The former athlete turned her own wind-down ritual into Select GWE—a woman-founded lifestyle brand making the case that your smoke setup can be just as intentional as the rest of your life.

Ashley Merrill didn’t grow up dreaming about weed.

She grew up an athlete: competitive, disciplined and, by her own account, often way too hard on herself. Cannabis came later, after basketball, when she began paying closer attention to the ways she unwound, slept and made space for herself at the end of a long day.

“I got kind of in the game late,” Merrill says.

What started with a joint after a pickup basketball game gradually became part of a bigger ritual. For Merrill, smoking wasn’t about checking out. It was about changing gears—putting the day down, getting comfortable and giving herself a moment to reset.

That took on more meaning as Merrill began working through trauma and recognizing how much tension she had simply gotten used to carrying.

“Oh, dang,” she remembers thinking. “Like I was actually living in pain. Like I just didn't know it. Like it's just normal.”

That experience eventually became part of the idea behind Select GWE: a lifestyle brand built around making everyday cannabis rituals feel a little more intentional, stylish and complete.

At first, Merrill imagined an expansive one-stop shop—humidifiers, candles, apparel, glassware, the whole world. Eventually she realized the better idea was curation.

“I like creating vibes. I like creating energy,” she says.

And that may be the clearest answer to why buy a Select GWE box instead of simply ordering a grinder and a bong yourself?

Because Select GWE isn’t really selling individual objects. It is selling the setup.

The brand’s monthly bundles start at $49.99 and combine glassware with curated accessories and lifestyle products for everyday smokers. Select’s own language centers the idea of ritual, positioning its bundles for everything from “slow mornings” to late nights. (SelectGWE)

That makes the subscription especially easy to understand as a gift.

Buying for the cannabis consumer in your life can get weirdly generic, fast. Another ashtray. Another grinder. Another random piece of glass you hope matches their taste. A curated bundle feels more personal because it gives someone an experience rather than one more thing for the drawer.

Merrill herself has already seen customers use the boxes that way.

“The bundles always make a great gift for somebody,” she says.

Think about the friend who takes an edible and settles in with a book, the girlfriend who changes into sweats and lights a candle after work, the creative who disappears onto the balcony at midnight, or the person whose smoke corner is somehow better decorated than your living room. Select GWE is essentially packaging that little pocket of the day.

And if you’re buying for yourself, the logic is much the same.

Merrill talks about doctors, nurses, teachers and other professionals she has encountered who consume while otherwise living completely ordinary, busy adult lives. It’s an image far removed from the permanently couch-bound stoner stereotype that cannabis culture still hasn’t entirely shaken.

“This is a part of people's daily function,” she says.

That everyday consumer is really the Select GWE customer.

Not necessarily the person chasing the most expensive piece of glass or building their entire personality around weed. Just someone who enjoys cannabis and appreciates when the experience surrounding it feels good, too.

That’s also why the box’s value isn’t necessarily about claiming Select GWE is the cheapest subscription out there—or declaring any smoke box objectively “the best.” The stronger proposition is that it’s thoughtful. Someone has already considered how the pieces work together and what kind of moment they’re supposed to create.

Merrill’s bundles can mix things like glassware, trays, candles, apparel and other essentials. In the interview, she describes everything from simpler pieces to more intricate, art-like glass, along with clothing she designed to be comfortable enough to change into after work.

“The bundles are an investment for yourself and your regulatory system,” Merrill says.

Maybe “regulatory system” isn’t the phrase you’d expect from a smoke subscription founder, but that’s exactly why Merrill is interesting. Her relationship with cannabis has moved through athletics, trauma, sleep, meditation, creativity and entrepreneurship. There’s depth behind the way she thinks about the experience, and that carries into the products she chooses.

Whether you keep that ritual for yourself or give it to someone you know will appreciate it is up to you.

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Learn more https://www.selectgwe.com and Instagram.