Inside: How a Tired Dad Who Couldn't Quit His Own Vape Ended Up Helping 22,500 People Put Theirs Down
By William, founder of HÜM
The honest story of how HÜM started, why it costs half what you'd expect, and the bit I'm not proud of.
Who am I?
I'm William. I'm 38, I've got a brown beard my daughter says makes me look like a bear, and I'm a Leeds lad. Born there, grew up there, married a girl from round the corner, and never really left. Emma and I still live ten minutes from both our mums.
I'm not a doctor. I'm not a scientist. I'm a dad who couldn't stop vaping.
The vape that was supposed to be temporary
I smoked from seventeen to thirty. Twenty a day, give or take.
When Emma was pregnant with our daughter, Lou, I stopped. Switched to a vape like everyone told me to. I was proud of myself for about a month.
Then I worked out I'd swapped a habit with an ending for one without.
I work from home. There's no smoking area at home, no going outside, no "last one". The vape sat next to my keyboard and I was on it from the first coffee to the last thing at night. Far more than I'd ever smoked.
I tried what everyone tries. Patches (my hand still went looking for something). 0mg liquid (on it just as much, which tells you everything). Cold turkey (four days, then a stressful phone call).
"Daddy's dummy"
Two moments did it.
The first was Lou. She was four. One morning she picked my vape up off the table, held it out to me and said, "Here's Daddy's dummy."
She wasn't being cheeky. That's just what it looked like to her. A grown man who couldn't put his dummy down.
The second was Emma's dad's sixty-fifth, at his house. Her brother Dan, 46, an electrician who's vaped in his van every day for nine years, and I nipped out the back door "for two minutes". We came back in and the speeches were over. We'd missed her dad's speech. For a vape.
Emma didn't shout. She just said, "You two." That was worse.
It was never the nicotine
When I actually thought about it, I could manage without the nicotine for a couple of days. What I couldn't manage was my hand having nothing to do. The drag after a coffee, on a call, after dinner. The habit, not the chemistry.
That's when I found the wooden flavoured-air sticks you've probably seen. No nicotine, no vapour, no battery. You hold it, you draw on it, you get cool flavoured air. It gives your hand the thing it's looking for.
I tried one. And for the first time, my hand had somewhere to go.
The £90 problem
The one I'd found cost me around ninety pounds by the time it arrived.
I told Dan about it. He laughed. "Ninety quid for a stick? I'd rather keep vaping."
And that was the problem, right there. The people who need it most (the Dans, the blokes on 3mg vaping in the van all day) look at £90 and go, nah.
Why it's £49.99, not £90
I could have charged ninety quid. People were already paying it.
But I kept thinking about Dan. And about every bloke like him: on 3mg in the van all day, who'd love to stop but isn't going to bet £90 on something he's not sure will work.
So I spent months getting it right. Testing samples at the kitchen table. Sending back anything that felt cheap. Tasting more flavour inserts than I'd like to admit. Getting the draw just right (that's what the twist ring at the top is for).
Then I made one decision: £49.99, not £90. A smaller margin, and a lot more people who can actually afford to try it.
Emma came up with the name. HÜM, like the slow sound you make when you breathe out.
Dan was the first
Dan was customer number one. Well, he didn't pay. But he was the first person outside our house to use one.
Three weeks later he sent me a photo of his vape in the kitchen bin. No message. Just the photo.
So what actually is HÜM?
A stick of wood and metal you hold and draw on, the same movement your hand already knows. A small flavour insert inside gives you cool, lightly flavoured air: mint, spearmint, coffee, maple and more.
- No nicotine
- No vapour
- No battery, nothing to charge
- A twist ring to set how tight the draw feels
Patches and gum give you nicotine. Nobody gives your hand anything to do. That's the gap.
It isn't a vape, and it won't feel like one. The flavour is light in the first week, while your taste comes back. If you need help with the nicotine itself, use patches alongside it. Loads of our customers do.
How it's been going since
We started small: a few hundred sticks stacked in our garage, and Emma and I packing the first orders at the kitchen table after Lou had gone to bed.
Today, more than 22,500 people have tried HÜM. 89% feel the urge fade within 30 days. And less than 1% ever ask for their money back.
Messages like these still make my week:
We still have a long way to go
I'll be honest about the bit I'm not proud of.
When we started, we weren't ready for how fast it grew. Some deliveries took too long, and returns were more complicated than they should have been. I understand why some people lost patience with us. I'd have felt the same.
If something goes wrong, email us at hello@feelhum.com. A real person answers.
So, are you ready?
If you've read this far, you probably recognise a bit of yourself. The vape you meant to have "for a few months". The hand that goes to your pocket before you've decided anything.
Worst case: you use HÜM every day for 30 days, it's not for you, and you get every penny back. Less than 1% of people ever do.
Lou's eight now. She doesn't remember "Daddy's dummy". I do.
— William, founder of HÜM
HÜM Starter Pack — £49.99 £82.99 (40% off)
- HÜM stick + 3 flavour inserts (around 72 hours each)
- Free UK delivery · ships in 3 days
- Or 3 interest-free payments of £16.63 with Klarna
30-Day Guarantee. Use HÜM every day for 30 days. Not satisfied by Day 30? Email hello@feelhum.com for a full refund. No questions. Less than 1% of customers ever claim it.
★ 22,500+ customers · 89% feel the urge fade within 30 days
This is an advertisement. William is HÜM's founder; parts of his story have been dramatised for this page, and photos are illustrative. Reviews marked "Verified Trustpilot review" are real HÜM customer reviews, reproduced as written. Results vary. HÜM contains no nicotine and is not a medical device. For medical concerns, consult your healthcare provider.