CBD brand Mary's Nutritionals is teaming up with lifestyle and bohemian apparel retailer Free People to sell infused skin care products in stores and online.
Lynn Honderd, co-founder and CEO of Mary's Nutritionals and its parent company Mary's Medicinals, told Cheddar the partnership gives her brand a chance to stand out in an increasingly crowded CBD market.
Free People "is very in tune with their buyer and helping them make educated choices and decisions about what they wear and what they do and who they are and how they give back to their community ー and Mary's is very similar," she said.
"The alignment of the two organizations together is what's really exciting and will help us set apart all of the influx of 'CBDs' in the world all coming out," Honderd added.
Mary's Nutritionals, a female-founded and run Colorado-based brand, will supply an assortment of products including transdermal gel pens and patches, a muscle freeze (like Biofreeze), bath bombs, and a moisturizing spray. The products are already available on Free People's website and will be available beginning Friday in two Free People stores ー one in Palm Springs, California, and one in Burlington, Vermont.
Honderd said the company is in talks with other brands under the Urban Outfitters ($URBN) umbrella, including Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie, but that nothing has been finalized.
Mary's Nutritionals isn't Free People's first foray into CBD ー the bohemian lifestyle brand has already been selling products from brands like Cannuka and Bouquet. Honderd noted the embrace of CBD products by major retailers like Urban, Neiman Marcus ($NMG.A), and DSW is a sign of the changing times.
"The floodgates are opening up," Honderd said. "Partnerships like this allow us to go out and say we represent quality CBD in the marketplace, we know there are a ton of choices out there, but this is why you should look at our product."
Honderd originally founded Mary's Medicinals, a cannabis wellness company, in 2013. The company branched into CBD in 2015, offering the same suite of products, but infused with hemp-derived CBD, rather than cannabis.
"We recognized there was a need for our patients outside of the Colorado market to be able to get access to our products," Honderd said.
The company has since expanded its suite of products, and the locations they are offered. Mary's Medicinals branded products are now available in 11 states, whereas Mary's Nutritionals branded products are available nationwide and in select other countries, as well.
Mary's products are mostly topical and transdermal, but the company does offer capsules, too. The Food and Drug Administration has prohibited the sale of some edible forms of CBD, despite that the Farm Bill legalized hemp and its compounds, and some cities, like New York, have taken that as a green light to start cracking down.
"In general I'm not concerned about rules and regulations about things we consume, because I think whenever there's a rules we all adhere to, a better product gets out into the marketplace," Honderd said, adding that she hopes it won't take too long for regulations to come down for CBD.
The FDA was scheduled to holding public hearings on CBD regulation at some point in April. Following Commissioner Scott Gottlieb's resignation announcement in March, the timing of those hearings is now up in the air.
