In researching fake vape cart brands and counterfeit knock-offs of real cart brands, we often find ourselves visiting some very weird corners of cannabis culture. But the Runtz story, without a doubt, is one of the most confusing rabbit holes we’ve ever dived into. We could fill a documentary just with a Runtz case study.

Let’s get right to the first point:

UPDATE December 2020: A legit Runtz brand now exists, registered by Cookies LLC. It is not to be confused with the long-standing fakes we post about here.

Runtz vape carts are from a 100% fake brand

There is no controlling or regulating company we can find. Not a dispensary. Not even one of those lifestyle brands selling Tshirts. The entire brand is conjured out of thin air. The packaging is for sale anywhere and everywhere:

Runtz packaging and empty carts

Runtz packaging

Runtz packaging

Runtz packaging

Runtz packaging

Notice that the Runtz cart packaging often crosses over with other fake or ripped-off brands. We’ve seen mutations of “Chronic” and “Gruntz,” but more than that, Runtz packages tend to pop up in the same page with other fake / rip-off brands we’ve covered before: Jungle Carts, Dank, and Cookies. Anything goes, it seems.

The “Gruntz” “brand” seems to be taking off as a spin-off now:

Gruntz, the fake brand sequel to Runtz

Gruntz, the fake brand sequel to Runtz

Gruntz, the fake brand sequel to Runtz

There’s also lots of flower bag packaging and even canisters with the Runtz brand:

Runtz mylar flower bag packaging

Runtz brand mylar flower bag packaging

Runtz cans

Runtz brand tins


What is White Runtz strain?

To this date, we have no confirmation of any strain called “white Runtz,” “pink Runtz,” or any other color or variety of Runtz. Runtz itself is alleged to be a strain, but even that seems to be poorly sourced. For “white Runtz,” there is literally one paragraph on WeedMaps and a couple reviews which are themselves ALSO showing this fake black market packaging. If you go to any source and they show you a picture of packaging like anything you see here, it’s bogus!

Is Runtz a real strain?

Since we posted this, a new brand of cartridge has launched called “Runtz,” by Cookies LTD. We have it on utterly sworn testimony that a strain called Runtz exists out there, but this may have come about after the fact. You have to take into account that “Runtz” for a while there in 2019 was the most hyped term on the Internet. It has now been claimed by an actual company in the spirit of commerce.


Brand Analysis: Runtz is just packaging

The official name “Runts” is a fruit candy brand owned by Nestlé. Note the ‘s’ in the spelling. The Willy Wonka brands of candy were also licensed by Nestlé, directly from British author Roald Dahl, of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fame. Here is an example product from the real life candy company:

Wonka candy bar packaging

In the Runtz packaging, you can see the elements of the Wonka design with the whimsical font and the hat made famous by the late Gene Wilder’s character. Indeed, the Wonka candy line also runs brands like Nerds. Are there Nerds carts too?

Nerds fake vape cart packaging

Nerds fake vape cart packaging

You bet your sweet bippy! In fact there’s a whole Wonka cart thing out there too:

Wonka oil fake vape cart packaging

Wonka fake vape cart

Still going with the same hat. Seriously, guys, what did Gene Wilder do to you?

Obviously, there is no way that a commercial company could get away with this without Nestlé suing them into next century.

The fake calling out the fake!

We found a page calling out a fake Runtz brand. They claim to speak for the “real” Runtz brand. It even says “we know the owner and creator of the Runtz brand.” They link to an Instagram page for “@runntz,” purported to be the authentic source of Runtz brand packaging. This is what we found:

@runntz Instagram page fake brand

Didn’t we just mention Cookies? And there’s “Chilly Wonka” now. Leave Gene Wilder alone!

At this point, this is one of the mother lodes of fake cannabis branding. It’s like one of those conspiracy theories that ties all the other conspiracy theories together.

But wait, there’s a YouTube link and an Instagram image that shows “Yung LB and the RVNTS GVNG.” It also has the “Joke’s Up” logo even though the nutter we mentioned earlier savaged “Joke’s Up” for being the fake and then linked to this page as the real McCoy. Where does the YouTube link go? Well…

Runtz is a rapper now?

It links to a channel called “Runtz Media” with a whole three videos up. Two of them are “official” music videos for Runtz-themed hip-hop songs and one guest vocal for something unrelated. One of the Runtz songs is titled “Runtz Yo Life Up.” While this flyer clearly proclaims that you can buy tickets “@RuntzLoudandUncut,” there is no such account at any social media platform anywhere, writing at this time only two weeks until the proposed event date on that flyer.

We’re getting suspicious of this whole hip-hop artist’s career. So we searched around and found a hashtag #RuntzYoLifeUp, like the song title, but going to an entirely separate social media account:

#RuntzYoLifeUp

We’re back to Danks again. The rabbit hole never ends, folks. At this point, it would take David Lynch to make sense of the narrative.

 

“Runtz” was originally alleged to be a cannabis strain

Runtz is the alleged name of a hybrid bred from “Gelato” and “Zkittlez.” Fake vape cart packaging tends to latch onto these names and slap them onto every cart and label, even if it makes no sense. There’s even just a #runtz hashtag on Twitter, popping up on the kinds of posts that spin the hashtags for every random fake vape cart brand.

So that tells us something about what’s going on. What is happening is a counterfeit “brand” comes out, then other counterfeiters copy that, and it just goes around.

There’s just one thing left we’d like to ask…

Does anybody actually own the copyright to the Runtz T shirts, at least?

Runtz brand T shirts

Because we found a Runtz.com, an Etsy store, and dozens more outlets for random Runtz-branded merchandise and none of them seem to be the definitive owners of the brand either.

