Pipe makers and collectors are gathered in a small hotel room, smoke clouding the room, and a buzz of energy, chatter, and excitement fills the space. It's 4:00 a.m. and no one has slept. But there's community and joy to be had, so sleep can wait. A picture like this is no outlier for the experience of attending the annual Chicago International Pipe Show, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

30 years is monumental. Hundreds of people have shown up year after year upholding the tradition for three decades. But why? Though the location and conditions may be different in a post-2020 world, the pipe-smoking community from all over the world continues to gather every year in Chicago to celebrate the shared love for the hobby.

The Origins of the Chicago International Pipe Show to Today

To understand where the community is today, looking at the past even prior to the Chicago Show's origins helps understand the foundation; a foundation based in analog formats. Before the dawn on digital communication, pipe clubs and the community were much more local and regional, with smaller shows, events, and pipe club meetings keeping the passion in the hobby alive.

Analog ways of communication, whether through journals like The Pipe Smoker's Ephemeris or Pipes and tobaccos Magazine (P&T), kept people who were interested in pipes in the know. The former ran from 1964 to 2005 and was deeply influential in the pipe community pre-world wide web. The latter ran from 1996 to 2019. In its heyday, it modernized the way we discussed pipes in the community, particularly once Chuck Stanion came on as Editor-in-Chief around 1998; his voice was professional, modern, and perhaps most importantly, rooted in community. P&T bridged the change from analog to digital from the 1990s until the late 2010s, with its peak importance spanning the early 2000s decade. Once Chuck departed from the publication in 2017, unfortunately, the quality suffered and the final publication was printed in Spring of 2019.

Then of course came the introduction of Smokingpipes.com, founded by Sykes Wilford in 2000. After the introduction of digital communication and community, the pipe community largely moved from analog to digital. Unfortunately, the publications mentioned earlier were no longer in production before 2020. "The conversation among pipe smokers," says Sykes, "largely moved online, just like all our conversations." And that shift was not only impactful domestically, but also internationally. "Digital communications connected pipe smokers like never before. The Chicago International Pipe Show is the necessary analog piece to the digital shift that happened in the community worldwide."

This topic is quite intriguing, and is a larger conversation best saved for another piece in the future about the rise of the internet and how that altered the pipe community and consumer habits, particularly in the last two decades. For today's purposes, however, we're focusing on the Chicago International Pipe Show in the midst of all this change.

Chuck described the show a few years ago as follows: "The largest show in pipe history, Chicago has brought hundreds of pipe makers, tobacco blenders, cigar smokers, accessory makers, and pipe enthusiasts together, hundreds at a time gathering from around the world to congregate in the Chicago area for one glorious weekend (some stay a week), all thanks to the efforts of the Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club (CPCC)." He added, of the show's importance, "The show has been the axis for much of the pipe world for two decades and a place where cool and influential people are always abundantly present."

The CPCC was founded in 1996 in Illinois with a mission to celebrate the tradition and the art of pipe smoking as a hobby. The first Chicago International Pipe Show was also hosted that first year, to which the CPCC's website refers to as "the largest pipe exhibition in the world" — all to celebrate the pipe community.

The Chicago International Pipe Show was first held at the Clarion International Quality Inn in Rosemont, Illinois, directed by Frank Burla. It was held at various other locations before finding a home for the majority of its history at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, Illinois, in 2002.

"Their first show at Pheasant Run was also my first Chicago International Pipe Show," says Sykes. This space was important: it was the first big venue for the show with a true exhibition space. "The Chicago show really changed pipe shows," he says. He mentions how different this show is from past, older ones, which served the purpose of collector swaps more than anything else. "They became more about commercial selling to consumers in addition to other things, like consumer trading, buying, and selling among themselves. It became the in-person glue that held this distributed global community together."

Attendees in Chicago travel from the UK, Germany, Denmark, Italy, and many other countries around the world. By 2004, Japanese pipe makers, collectors and shop owners were in regular attendance. By 2010, Chinese collectors were beginning to come to the show, joining the collector and pipe-making communities from Western Europe that made it a truly international show.

As many things were impacted in 2020 when COVID-19 led to mass shutdowns worldwide, there was no show that year. Further, Pheasant Run did not survive that era, and never re-opened post-pandemic, leading to the show trying on different locations for size. Today, the show is held at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare Chicago near the airport, making it accessible for domestic and global travellers.

Gathering the Pipe-Smoking Community

The celebration of 30 years is not simply for the continuance of the show itself — though that is certainly nothing to scoff at — but perhaps more importantly for the continuation of the tradition of joining fellow pipe enthusiasts, makers, collectors, and others in person. Truett Smith beautifully described this experience in his first pipe-show experience piece from 2019: "(The show is where) old and new friends connect within the context of a shared love for pipes and tobacco." He goes on to share how the show elevated the knowledge he already had about pipes, and the joy he felt being a part of it all, bridging the gap between knowing makers on paper and meeting them in person.

