Kicking stereotypes

Daniel Boyington of Tokie Tees organized a charity kickball tournament over Memorial Day weekend to help change the stereotype of lazy potheads.

click to enlarge Kicking stereotypes
Alexa Ace
Daniel Boyington of Tokie Tees organized the kickball tournament.

The lazy stoner stereotype is getting kicked to the curb — or the outfield — when the upcoming Oklahoma Cannabis Kickball Tokie Tees tournament takes to the diamonds over Memorial Day weekend.

Daniel Boyington is organizing the tournament. He also founded Tokie Tees, which will be printing T-shirts for the teams.

“Our brand is about trying to change the stereotype,” Boyington said, “trying to change the stigma that cannabis users are lazy, non-active, don’t contribute to society. That’s the reason we just did the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon and put together the Canna5 team, which we did a relay, did the whole 26.2 miles, to make sure that in a big, active event like that, that the cannabis industry is represented as well to show that we care about events outside of just the cannabis industry. Our shirts were bright neon yellow with a huge marijuana leaf on it. So one time, I was running past this older group of ladies and they were like, ‘Oh, look. He smokes weed and can run,’ and so I reached in my pocket, grabbed that vape and I was like, ‘Yeah. At the same time.’ After that, some people started reaching out to me and told me that they wanted to make sure that there was more people in the cannabis industry running next year that they were going to train and stuff. So I figured, well, let’s do another active event. So I used to play adult kickball league, so I figured, ‘Why not do a cannabis kickball and then use it to raise money for a cause outside of cannabis?’ Everybody’s always raising money for patient drives and stuff in the industry, and I wanted to make sure that people outside the industry know that we care about our community outside the cannabis community as well.”

The opening rounds of a double-elimination tournament are on Saturday, and then Sunday will be the semi-finals and finals. The tournament is at Davis Ballpark, 12101 S. May Ave. Cannabis consumption will not be allowed on the field, Boyington said.

The tournament begins at 10 a.m. Saturday and will last until the final game ends, depending on the number of teams and how many people show up. Boyington expects Saturday to wrap up by 7 p.m.

“It’ll be an all-day event so people can tailgate or whatever out there and picnic,” he said. “And it’s Memorial [Day] weekend, so Saturday will be all day, but Sunday, we’ll probably get done early enough to where people who still want to go float the river or go to the lake that weekend, they still have half a day Sunday and all Monday since it’s a three-day weekend.”

Registration is $10 per person or $120 for a 12-person team and ends Friday.

"Our brand is about trying to change the stereotype, trying to change the stigma that cannabis users are lazy, non-active, don’t contribute to society."—Daniel Boyington

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“Ten players take the field, but we recommend at least 12 in case a couple back out or someone gets sick or hurt or whatever,” Boyington said. “I used to play in Tulsa, and to determine home field, one person from each team would meet at home plate and chug a beer. Whoever chugged the beer first, that team would be home field. So what we’re going to do is the [Urban Danktuary] is going to come and we’ll have bong races, so one person from each team will meet on the dank bus and the first person to clear the bong is home field.”

A trophy will be given to the winners, who will also receive a free infused dinner by chef Tony Freitas.

There will be four top-tier sponsors with a field named after the company for the weekend. A flag with their logo on it will appear along one of the baselines. Mid-tier sponsors will get their large logo on a banner as well as on the back of the kickball shirts. Low-tier sponsors will get a smaller logo on the banner and T-shirts.

All funds raised go to the Oklahoma City Public Schools summer lunch program. This will be the beginning of multiple charity sports or activity events going forward.

“Sometime in the wintertime, we’ll probably do a dodgeball tournament. Possibly later this summer do softball. We’ll probably do active stuff throughout,” Boyington said. “I mean, that’s literally why I started this. Our shirts, if you see all of our designs, none of them are typical stoner pothead T-shirts. They don’t have red eyes, all that good stuff. I think we’ve got a leaf on maybe two of them. Our stuff is more about conversation starters rather than, ‘Hey, look at me. I’m a pothead.’”

Boyington said he tried to break into the cannabis industry last year but had no luck getting a foot in the door, even when he offered to work for free. He attended multiple events, but still no dice.

“I still didn’t get any opportunities, but as I was going to these events, I noticed nobody was doing apparel except one company,” Boyington said. “If people were going to sell cannabis T-shirts, I knew it had to be classier, it had to be more subtle, it had to be more medicinal. So I was like, ‘Well, if nobody is going to give me a job, I’ll just create my own company.’ I didn’t have a bunch of cash. I had 600 bucks. Took 600 bucks and created 60 T-shirts and flipped half of them in my white-collar, HOA neighborhood of teachers, nurses and people in the oil and gas business. … I knew if they were going to buy them, then people who were actually in the industry would just flock to them, so it was off and running from there. Now I tour the state and now I’m actually starting to tour outside the state because unlike these other cannabis brands in the state, I can take my product outside state lines, so now our brand is in over 35 dispensaries across the state and one in Colorado. Now that I’ve started my own company, then all the opportunities came.”

Players can sign up for the tournament via Eventbrite on the Tokie Tees website.

Visit tokietees.com