During Kelley Ireland-Kelly’s six years working at Ralph Lauren, first as content director and later as senior direct for wholesale e-commerce, she had two daughters. Faced with the pressures of a demanding job and being a new mom, Ireland-Kelly was often overwhelmed and exhausted.
“Parenthood really threw me for a loop. I wasn’t fully prepared for how much stress and the lack of sleep I was going to encounter,” she says. “I realized it was unmanageable, and I began dreaming up a product designed for women that had some THC and some CBD that they could take at night as an alternative to drinking wine or taking sleeping pills.”
Ireland-Kelly passed her product idea by her neighbor Jason Provost, co-founder of cannabis consumer products company CordovaCann and cannabis concentrate producer Neos Vape. If she tabled the THC aspect, which hasn’t been embraced yet en masse commercially in the United States, Provost thought her idea had legs. In fact, he had a similar concept centered upon CBD brewing and invited her to come on board.
In October last year, Ireland-Kelly left her position at Ralph Lauren to spearhead branding and marketing as part of the management team at Hath that includes president Ellen McCarthy, formerly regulatory affairs strategy and implementation manager at Morgan Stanley, and CFO Jonathan Goodman as well as CEO Provost. Hath is for the parents, professionals, serious athletes or casual exercisers, veterans, frequent travelers and more (really, most people) who find themselves in need of regular relief from internal and external strain.
“Hath is a company that sells easy-to-understand CBD products for everyday use,” explains Ireland-Kelly. “We believe that CBD is something that can benefit everyone and that can be taken every single day to help people feel better.”
“Hath is a company that sells easy-to-understand CBD products for everyday use. We believe that CBD is something that can benefit everyone and that can be taken every single day to help people feel better.”
To facilitate daily use, Hath is kicking off with three CBD products: the 24-Hour Patch, and supplements Better Days and Better Nights. The patch delivers 35 milligrams of hemp extract transdermally. Better Nights combines 25 milligrams of hemp extract with three milligrams of melatonin. Better Days contains 25 milligrams of hemp extract, 500 milligrams of turmeric and 10 milligrams of black pepper. The supplements are priced at $76 for 30 capsules, and the patches are $18 each.
“We feel that what method people want to take CBD in is really personal for them,” says Ireland-Kelly. “Some people don’t want to take a capsule. Some people want to take a capsule. We want to make sure we have something for everyone to mix and match or take individually.”
Hath purposely didn’t start with a tincture because they’re ubiquitous, and Ireland-Kelly didn’t enjoy her tincture experience when she dipped into experimenting with CBD. “I didn’t love taking a mouthful of oil and putting it under my tongue. It didn’t feel good or sit well, but I knew that was what was available at the time,” she says. Speaking about Hath’s decision not to launch with a tincture, Ireland-Kelly continues, “While they may be effective, there has to be an easier, better and evolved way to get this into your system. We really wanted to be progressive in the space and offer a variety of ways for people to get CBD.” The brand plans one to two additional releases this year that she describes as “not already out there.”
Hath puts hemp-derived CBD from American cultivators in its formulas. There are concerns about CBD from China having heavy metals, cheap carrier oils and high THC concentrations. China commands over a third of the global hemp trade. To further clue customers in on the CBD in its products, a QR code on Hath’s packaging can be scanned to access testing results from a third-party lab. The brand has also assembled a medical advisory group with orthopedic surgeon Joshua Dines, sports medicine specialist Kyle Worell and chiropractor Chris DiMeo to counsel it on dosage and effective CBD applications.
“From a brand and packaging perspective, we wanted to look different. We want to be bold and modern, and not look like brown tincture bottles with pot leaves.”
Straightforward product names and design are integral to Hath’s branding and messaging. It seeks to tell people forthrightly what its products are intended to do. The unmissable design features red, orange, purple and white. Cannabis plant graphics are intentionally avoided to elevate Hath’s sophistication, and relevance to retailers and a broad base of consumers.
“From a brand and packaging perspective, we wanted to look different. We want to be bold and modern, and not look like brown tincture bottles with pot leaves. We want it to look like something you would see on shelf and be very approachable,” says Ireland-Kelly. “We want to be clear and use common language to talk about CBD because it can be incredibly complicated.”
Hath has dabbled in retail at CBD destination The Pharm Stand in Armonk, N.Y., to gain an understanding of the customer reception to its patches, and Ireland-Kelly reports it’s been “great” so far. The brand is primarily focusing on direct-to-consumer operations early on. However, it’s exploring distribution opportunities at wellness and clean beauty retailers, fitness outposts, grocers and doctors’ offices. Hath declined to disclose a sales projection for its initial year on the market.
The brand’s target customers are women aged 30- to 60-years-old. “Women are leading in the space in terms of being more curious, taking more risk and finding out more about clean products or alternatives to traditional medicine,” says Ireland-Kelly. “I also think that women are proactive in social spaces giving peer-to-peer reviews and recommendations. CBD requires a conversation.”
“We want to be clear and use common language to talk about CBD because it can be incredibly complicated.”
With social media platforms prohibiting advertising from CBD companies, Hath is out to insert itself into conversations at the grassroots level. Ireland-Kelly mentions it will host dinners and pop-ups. The objective is to stoke discussions around wellness and preventative care for the ailments plaguing large portions of society.
“We don’t want to be the most elite product out there,” says Ireland-Kelly. “Our goal is to earn the trust of customers, expand distribution, gain awareness and, ultimately, to be understood to sit next to Tylenol in your medicine cabinet as something to incorporate every day to maintain a healthy lifestyle.”
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