If you vape, there’s a good chance that you prefer the Lost Mary brand because Lost Mary has been the most popular company in this quickly evolving industry for more than a year now. Lost Mary’s popularity has to do with a confluence of factors including great designs, an excellent and rapidly expanding flavor selection and the burgeoning popularity of disposable vapes in general.
What you might not know, though, is where Lost Mary vapes actually come from. The short answer is that Lost Mary vapes – like virtually all other vape hardware products – are made in China.
The long answer, though, is quite a bit more interesting than that. In this article, we’re going to explore where your vapes come from and talk about what’s involved in getting those products from the factories to your hands.
Who Makes Lost Mary Vapes?
The company behind Lost Mary vapes is called Shenzhen iMiracle, and the parent company of Shenzhen iMiracle is called Heaven Gifts – which is an interesting story in itself. Long-time vapers will recognize Heaven Gifts as a Chinese e-commerce company that sold vapes around the world at low prices and was one of the biggest online vape shops during the industry’s early years.
According to an Associated Press report, Zhang Shengwei – the founder of Heaven Gifts – invested the company’s profits into a variety of companies throughout the vaping industry’s supply chain. Eventually, Heaven Gifts had ownership stakes in e-liquid makers, battery cell manufacturers and more. The Shenzhen iMiracle company was formed as an umbrella company for all of these manufacturing operations, and Elf Bar was the first brand resulting from this venture.
Elf Bar became so popular that Heaven Gifts was eventually shuttered as a retailer in 2023. Over the past year or so, though, Shenzhen iMiracle has introduced a number of new brands and has also gone through some name changes.
- In the United States, the Elf Bar brand was changed to EBDesign due to a lawsuit involving a trademark on the word “Elf” in relation to vaping products. The EBDesign name was then changed to EBCreate for unknown reasons.
- As mentioned above, Shenzhen iMiracle also makes the Lost Mary brand. At the time of writing, this brand hasn’t gone through any name changes yet.
- The third brand from Shenzhen iMiracle is Funky Lands, which was formerly known as Funky Republic.
Where Do Lost Mary Vapes Come From?
As you probably guessed from the name of the company, Shenzhen iMiracle is based in Shenzhen, China. Almost all of the world’s vaping hardware is made in Shenzhen, as are most other consumer electronics. In all, it’s said that Shenzhen has tens of thousands of factories.
From their extensive experience in the wholesale and retail sectors of China’s vaping industry, it’s clear that the people behind Heaven Gifts had intimate knowledge of how to design, manufacture and distribute vaping products. The company’s investments in the manufacturing sector allowed Shenzhen iMiracle to control every aspect of its supply chain. Even the company’s delicious Lost Mary flavors appear to be manufactured in house, which helps to explain why those flavors are often imitated but never duplicated.
What Happens to Lost Mary Vapes After They’re Made?
During the company’s nearly two decades as a wholesaler and retailer of electronics, Heaven Gifts acquired a great deal of valuable experience as a supply chain partner for many manufacturers throughout Shenzhen. When Heaven Gifts expanded into the vaping industry, the company became the primary distribution partner for many makers of vaping products. So, when Shenzhen iMiracle began producing its own products, establishing worldwide distribution was a relatively trivial matter. That’s how Elf Bar and Lost Mary vapes became so popular so quickly; almost immediately after the brands were launched, they were available everywhere.
After Lost Mary vapes are made, they’re shipped in large pallets to distributors around the world. The distributors ship those products to retailers, who then sell them to consumers.
Look Out for Fakes when Purchasing Lost Mary Vapes
If you’re a consumer, the most important aspect of buying Lost Mary vapes is looking out for fakes. One of the unfortunate realities of Shenzhen is that it isn’t just the source of most of the world’s consumer electronics – it’s also where most of the clones and knockoffs of those products come from.
For an unscrupulous company that wants to manufacture fake vapes or other products, getting started is easy because the company is essentially next door to the factories that make the batteries, cases, circuit boards and other components for the real products.
Unless you’ve done some reading about fake vapes, you have no idea how big the problem is. According to a press release submitted by Shenzhen iMiracle, over 2 million counterfeit Elf Bars were seized by authorities in China in 2021-2022. The problem has probably gotten worse since then, and it’s exacerbated by the company’s constant name changes.
Here are a few tips that can help you avoid buying fake Lost Mary vapes and other Shenzhen iMiracle products.
- In the United States, the Elf Bar brand was discontinued in 2023 due to the trademark lawsuit mentioned above. By now, all vape shops in the United States should have long cleared out any remaining stocks of authentic Elf Bars. If you find a device labeled “Elf Bar” in the US, there’s a very good chance that it’s fake. EBCreate is the current name of what used to be Elf Bar. In between the two names, the company used the EBDesign name. As of 2024, it’s possible that not all authentic EBDesign devices have been sold yet.
- Further adding to the confusion, the Elf Bar name change only occurred in the United States. Authentic Elf Bar vapes continue to be sold in other regions.
- Real Lost Mary vapes are only sold under the Lost Mary name. Devices with similar names such as Bloody Mary, Found Mary and Love Mary are all clones.
- For the brand currently known as Funky Lands, the name change from Funky Republic happened in 2024, which is still quite recent as of this article’s publication. You may still find some authentic devices sold under the original Funky Republic brand name.
To avoid fake vapes when buying Lost Mary or other Shenzhen iMiracle devices, the most important thing to remember is that you should always buy from a reliable vape shop and not from other types of retailers such as convenience stores and gas stations.
Shenzhen iMiracle does not sell directly to the public; they only sell to distributors and vape shops. If you find an e-commerce website using the Elf Bar, EBDesign, EBCreate, Lost Mary, Funky Republic or Funky Lands brand, that site is using one of Shenzhen iMiracle’s trademarks without permission. That in itself doesn’t necessarily mean the website is selling take products, but it does mean that you should be very wary.
