Las Vegas was pushing 105 °F when the CHAMPS Trade Show opened its summer session (July 23‑26), yet inside the Las Vegas Convention Center, the air was cool with culture, thick terpene clouds, rubber soles echoing across polished concrete, and a DJ seamlessly blending Curren$y bars with reggae basslines. Dead center of it all was Hemp World, the immersive booth experience by hhemp.co, built not just as an exhibit, but as a fully realized cultural stage.
“We wanted buyers to feel the culture, not just read a price sheet,” said Dr. Bao Le, hhemp.co’s CEO, “It’s a live case study on how music, fashion, and hemp can share the same stage.”
A Trade‑Show Booth That Felt Like a Block Party
Since 1999, CHAMPS has been the preeminent B2B expo for counterculture products, including vapes, glass, hemp, art, and everything in between. But CHAMPS Summer 2025 rewrote the vibe: This was no ordinary trade show. It pulsed like a music festival for the cannabis-curious.
Bay Area phenom LaRussell, Chicago rap legend Twista, and New Orleans’ own Curren$y brought real-time heat to the hhemp.co stage. Add in live sets from Fortunate Youth and a laugh-out-loud roast session hosted by Kill Tony's Uncle Lazer and David Lucas, and CHAMPS 2025 blurred the line between commerce and culture.
“It’s a youth‑driven sport,” Twista told us off‑stage. “But us OGs learn from how fast these kids flip a verse into a product.”
Cameos That Moved Product
Lil Baby stopped the show while filming a promo for his Wham hemp line with Litty Flower Shop, sending waves of vloggers sprinting toward his shoot like it was a sneaker drop. Meanwhile, Yung LB, co-founder of Runtz, floated through the crowd with a Runtz × Litty collab teaser that left buyers buzzing.
Even the art world had its lens on the action: Luna Steward, a psychedelic visual artist and cannabis activist, was spotted capturing raw, behind-the-booth moments that hit Instagram before the sun even set.
Rolling Legends: High Times × RAW × hhemp.co
One of the loudest announcements came not from the stage but from the press pit: High Times, RAW Rolling Papers, and hhemp.co unveiled their collaboration to launch a line of hemp‑based flower, pre‑rolls, and vapes slated for Q4 2025.
“High Times doesn’t need reinvention, it needs re‑ignition,” said High Times co‑owner Matt Stang, “Partnering with RAW and hhemp.co lets us turn five decades of editorial clout into something you can actually smoke.”
Left to right: Dr. Bao Le, hhemp.co’s CEO, Twista and Luna Stower; LaRussell with the crowd!
The trio’s collaboration is a full-circle moment: pairing RAW’s cult-favorite rolling innovations with hhemp.co’s compliant, white-labeled muscle, and channeling the legacy of High Times into something tangible on retailers’ shelves. From magazine rack to pre-roll pack, storytelling now comes sealed in child-resistant packaging.
What Happens in Vegas… Spreads Nationwide
The CHAMPS Trade Show heads to Austin (September 9‑11) and Fort Lauderdale (Nov 11-13). If Vegas proved anything, it’s that the future of cannabis retail won’t be whispered in boardrooms; it’ll be yelled over subwoofers and livestreamed on TikTok.
Honeysuckle will be there, front row, always. Catching every bar. Every bud. And every breakthrough deal.
