From Matthias

Hi Phil,

I know how you like stories from previous smokers, here is mine:

I tried to quit smoking 3 to 4 times, including nicotine patches, be aware, they burn and taste bad, nothing helped, made me very cranky (like a ticking time bomb), you know the deal.

It started 2008, I just came back from a business trip from Chicago and had some money to spend. I walked to my favorite store for getting Zippos in the town I lived in at that time and noticed a sign outside about electronic cigarettes. I asked about it, he showed it to me and I bought it for a ridiculous price for a 901 device and some depots. I saw it as a last straw to quit smoking and as a test. What did I had to lose? Either it may work or not. Well, I drove home, read every bit I could find about it, which wasn’t that much, and put me under pressure by smoking the rest of my pack. At 6:30pm on 05/31/2008 I started vaping. I made it through the weekend and didn’t missed cigarettes. It had everything: nicotine, something to suck on, throat hit. Only the mouth feel was different, plastic instead of a soft filter. I went back to the store, bought some more depots and different flavors, I was happy. After a few days I noticed that I slept better, coughing got better and my apartment didn’t smelled better, not like a used ashtray.

I started to look around if there is more on the market and ran over the pen style devices, which was also expensive but overall cheaper than the 901, more varieties in flavors and so on. I ordered a set and what a difference it made, more flavor but also trickier to use. Keep in mind that you also had to be a bit masochistic back into the days. Product quality was mediocre, depots wasn’t filled correctly, no liquid flow, leading to burned tastes and so on. I even shopped around in china for cigar style devices.

In 2009/2010 the german market gained traction, online stored popped up, selling devices out of their kitchen or backyard (I visited a few) and new devices came to the market, like pipes, which I really liked but after two months the wood began to crack because of liquid seeping out of the atomizer, wetting the wood. Also the first liquids came to the market, including test kits which where reviewed in the forums.
I think 2011 or 2012 the first came to the market with a real switch. Man, what a difference this small beast pumped out in flavor and clouds. It was reliable, lasted log, easy to refill. The first reviewers popped up on YouTube, igetcha69, Grimm Green to name a few. A colleague told me about your channel and I was hooked, since you were different. I still remember your liquid test with very strange flavors like Crab juice.
Modififying the 510 depots was a big deal, including rolled teabags, steel mash, name it. Tanks entered the market with punched or slotted atomizers but longevity of only a few days. I liked them but they leaked like hell and gunked up pretty fast. I think the Ego changed the whole market. Easy to use, reliable, good flavor and good vapor production. The 510 connection became the de-facto standard which allowed modders and small production devices entered the market and the first DYI Atomizers where available in germany. I also bought them, are you kidding?

2013 and 2014 I bought my first real mods, tried the Genesis devices and bumped into you at vape bash 2014, we talked a few words, but there was no way to have a real conversation. I also showed my my mod called The Swabia (which was built in the Stuttgart area). I also visited Nick, who was either hung over or flat out tired 😉
(I worked in IT at that time and travelled to our branch near Chicago annually).
I watched nearly every review you and Nick pumped out and based my buying habit on them.
In that timeframe I also started buying juice in larger quantities, esp. from Flavor Art from Italy and switched over to mixing my own juice, since I had more freedom flavor-vise, and it was cheaper 😉 I also was still a MTL vapor, had a Kayfun 3.1 (loved it), the 4 (which I also really digged) but switched over to DTL and ditched making my own coils because I got fed up with making and fiddling my own coils. DTL gave me everything I wanted.

2016 I got on a 7000 mi road trip, starting in WA, down to CA, over to NV, UT (saw Brice Canyon), CO, KS, TN, GA, FL, TX, all by car. We did a installation of Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) in 10 shoe stores. I came to the US with 1l of my juice, the uwell crown and a Wismec Reuleaux 200. On that trip I bought a Aspire Cleito in Ridgecrest (main attraction: a 90 degree curve on the main street and a cinema 😉 ) and ordered the Hohmwrecker G2. I still use both daily. I also left IT after 20 years and joined our ESL team in Germany.
In 2017 I had the opportunity to move to the US helping to gain traction of the ESL market in the US. On 06/27/2017 I left Germany with two suitcases and my two cats.
The best decision I’ve ever made. I really like it here in NW Indiana. 🙂

In 2012 my mum was diagnosed with COPD, making her to quit smoking. She asked me if I could help her start vaping, send her some devices I had laying around, some juice and she made almost immediately. Half a year later her lungs got significantly better, after a year her lungs where back to 90%.
2013 she opened her small store in northern Germany and is specialized on converting smokers to vaping with easy to use and inexpensive MTL devices like the AIO.

Thank you for all the passion and time you put into your videos, your crankyness sometimes, your advocacy and your help converting smokers to vapers with everything you (and Dimitris) do.
I don’t blame you for having your own juice or devices, everyone needs to make some money and you worked hard for it.
Thank you for the last 10 years of this bumpy ride the first years.

I never smoked a cigarette since 05/31/2008 6:30pm.

Matthias