Proper Doinks, the connoisseur-driven platform behind the Proper Smoke League and High Rollers bracket, is teaming up with High Times for a series of collaborations including future Cannabis Cup activations.
Proper Doinks did not become influential by being loud. It became influential by being precise.
What started as two neighbors in Northern California smoking together and arguing over whose weed actually smoked better has grown into one of the most demanding connoisseur platforms in cannabis. Not because it hands out trophies, but because it removes excuses.
Now, that culture of standards is finding a larger stage through High Times.
Proper Doinks will collaborate with High Times across a series of upcoming projects, including competitive formats and activations tied to future Cannabis Cup events.
This is not a rebrand. It is an alignment.
Smoke as performance, not opinion
Proper Doinks is built around a simple but unforgiving idea: if you want to judge weed, you first have to control how it is smoked.
Fine grind. Proper glass tip. Tight roll. Short pulls. Don’t ash.
That obsession started with a single session, the one that rewired Adam Pain’s definition of quality.
“For years, before I met Paul, I thought I was a connoisseur,” Pain recalls. “I genuinely thought I understood weed. Then we smoked side by side. What I thought was fire, next to what he had… it wasn’t even close. I couldn’t look at weed the same after that.”
Those details are not aesthetic choices. They are guardrails. Without them, even good weed can smoke badly. Harshness creeps in. Flavor disappears. The experience stops telling the truth.
That realization became the foundation of the Proper Smoke League. By standardizing the roll and the conditions, the platform forces the weed to stand on its own. Bad weed can no longer hide behind bag appeal or hype marketing. And good weed no longer gets overlooked just because it lacks it.
In that setting, the margin between winning and losing is often small, and very public. Brackets are streamed live. Results are archived. Reputations move in real time, sometimes with serious money on the line. That pressure has changed how both smokers and brands think about quality.
From show to system
What makes Proper Doinks different is that the media is only one part of the operation.
The same standards taught on camera power a broader ecosystem that includes glass tips, papers, grinders and other tools built specifically for consistency and performance. Drops sell out quickly when supply allows. Memberships fund independence. Private QC and pheno-hunt work translate palate into feedback for growers and breeders willing to be judged honestly.
Educated smokers ask better questions. Better questions reward better execution. Over time, that shifts what quality actually means in the market.
Why High Times fits
High Times has always been less interested in who shouts the loudest and more interested in who understands the plant. The collaboration with Proper Doinks builds on that tradition rather than softening it.
The work goes beyond distribution. More joint projects are already in motion, including competitive integrations designed specifically for future Cannabis Cup events. The goal is not to replace what the Cup represents, but to add process and performance to a legacy built on results.
Less talk. More side-by-side smoke.
Josh Kesselman, publisher of High Times, sees the connection clearly:
“The best part about Proper Doinks is that they are a community of incredibly selective rollers, definitely some of the most nuanced rollers in the world. So to have them join us at High Times is a privilege and an honor. They advance smoking culture by pushing us all to do better and roll better. I personally have been motivated to pay more attention to small details in my own joints because of them.”
Competition without shortcuts
Proper Doinks often gets compared to a professional league. Not because of branding, but because of how it operates. Losses are public. Wins are earned. Execution matters more than narrative.
That mentality carries into the Proper Smoke Network, a broader slate of shows built around performance, debate and education. Budtenders put their menus on the line. Rollers compete on technique. Expensive weed gets tested without mercy. Athletes talk about cannabis through the lens of performance and recovery.
Across formats, the rule stays the same. Tell the truth, even when it costs you.
What comes next
Proper Doinks is still growing, but it has never chased scale for its own sake. It competes on depth. On trust. On the belief that smoke quality is something you can learn to recognize if someone shows you how.
Working alongside High Times gives that approach a larger stage without diluting the standard. More competitions are coming. More collaborations are coming. And when Proper Doinks shows up at Cannabis Cup events, the expectation will be the same as it has always been.
If you claim quality, be ready to prove it.
