Lion Rolling Circus: The Independent Argentine Brand That Revolutionized The Cannabis Accessories Market In LatAm - And Is Coming For The US Now

This article by Hernan Panessi was originally published on El Planteo, and appears here with permission.

"Circuses are always attractive", warns Federico Budasoff (Fede), head of Lion Rolling Circus, a brand dedicated to commercializing smoking articles.

As a child, Fede had a very strong fascination with circuses. Every Sunday, Fede and his grandfather would dress up and look forward to it: it was their special event. Today, in his own way, that memory is imprinted on his brand. And he made it grow, widening a referential universe, giving a new shape to the imagination.

According to the legend, after a backpacking trip through Europe, Asia and Africa, Fede returned to the country with the idea of selling paper to make cigarettes. "In Holland, I used king-size papers that didn't even exist here in Argentina."

It was 1993 and, while working as a delivery guy, he started sending faxes all over the world. He didn't expect anything, but someone, on the other side of the planet, was interested in his proposal. He heard back from Rizla, one of the leading companies in the industry. Right away, he sold his bass and, together with a friend, burned some savings and started bringing papers into the country.

"He even sold his motorcycle. The old ladies in the neighborhood thought I was selling drugs," he recalls.

The wonderful years

Later, during 1998, after a trip to the United States, he brought back with him a line of mind-blowing papers, wired, with flavors, it was an innovation. "One thing led to another and I began to turn myself into an entrepreneur."

After years of rowing in the market, Fede bought a new motorcycle and started doing product deliveries with it, and his team grew to incorporate more people. 

"Unconsciously I realized that I was involved in the making of cannabis culture. I didn't want to compete with the brands that were here, I wanted people to have a better smoke."

As consumption paradigms changed in the country (goodbye brick-w33d, hello flowers!), his public began to refine their palate and joined this conceptual improvement.

Thus, Fede, who started his brand under the name of “Fumanchú'' created Lion. He knew that it was possible to become one of the leading brands in the sector. But it was going to be neither quick nor easy.  

Whenever it rained, it stopped

"The first two fabrications were delivered without glue. It was impossible for me to change that," he says.

Until 2006, when, by a twist of fate, the first official batch of Lion Paper ended up in the hands of a Canadian. 

That Canadian took the shipment to New York and, there, exactly there, in a random store, one of the highest authorities of OCB saw the papers and said that no, it couldn't be that Lion Paper was copying them.

After being freely inspired by the very famous black OCB, Fede got sued in an international lawsuit.

After a mediation, OCB offered to lower the level of the conflict if, in exchange, Fede would destroy all the product he had already manufactured. The story goes that he didn't destroy it and that the entire shipment ended up in the Brazilian Amazon, but that doesn't matter so much now.

What does matter is that, in order to grow, the project needed to have a twist. 

"Let's put together something different," Fede thought. It was then that, together with his friend Martín Donato, who at that time worked at a Deli and was starting out in the world of advertising,  decided to take everything a step further.  

Lion Rolling Circus was officially born: keeping the original "Lion" and adding "Rolling", for the Stones, and "Circus", for his historical circus devotion.

"We're going to change everything," he said.

In 2008, he registered the trademark and forged ties with a factory in the Dominican Republic from which he bought the loose paper wipes. In the garage of his house, Fede assembled the packages. One by one. One by one. One by one.

"Something impossible to think of now," he slips in.

Life is a circus

By 2010, Lion Rolling Circus added to its imaginary a series of characters that would become part of the brand's permanent visual staff: some freaks, some circus characters that turned a brand of smokers' articles into a highly charged magnet. 

"This was a business move that, without being intended as a marketing strategy, worked out well for me."

Today, the Lion Rolling Circus universe has fans around the world.

It all started with the design of the characters and, over time, these "phenomena'' gained entity, complexity and history. Without knowing it, as it happened to Marvel or DC Comics, Fede created the lionrollingcircusverse, an universe of fictional characters that represent the brand. 

Soon, bobble head dolls (if you see them, you want them), merchandising, clothing, towels... everything based on the characters, arrived to consumers. 

"They became a crew, a kind of rock band", Fede adds. 

In 2013, the owner of Blunt Wrap came to the country in his private plane to meet with Fede and, from there, to establish a relationship based in the Dominican Republic. "That is where our product began to be industrialized, because he came up with the idea of setting up a paper factory there.”

With the growth in volume, the brand had to establish itself even more in the market. To do so, Fede realized that the best way to do it would be to visit cannabis conferences here, there and everywhere.

Independent and global

In 2015, Fede traveled to Denver, Colorado, together with his cousin (no, Fede didn't know a single word of English and she was the one who acted as translator) and, although he lost money, he knew he was finding the way: relationships, international profile, target audience.

"I sold my house to be able to pay for all these things," he says without blushing. 

There was a risk, yes, but the move worked out perfectly for him. 

Fede attended Expo Weed in Chile, Espannabis in Barcelona and many, many other events. 

"I realized that the product generated a lot of fanaticism. In fact, there are more than 100 people who have tattoos of the characters. It's incredible what the brand has generated," he says.

In the meantime, with a guerrilla spirit, the brand has been sneaking into the stands of all the conferences and, as a result, it has become part of the collective imagination. Lion Rolling Circus, Lion Rolling Circus, Lion Rolling Circus, Lion Rolling Circus, it is everywhere.

It exploded in Brazil, detonated in Mexico and is already entering the United States.

Among its upcoming projects, the brand is about to publish a book with the complete history of all the characters of the circus. "We made a first-class book-object."

In addition, they have just released an exclusive line together with the Argentinian artist Duki, consisting of papers, filters, trays and an exquisite figure.

-With almost 25 years of work in the field, how does this adventure continue?

- "We are in 35 countries around the world. Just think that we used to be kicked out of the Delis and today I am about to get my grower's license. Everything has changed a lot. We are entering the United States and the brand is becoming very popular. Everything that happens there has repercussions in many places. And then there is a kind of contagion effect."

-And what is your ultimate goal with Lion Rolling Circus?

- "I want to make it the sixth global brand behind OCB, Smoking, Rizla, Gizeh and Raw. I am striving for that goal. I want my brand, and my Argentine team, to enter that league. Being an independent brand, without investors or partners, we got into the cannabis world abroad. And the brand came out of here man!. I don't know where this is going to go because everything is so ridiculous sometimes. We are the first ones to put art on a paper brand. I became a fan of what I do. We are not after money, we are after the idea. And the idea brings money."

Photos courtesy of Fede Budasoff

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