There are better-known brands. There are companies that build their own factories and grow their own tobacco. There are cigar makers who are treated like rockstars. But nobody, I mean nobody in the cigar business, is having more fun than Jeremy McDonald, brand owner of Wildfire Cigars.
Which is not to say that McDonald and his Wildfire Cigars shouldn’t be taken seriously. His more than two decades in the industry, from retail sales to sales rep for CLE to Caldwell Cigars national sales manager, earned McDonald his stripes as a legitimate and knowledgeable creator of premium cigars. But, man, is he having a good time doing it! Here’s how he explains it:
“Yes, it’s lighthearted and laid back, and I want to have fun. There’s all this tongue-in-cheek marketing; I’m wearing shorts that are way too short for me (laughs). That’s all to get their attention. But when I’m sitting at the blending table, the bar is very high for me.”
After eight years with Caldwell and after fielding numerous other offers to serve as national sales manager, McDonald realized he wanted to go to the next level—either start his own company or get out of the business. He recalls, “I always wanted to get on the creative end of it and build something that’s my own. He (Robert Caldwell) was supportive of it. We had an agreement I could start building behind the scenes, and once my cigars went into production, that’s when I would need to resign.”
It was the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and while “stuck at home,” as he tells it, McDonald started building the foundation of his soon-to-be-launched cigar company. Job one was to decide on which factory would make his cigars. He says: “Joya de Nicaragua was at the top of my list for a few reasons. It was the first factory I visited as a retailer, so there’s always some romance attached to that as a cigar lover. And that they’re the oldest premium cigar factory in Nicaragua, just the history alone with that factory. Plus, they don’t do a lot of other brands. I thought if I’m with some of these other factories, I’m going to be at the bottom of the totem pole.”
Currently, three of Wildfire’s lines—The Revivalist, Artaois (“are tay oh iss”), and The B-side—are produced by JDN. Two other series, The Wanderer and the limited edition The Hook, are made in Honduras by FCT, a factory owned by Cavalier Geneva Cigars. McDonald adds, “I actually want to work with a lot of factories. FCT is a smaller factory in Danli, Honduras. They use tobacco primarily from Plasencia.”
The image of fire figures prominently in the Wildfire iconography. Obviously, the brand name is evocative of the great outdoors but also of the wildfire-like spread of ideas and relationships. There’s the concept that a single spark can result in a wildfire, that an idea can develop into a working concept, and that relationships can grow out of an initial shared interest. One of Wildfire’s cigar lines, The Revivalist, portrays a wandering storyteller (with a strong resemblance to McDonald himself), embodied by a solitary cowboy sitting around a campfire. And tellingly, each cigar band bears the phrase “Leaves Burn, Stories Live.”
While The Wanderer and The Revivalist lines represent the outdoor experience, McDonald’s three other lines reference his lifetime involvement with music. With enthusiasm, he states,
“I was, have been, and still am in a band. It’s never paid the bills, but it’s connected directly to who I am.” For McDonald’s, writing and playing music are creative outlets, as are creating and blending cigars. “I use music imagery for my cigars because they work so well together.”
Of all the themes running through Wildfire’s imagery and his approach to doing business, the most pervasive one is the concept of community brought about by sharing cigars with others. The five (so far) lines of cigars from Wildfire all represent the central ethos of McDonald’s philosophy behind the creation of the brand: sharing experiences. “For me,” he states, “cigars are that experience of camaraderie. It’s the experience and the memories we make. Cigars are the platform for those experiences.”
That’s not just a catchphrase for McDonald. He brings that experience to life by hitting the road with his travel trailer, hosting impromptu herfs at campsites or even in retailers’ parking lots, when allowable. In this way he can interact directly with consumers, in a more personal way than during in-store events. He says: “This is the part that makes it worth it, taking my trailer on the road, going cross country and having meet-ups at campsites. People herf, so why can’t I do one across America? The reason I took the trailer on the road was to have experiences with people. There’s so much value in it.”
Until this year’s PCA trade show McDonald has been a one-man-show, performing all of the functions, from creating the brand and the lines to marketing and sales. Only since the show has he begun to work with brokers. He acknowledges that his years with Caldwell gave him the exposure he needed to launch his own brand, saying, “The relationships I was able to build got Wildfire in the door.” But when he visits stores, he’s not just trying to get them to put in his cigars. “I’m selling cigars but I’m really selling myself. I’m trying to connect with people from all walks of life.”
In the end, Jeremy McDonald is gradually building a durable cigar brand, creating excellent cigars, and perhaps most importantly, cementing connections with retailers and consumers alike. He sums it this way: “I’m pretty lucky that I get to make something that I love, but really it’s about the experiences with people.”
To view the full line of Wildfire Cigars visit wildfirecigars.com.
– Photography courtesy of Wildfire Cigars. Story by Larry Wagner.
This story first appeared in PCA The Magazine, Volume 3, 2024. To receive a copy of this magazine you must be a current member of PCA. Join or renew today at premiumcigars.org/membership.