#HIGHDESING TV#

That limited what Kim and the production crew was able to do, from changing the floor plan (which is prohibited in Colorado) to organizing the products. On top of that are very specific regulations that vary from state to state, and violations can carry huge fines-thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. And the whole point is they are on the edge,” she said. I cannot close down operations while we are making them over. One of her major challenges as a designer is that the stores must remain open during the makeover. We aren’t strangled by ad dollars in that very specific, old-school, legacy media way.“ “The rise of streaming has created opportunities for content makers like me to bring something to the table, and for major companies like Discovery+ to say, Yeah, we’re gonna bet on that. We can’t buy it,” because the content is still “taboo.”īut the changing nature of television made the show possible. When Kim pitched the show, “everybody said, There will never be ad dollars, you’ll never sell it. It’s really complex, the business, and the last thing on their mind is the retail environment,” she said. The rules and regulations make the business complicated-and that means the actual stores get neglected. “I understood what the challenges are, the inherent obstacles,” she added, including “the regulatory morass, the hurdles you have to clear, just the sheer amount of money it takes to get started.” She spent most of 2017 working for a large, corporate company, starting as “the sales rep on the floor, and I worked my way up to assistant manager,” she told me. Kim isn’t just a customer she also knows the business. Kim Myles installs lights at Simply Pure on High Design (Photo by Discovery+) Her combination of design acumen, empathy, and ebullience make High Design, well, highly entertaining.

While these are struggling small businesses, Kim isn’t yelling at their owners. No one’s high here, but everyone is in high spirits, thanks to the tone set by both Kim herself and the editing of High Design, which has a buoyancy I didn’t expect. There have been other reality shows in this space, like Netflix’s Cooking on High, but I think the people on screen are having more fun than I am watching them. “We are the first cannabᎥs design makeover show,” she told me.Īs I told Kim when I interviewed her, I was surprised how much I loved High Design, but only because I’m not a customer.

#HIGHDESING TV#

What Kim is buying is pot, in one of the 19 states that have legalized its recreational use, and she’s now turned her experience into terrific reality TV that also breaks new ground. And the origin of the idea, the real lightbulb moment, was realizing just how much money I was spending in environments that made me feel like I was a criminal. “And as a consequence, I have purchased a lot of it over the years in a lot of different shops.

“I have loved it for most of my adult life,” she told me. HGTV Design Star winner Kim Myles had the idea for her new Discovery+ business makeover show High Design, on which she helps some of America’s small businesses, because she’s a customer herself.

Highdesing