UPDATE December 2020: A legit Runtz now exists!!!

Runtz is now a registered trademark brand – note the lack of Willy Wonka copyright infringement. Note also that not until November of 2020 was the status of the original patent application changed to “NON-FINAL OFFICE ACTION ISSUED,” which means it’s still not final and has until May of 2021 to file the next step. However, given that they’re launching actual products with the trademarked name from actual dispensaries now, that’s a good enough trademark for us. Note that the other Runtz products we cover here (all the carts) are still not legit, as they came from other sources.

The Runtz trademark owner is “Cookies Creative Consulting & Promotions, LLC,” the same outfit behind the Cookies dispensary, strain, and product line. This company has a record of being extremely casual (to put it as nicely as I possibly can) when it comes to tending to the bylaws of business, so it comes as no surprise that “clarification” is needed. Welcome to the mystery world of Runtz, USTPO!

Have you encountered fake Runtz products out there in the wild? What else is out there? Anybody from Gene Wilders’ estate or Nestlé care to weigh in?

We’d love to hear from you in the comments below or in our forum!

 

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Freelance author and researcher for twenty years, a career spanning two-thirds the age of the World Wide Web itself. Passionate about finding the truth and informing the public. Investigative research for the purpose of consumer awareness. Avid cannabis enthusiast and geek of many talents and interests.

31 COMMENTS

  1. First I want to say that My opinion is formed completely without bias..You didnt prove anything…my interpretation of this article is that your a hater. They did something to you and your trying to get revenge by slandering the name. All you did was make allegations where’s the proof. All the pictures of packaging waste of space. You had to put alot of effort to write up your slander campaign. Try putting that energy into something positive. You sow hate, slander, discord. Those things you shall also reap.

  2. Dude your dumb asf runtz was started back in 2016-2017 when young lb started the brand jokes up but everything was black market runtz is a cross bred between gelato and zkittles

  3. My runtz box says 1gram and powered by cookies. Cart inside box is 5gm. Box is purple and cart in plastic tube. Seller says it is not fake???

    • As always, if you got it from a dispensary, it’s usually real. We do have an update in this post which mentions that Cookies LLC started a brand also called “Runtz” – which still doesn’t have anything to do with the Runtz we talk about here.

  4. Pink Runtz carts are real … very thick consistency color is clearish with a tiny hint of gold. Can only get it in California.
    Mine came from northern Cali… not naming the shop your gonna have to do your homework on that… kinda has me wondering if your legit then why have you not been able to gather any legit information about this strain

  5. Runtz is NOT strain, it is a real brand with several strains under the Cookies umbrella, that’s why they have their own packaging. Also, you can only get real Runtz at a dispensary, White, Pink, or Devine is what I’ve seen so far.

  6. Only in recent years has CBD or Marijuana strains OR may be Canned weed made its way into mainstream vernacular and consequently, cannabidiol has never fully been told on-screen. Buzzword status was reached roughly in 2018—the same the year (August 8) was recognized by the registrar at National Day Calendar. Its a privilege to be a vendor of 65 varieties of strains and good quality carts, CBD, THC products. Call/Dial Plus One Four Four Three Sis Eight Four Seven Nine Six One. We could shares ideas

  7. The cookies brand is owned by Gilbert Anthony Milam Jr more known by his rapper name Berner, he plays a part in runtz too, all the brands you listed are some of the highest quality products On the market at a top shelf price point, so scammers fake packaging and sell fake products at a higher than usual price in illegal states.

  8. Runtz is a cross of gelato 33 x Zkittlez .. and many of the other strains and brands in this article are real. Like the lemonade x runtz. Lemonade is a real brand. Just like any strain I’m sure there are different phenotypes of the runtz strain having different smells and appearance etc. So that’s where white, pink, Hawaiian and the others come from. You’re fired!!!! Lol

  9. it literally takes 5 minutes to look up the strain Runtz. Yung LB a member of the cookie fam made the strain. cookies dispensaries sell white and pink runtz carts. you my friend wasted your time on this article.

  10. I had a Runtz cart and 25% through smoking it (and I’m not even kidding) the oil turned blacker than tar and tasted like perfume. I would deadass get (what me n my friends called it after we smoked it) the “Cart Shits” and it was basically diarrhea. Did it stop us from smoking it more the next few days? No. But looking back should I? No. Don’t be stupid and smoke these carts.

      • Runtz is a strain of cannabis that is Zkittles x Gelato. White and Pink Runtz are different phenotypes of the original strain. This strain is very real and sold widely across CA by various licensed and legitimate companies. “The Runtz Crew” were the original cultivators of the strain. There is Runtz cartridges, however.

  11. I found empty boxes of Runtz carts in my son’s room. Does anyone know if these are dangerous? I know some have a fungicide that turns into cyanide when burned, or the vitamin E used to cut it can be harmful. I don’t want him to die from this crap.

  12. I got a legit jokes up white runtz cart it is a small square box hologram type of box – Packaging has one gram cart in it with oil legit 91% THC content even has government warnings as well as the California cannabis logo on the back and as well as a paragraph stating that this product has been lab-tested and is guaranteed to provide quality results and taste and user enjoyment

  13. I was convinced into buying a gushers cart from a delivery up here in California, opened up the packaging that only said gushers and the cart itself just says runtz. Hate that even in Cali we got scammers. It’s a trip.

  14. Runtz is a strain not a brand created By Yung Lb & Ray bama. Which is now part of Cookies. You can only get it from certain dispensaries

  15. Will these cause harm, what is in these fake carts. Someone brought one to me and i want to know if i should trash it.

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