If you take a longer term view of their history, the innovation that S&B brought to the market seems more obvious. Prior to the release of the Volcano in 1999 and for several years after, there were no comparable devices available for purchase. From my recollection, there was the Super VapeZilla and the original Vapor Brothers box among a few others back then that were okay, but nothing commercially available at the time was in anywhere near the same class as the Volcano in terms of performance until the first Supreme came along in 2007. Same goes for the Crafty and Mighty. They were launched in 2014 and there were no comparable battery powered devices that were available at the time of launch in the same performance category. I believe they were also among the first portable dry herb vapes to use high amperage 18650s, but they rarely get that distinction. There were also RBT devices around then, but those came a little later in 2016, and were mostly unregulated. The Pax 1 launched in 2011 and Pax 2 in 2015 for a little more perspective.
If you're going to bring up the 10 year warranty, then it's also fair to point out that the Venus Apollo and Helios were created by the same person who makes the TinyMight in 2015 and 2016 respectively, and users of those devices were left in the lurch by late 2019. It's been less than 8 years since the introduction of both and you can't get replacement glass for the Helios or halogen bulbs for the Apollo from the manufacturer. You're definitely SOL if you need a repair and from what I understand, inquiries about repairs for those devices go unanswered and it's been that way for years now.
For the record I owned a TM1, currently own and use a TM2 regularly, like them both very much and have no such qualms about warranty or track record personally. I also have a Volcano that's still functioning perfectly after 18 years so I'm admittedly biased due to the durability that I've personally observed over almost 2 decades of use. Equally impressive to me is the fact that I can also still get replacement parts for it nearly 20 years after I purchased it.
You could easily argue that there was very little innovation between the TinyMight 1 and 2. The TM2 has a lot more polish certainly, but I think you'd be hard pressed to convince someone that it's more innovative in any significant way compared to the 1. For that matter, the High Surface Area coil heater design and removable batteries were already in use for many years by the Lil' Bud, iHeat and Nomad by the time the first TinyMight came around, a custom circuit board with on-board logic using haptic feedback in a wood enclosure to regulate the device was already implemented by the Firewood line, and even the shape of the TM is identical to the Crafty, which by that point was a 5 year old design. If taking disparate parts or ideas that people have already implemented in their respective devices and putting them together in novel and different ways is considered innovative, then why would the Venty excluded from this definition? It clearly does things that no other vape on the market does, like a session vape that has a 20 second heat up to near maximum temperature along with battery life that's better than most devices outside of semi-portable units like the MiniVap. 8-12 sessions per charge and the ability to clear quantities nearing 0.25g in under 2 minutes including heat up time while using the device natively is pretty unique as far as the current vape landscape goes. Is there another session vape that does this, or something close? If not, shouldn't that leap in performance qualify as innovative by the same definition? Obviously no other manufacturers have the longevity of S&B, but at the same time, what other manufacturer has 5 (or 4 if you count the Mighty and Crafty as the same) distinct devices both portable and desktop that each provide a unique vaping experience? Arizer offers a number that rivals S&B, but I don't think they quite measure up in the performance or innovation department.. Neither do other companies with multiple offerings like Boundless, Weeke/Fenix or XVape, IMO.
I think some people are defensive due to the general tenor of the thread. There are lots of people regularly chiming in just to express their negative opinion on, or general disdain for S&B and nothing else, and more than a few others calling the Venty things like "
literal garbage" or making nonsensical claims like "
20 sec heat-up is most likely to the lowest temp" based on nothing even remotely resembling the truth. I think that has an effect on the overall mood of the thread, and people tend to get a little more sensitive to things as a result. It's boring, but it is what it is. You're never going to have an S&B discussion online without someone bringing up plastic, non-removable batteries or how shitty and corporate S&B is at some point.
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