Where Has All the Innovation Gone?

Old Goat

Administrator
You know what really grinds my gears? The death of excitement in vape gear.

Back when I started vaping, every month felt like Christmas. New mods dropping left and right. Sleek regulated boxes, chunky mechs, RDAs that pushed flavor into the stratosphere, RTAs that made you feel like you’d cracked the code of the universe if you wicked them just right. Hell, even the coils were exciting — twisted wire, Claptons, aliens, fraliens… It was a tinkerer’s playground. Every week there was something new worth saving up for, and half the fun was trying to keep up.

Fast forward to today, and what do we get? Dispos. Pods. More dispos. Another pod. Maybe — if the vape gods take pity on us — a rehashed version of a 5-year-old tank with the airflow slightly tweaked. Oh, joy.

The industry has gone from innovation to regurgitation. Instead of bold new gear, we get devices that look like USB sticks and taste like “Blue Razz Ice” (because apparently nobody can invent a new flavor name either). And don’t get me wrong, dispos have their place — they get smokers off the stinkies, and that’s a good thing. But they’ve clogged the pipeline. Manufacturers pour all their resources into pumping out these landfill fillers instead of pushing the limits of what vape gear can be.

Meanwhile, real hobbyists are left to dust off their old mods and tanks, polishing them like relics of a golden age. Want a new RDA? Tough luck. Want a new mech? You’ll need to hunt through obscure Discord groups or secondhand sales. Want a new flagship regulated mod? Good luck — it’ll probably be shaped like a pod anyway.

And here’s the kicker: the community hasn’t died down. We still want gear. We still want options. We still want that sense of excitement. But the market’s too busy chasing disposables to notice. It’s like walking into a car show and finding nothing but e-scooters.

So yeah — this old goat’s grumbling. Not because I hate progress, but because I miss it. I miss the wild days when innovation drove vaping, not convenience and disposability. I don’t want another pod. I don’t want another mango ice disposable. I want a reason to get excited again.

Until then, I’ll keep squonking away on my battered old gear, waiting for someone out there to remember that vaping used to be about more than just nicotine delivery. It was about flavor, craft, and innovation.

Bring that back, and you’ll hear this goat bleating in joy instead of grumbling in the corner. 🐐
 
I hear you and to be honest i am kind of guilty of it as well. A pod is just cheapish to aquire and as long as they don't get rid of your pods easy enough to not need to change about. Want to change flavors stick a new pod on. I sort of wish there was a less hassle way to do it old school. Just not having to worry is my RTA going to leak or do i have to rewick and I don't have the time right now to do so. Worst is when time is limited and you need to change things up. It creates anxiety. I almost feel like some way to quickly change up liquids and setups would help. I know I can have extra atties on the side and it will speed up with time but time is something I always feel I need more of. I guess I need to make more of an effort as well. Nice post I miss the early days of vaping with new and fancy shiny mods and people showing off their new buys instead of all the disposables people lug around these days
 
I think I sorta missed that train. By the time I started vaping, all the good stuff was gone.
Thats why Im glad to see a shweet RDA in the raffle. That thing is mine.
 
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