DIRECTIONS

About Us

The moment you stumble upon Urge it should be delightfully obvious that we are not your average Smoke Shop. Our obsession with perfectly organized stock, simple and elegant design and fixtures, captivating culture, award winning customer service, and our remarkable selection of price match guaranteed inventory are a few of the many things that set us apart from the competition.

The URGE brand began in 2012 in Elizabeth, NJ, by founder Juan Umana.  The journey began in a small 10 by 10ft retail space on Elizabeth Avenue. This small store offered a variety of products, from cell phone accessories to a small selection of hookahs and hand pipes. As interest in the smoking related products began to grow, Urge transformed itself from a variety store to Elizabeth’s very first Smoke Shop.

Just a couple of years later, with the support of our loyal customers, Urge Smoke Shop expanded to a larger location just down the street, redefining the brand and culture behind it.  The seed was planted, and Urge was ready for growth.

In 2015 Urge took its growth to a new level with a plan to expand to another location. On April 20, 2015 Urge Smoke Shop’s second location opened in Union City, NJ. Just as the Elizabeth location grew to be the go-to Smoke and Vape shop for all of Union County the Union City location would quickly prove to hold its own.  After fine tuning our selection of vapes, E-liquids, Hookahs, Glass, and Cigars to better fit the local demographic it wasn’t long before we became the go to shop for Hudson County.

After the success of Urge in Elizabeth and Union City, Urge was ready to continue its growth. In 2017, Urge opened its third location in Hoboken, New Jersey, and by 2019 expanded to locations in the New Jersey towns of Caldwell, Rahway, and Perth Amboy. 

With six locations and a continuously growing team, Urge was excited to continue its expansion into the next decade. Unfortunately, 2020 had other plans for our growth. With the Covid shutdowns, Urge was forced to downsize and restructure its operations to ensure its survival during an extremely uncertain time. Urge closed many of its stores, with just the Elizabeth and Rahway location remaining by the end of 2021. Despite this major setback, Urge was determined to survive. 

When Urge first began in 2012, the idea of cannabis legalization was still a distant dream. However, when decriminalization was finally announced in 2021 and the path to become licensed in the cannabis industry was unveiled, the Urge team immediately recognized this opportunity.  After a couple of years of planning and building, Urge Dispensary opened in 2024.