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The retired boxer’s foray into the cannabis market in New York is a test of how far a celebrity can carry a brand.
On a recent weekend, fans of Mike Tyson, one of the greatest boxers ever, lined up by the hundreds at dispensaries in New York for a chance to meet him and to support his latest business move: selling weed in his home state.
With the recent release of his Tyson 2.0 line, Mr. Tyson, 57, has become the most visible newcomer of the celebrity wave in the state’s cannabis industry. Although actors, athletes and musicians have been cashing in on weed with product lines and endorsement deals over the last decade as legalization has swept the United States, the tide is just rising in New York. And Mr. Tyson is one of the biggest names yet to test how far fame can carry a brand in a market that is shaping up to be one of the largest and most competitive in the world.
At the Conbud dispensary on the Lower East Side, he greeted fans with handshakes and hugs as they bought from a selection of smokable flower packaged with names like Tiger Mintz and Knockout OG. He playfully barked as he posed with a dog named Dottie and her owner, and he complimented a woman who, against the advice of her sons, wore a “Chrithmith” shirt making light of his lisp.
Within a few hours, the pair of dispensaries that introduced his cannabis brand to New York had sold more than $40,000 of his flower and expanded their foothold in a market dominated by unlicensed competitors. And that was without the popular gummies shaped to look like Evander Holyfield’s ear, which Mr. Tyson infamously bit during a 1997 bout — one of only six fights that he lost.
“The cannabis is just doing incredible,” Mr. Tyson said in an interview. “You can’t even believe it.”
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