. The pocket-sized storage device is sleek and portable—it only weighs 1 ounce and fits three pre-rolled joints in it. The bottom, which features a magnetically sealed compartment, holds another 1 ounce of loose leaf.
Turner was inspired to develop Buzzboxx shortly after she graduated from Duke University with the class of 2020. With the help of her friends and her parents, she set off to create a reliable container to hold cannabis products.
“[… ] I was at a good friend’s house and her dad was talking to me and said he put his joints in these plastic test tubes that are just so ugly and embarrassing […],“ she explains. “I knew exactly what he was using and these test tubes are just not stylish.”
This conversation gave Turner the idea to create a solution. It also gave her the opportunity to develop something stylish that all age groups could use to preserve their joints between uses.
Turner is the sole owner of Nekktar. As such, she enlisted the help of students to create her website, as well as her mother and father who helped with marketing and product design.
She conducted her own research by reaching out to consumers about what they’d like in a storage product—even down to the color of the product. “Blue is the most universal color between men and women,” Turner explains. “Rose gold is a great accent color that goes with blue, and the name is just sweet like honey, it’s a bee and it’s Buzzbox,” she adds.
Buzzboxx took two years to build, says Turner.
As a student and budding entrepreneur, Turner divided her time between classes, other activities, and creating her brand, Nekktar. It created a lot of demand in her life, which began to slow down during the novel coronavirus pandemic. That has given Turner the chance to focus on her brand.
Photo Provided by Julia Loni Turner
Turner was also inspired to donate 10% of sales from pre-orders to be given back to organizations that support the BLM movement. Being a Black and queer woman, Turner got a chance to embrace and start her brand in the movement of being supported at the greatest capacity, while also giving back to people who reflect herself.
Turner is a bi-racial, queer woman. She is putting her foot in the door of the cannabis industry while being self-aware of the industry’s harshness. That’s why she is creating a product that will counter the stereotypical stoner culture with a universally designed product.
“We wanted to make sure to cover the bases with all types of consumers or someone who would become a consumer, so a lot of the product design is done simply on what we want as consumers and not just what we think smokers want,” says Turner.
Emerald readers get a 15% discount on Nekktar products. Visit Nekktar.com for more information on Buzzboxx. CODE: emerald15
By Victoria Martinez / Photos provided by Julia Loni Turner
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