There's a stretch of small Michigan towns where smoke shops have quietly become some of the most considered retail spaces in the state. The good ones aren't gas-station counters with fluorescent lighting and a Plexiglas display case. They're rooms with point of view — character mascots, curated glass collections, RAW outlets you can actually walk into. The web work has to keep up.
The first three brands in our portfolio land squarely in that world. All three are Michigan-owned, all three serve communities that walk in by name, and all three needed sites that worked harder than the templates they started with. Here's the case for each.
— Mi Budz —
Sterling Heights. Hayes Road. A character-led shop with a laughing mascot and a real point of view about being approachable instead of edgy. The brief writes itself: warm color, bold type, the mascot front and center, every product surfaced fast for a phone audience that's deciding which corner to drive to.
Visit: mi-budz.com
— Redeye Fenton —
The upscale entry in the lineup. Fenton, Michigan, with a deliberate move away from the traditional smoke-shop aesthetic toward something more boutique — high-quality glass pieces, modern vapes, an environment that reads more art gallery than convenience store. The site had to do the same. Quieter type, more whitespace, less yelling. The kind of room where the design lets the product breathe.
Visit: redeyefenton.com
— Your Corner Store Smoke Shop —
The official RAW outlet in Fraser. A specialty positioning — the full line of RAW's rolling papers, hemp wick, trays, and apparel — that earns a specialty experience. The challenge here was treating the RAW partnership as a co-brand without losing the local-shop personality. Bold orange-and-natural cues, but the welcome at the door is still very much yours.
Visit: yourcornerstoresmokeshop.com
— What we took from all three —
Three very different brands. Three different shoppers. One shared lesson: Michigan smoke-shop customers respond to specificity. Generic premium-vape aesthetics get scrolled past. Mascots, location pride, RAW partnerships, a recognizable storefront photo on the homepage — the local details are exactly what makes the digital presence feel real.
We'll be writing more case studies as the work ships. If you run a shop, a restaurant, or anything where the storefront does most of the talking, that's exactly the brief we want.