"STEVE URKEL" ACTOR JALEEL WHITE LAUNCHES PURPLE URKLE CANNABIS

Yes, he did that. Actor Jaleel White, famous for his cultural touchstone role as Steve Urkel in Family Matters, is entering the cannabis industry, reported Lindsey Bartlett for Forbes.

White’s new cannabis line called ItsPurpl features variants of the popular cannabis strain Purple Urkle. The partnership with 710 Labs is set to launch on April 20, 2021. The brand will be on dispensary shelves in California, to start, potentially growing to more marketplaces in the future.

“The thing that always stood out to me was there no clear brand leader for fire purple weed,” says Jaleel White. “It made no sense to me, that no company of significance had claimed this lane, so why not me?”

The celebrity collaboration was conceived through friendship when 710 Labs founder Brad Melshenker met White on a flight, and the duo connected over their passion for cannabis. “710 has never been a brand that pursued celebrity deals or endorsements as our agenda has always been quality above all else,” Melshenker says.

“We tend to let the product speak for itself. But over the years Jaleel and I became friends and organically our conversations developed into a project. He was on a journey to find the real Purple Urkel from back in the early 2000’s.

Not only that, he wanted to find the most flavorful purple cultivars and had been collecting seeds with his friend Sean over the years just for this purpose.”

The series of Purple Urkle strains will be sold as eighths, vape pens with 710 Labs’ proprietary live resin pods, as well as Noodle Doinks, a fat, hand-rolled joint that uses a fusilli noodle as the crutch.

“To smoke the end result from such a quality pod has been surreal,” says White. “I feel a little bit like Willy Wonka, the flavor came out so similar to grape candy.”

The ItsPurple branding shows an ombre-purple Steve Urkel character on sleek black packaging. A limited-edition series of merchandise that includes a waffle maker, will also be available.

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