Blakk Tatted Shares How He Tapped Into The Hookah Market To Build A Million-Dollar Empire

The hookah tobacco market reached $ 824.8 million USD in 2021 and is expected to reach more than $1.3 billion by 2025 per recent data.

A large part of its consumer base is made up of people of color, but most producer of hookah products are non-minority.

Cardell “Blakk Tatted” Bradley didn’t much care about being the one of the only people that looked like him when created Blakk Smoke, his tobacco and nicotine-free hookah alternative.

The idea for the brand came about when he was told by his cousin that hookah is almost worse than smoking cigarettes, something a young 19-year-old Bradley had no awareness of.

“My family friend passed away from smoking cigarettes,” he tells ESSENCE. “And my cousin made a point that smoking hookah was the equivalent of smoking a pack a day. I had to find a way around it.”

Instantly, he began to research tobacco alternatives, and landed on fruit-based shisha, the the molasses-based tobacco product heated in a hookah. In less than a decade, the Blakk Smoke is the first of its kind and a fan favorite that has positioned itself to protect smokers’ health while also providing a quality experience.

This commitment to the customer paid off tremendously, leading Bradley to shatter sales records by earning $2 million in 23 minutes during a Black Friday sale last year.

“But it wasn’t luck; it was the culmination of years of relentless work, unwavering faith, and the courage to dream big,” says Blakk Tatted. “Behind the Smoke” is my blueprint to success, an invitation to anyone who dares to dream, showing that with the right mindset and strategies, achieving the unthinkable is possible.”

He wrote about his entrepreneurial journey in his first book, “Behind the Smoke,” readers in which he offers a glimpse into story from an offshore worker in Lousiana to social media to becoming a burgeoning hookah tycoon. It’s slated to hit bookstores and online platforms this year.

Although jut 35, he says he has a story to tell.

“I know people that started out just like I did,” he tells ESSENCE. “We don’t have blueprints. A lot of us come from different situations. The only thing we know is struggle. The only thing we can see is struggle. The only thing we can identify is a struggle. But we also need hope to see that there’s light at the end of the struggle sometimes. We also need those reminders to show us that I can come out of this. I’m not always a product of my environment. And I’m like a living testament that you don’t have to be a product of your environment. I wasn’t supposed to make it, but I did. And you can too.”