As NY and NJ become more competitive, looking beyond the top 10 brands becomes more and more important for retailers looking to stand out and offer high quality and variety to their customers. A specific group of brands worth keeping an eye on are the brands that are moving up the charts and nipping at the heels of the top 10. Lit Alerts calls these the “challenger brands” and we recently featured the brands moving up the charts in NY.

Here are the challenger brands from New Jersey. This list features many more west coast brands than the NY list did. A hat tip is in order for both vape brand Bloom Brands (can’t tag for some reason) and pre-roll brand Lowell Herb Company for making the challenger brands list for June 2025 in BOTH NY and NJ.

Originally published in the Cultivated Media newsletter.