With each new year comes new trend predictions. What’s in? What’s out? Who has the authority to say either way? Anyone? Everyone?
How we dress, where we go, what we search for and what we buy in 2025 says it all. And while most trends are living on borrowed time of days or weeks — maybe months if they’re lucky — a select few exist without expiration dates, transitioning from trendy to timeless.
Despite a convoluted regulatory landscape and existing within a perceived vice market, the vaping industry has proven to have staying power. In fact, it’s expected to continue growing by roughly 5.7% annually. With that expansion comes opportunities (and predictions) for innovation and evolution in three focus areas: technological advancements, wellness and pharmaceutical research and development, and environmental sustainability.
A Nanotech Revolution
Prediction: Increased innovation investments will put companies leveraging nanotechnology and advanced materials at the forefront. New technologies using mechanics and materials that are naturally sourced, as opposed to formulated, will achieve better energy efficiency, faster heating times and greater purity in vapor output — creating a higher market standard for performance.
In addition, these nanotechnologies offer the potential to eradicate heavy metal emissions and ceramic particulate risks, creating a cleaner vaping experience. An experience I expect will soon expand beyond recreational cannabis and nicotine inhalables to include wellness and pharmaceutical products.
Health and Wellness Inhalables
Prediction: Wellness and pharmaceutical inhalables (e.g., supplements, vitamins and therapeutic drugs) will be more readily integrated into consumers’ lives.
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Consumers are increasingly investing in wellness products and services. The global health and wellness market was valued at over $6.8 trillion in 2024, with projections to reach almost $9 trillion by 2028. Data-driven, science-backed wellness products and solutions have also seen significant growth as consumers continue to prioritize products that deliver functional benefits like stress relief and sleep enhancement.
While consumers want more of these types of wellness formulations, they also want better. In the vaping industry, this may mean compositions that lessen or remove propylene glycol/vegetable glycerin and sweeteners without sacrificing flavor or taste. This puts pressure on industry manufacturers to deliver compositions that balance consumer expectations with business investment.
Every iteration is a step in the right direction, increasing the industry’s understanding of how vaping technology can be applied to ingredients and actives used in other verticals such as healthcare. Knowing which liquid compositions are most compatible with heating technologies will help determine the illnesses that could be treated through the use of inhalable devices. Potential benefits of inhalable medication include faster onset and the ability to track medication adherence.
Bans That Benefit the Environment
Prediction: Disposable vape bans will shift manufacturing and technological development into pod-based markets with a focus on cleaner production and longer-lasting devices that reduce the amount of waste and overall environmental impact.
Research shows that more than two in three consumers rank sustainability as an important purchase criteria. Yet, in the vaping industry, the convenience factor is causing an upward trend in disposable vape use. To increase demand for eco-friendly inhalation devices with recyclable or biodegradable components, some countries are enacting disposable vape bans, and it’s predicted that more major markets in Europe, the U.S. and Canada will follow.
We’re looking at another year of growth for the vaping industry. And while no one knows if these predictions will be right, I do know they serve as great inspiration for innovation that will transform products, technologies and perceptions.
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