Sykes also spoke about some fond memories from the shows, particularly from earlier times at Pheasant Run. "Being in people's rooms and seeing a crazy mix of collectors and makers spanning vast ages until 4:00 a.m. was memorable. The in-person bonding opportunity in the community brought togetherness to a group of people who were connected digitally." In many ways, this was an analog opportunity.

Several years before the show would begin, on Tuesday or Wednesday, a group of pipe makers and Sykes, including huge names in the industry: the Ivarssons, Jess Chonowitsch, and Rick Newcombe, among others, would go downtown in Chicago to get a deep-dish pizza. "Little moments like these, with everyone on the same routine and hanging out in the same rooms, made the community at the show even more special and important."

He also recalls very early on — in perhaps 2003 — that he and Jody Davis had a victorious moment where they felt like they made it, but perhaps not in the way you might expect. "Our younger selves managed to get seats at the bar that used to be downstairs at the bottom of the elevator at Pheasant Run, and we were so f***ing proud of ourselves. It was always packed and we got seats. We made it." Anecdotes like these are unique to every attendee, whether local or halfway across the world.

The community brings personality and heart into the hobby, spanning age, demographics, and identities that define a person, where all can come to enjoy this shared passion for the hobby. "When I went to my first pipe shows," says Sykes, "including Chicago, I was the youngest person by forty years." The pre-digital revolution in the industry was largely older pipe smokers. What stands out even still, however, is how kind they were, despite the age difference, bonded by their love of the same thing. "I remember a handful of collectors offering tiny bits of advice and nudging me in the right direction. Sometimes that had nothing to do with pipes or the business; it was just an older person giving advice to a younger person. They were really welcoming. Still I think pipe smokers by and large are nicer than your average population sample group."

By 2010, the age gap started to lessen. "You'd see an increasingly young crowd at these shows. By 2020, you could look around the community and find a mix of people from their 20s to 60+." While the older people within the community were welcoming, it was really refreshing for Sykes and other early attendees who work here today, such as Shane Ireland and Tony Saintiague, to see their generation and now younger ones coming into the hobby with such fervor and fascination to learn at the shows.

The reason for the shift was due in part to the Chicago International Pipe Show and Smokingpipes' contributions over the last 25 years. However, to say the Chicago International Pipe Show, and Smokingpipes in tandem, were the sole reasons for the shift in interest among younger people might be a bit of an overstatement, but they certainly impacted one another, and the rise of the internet and social media were part of the globalization of the pipe community in general.

"Certainly we were talking about pipes in new ways," says Sykes, "and Smokingpipes has influenced the way the whole hobby thinks about itself. We were talking about pipes in a way that made sense to us, which–in retrospect–was also a way that resonated with a different sort of pipe smoker who skewed a little younger. The show and Smokingpipes were necessary but not sufficient conditions for the globalization of the pipe community." That makes this celebration even more meaningful: it's an evolution in real time of the hobby gaining a resurgence among younger generations, leading to even more connection and long-lasting friendships from consumers and makers worldwide.

30 Years of the Chicago International Pipe Show

With this important history in mind, 2026's Chicago International Pipe Show is sure to be exciting. Celebrating 30 years, the show provides an opportunity in an increasingly digital world to connect in person, unplug, and just enjoy one another's company over pipes. Look out for our Ember & Elixir Pairing Experience on Saturday, May 2, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at The Smokingpipes Tent, pairing specialty cocktails and pipe tobaccos designed to complement each other.

We are also pleased to present two special blends in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Chicago International Pipe Show: CPCC 30th Anniversary Blends by Cornell & Diehl, available on Saturday, May 2, at 10:00 a.m. ET. This release comprises two distinct blends: 1996 and 2026, named for the inaugural year of the show and its 30th anniversary, respectively. Each blend reflects the most popular mixture of its era, with 1996 harkening to traditional English blends, while 2026 features a Va/Per broken flake. These blends are available in limited quantities, exclusively at Smokingpipes.

The impact of the Chicago International Pipe Show on the pipe-smoking community is powerful when considering where the community was some 30 years ago. Now, from the hobbyist to the artisan maker, far and wide, everyone has the ability to join at one remarkable event to celebrate the community in a dedicated space every year. Are you attending this year's show? Have you been to one in the past? I'd love to hear any stories you want to share in the comments!

Bibliography

• About CPCC. The Chicago Pipe Show. (2015, April 15).
• Smith, T. (2019, May 14). Chicago 2019: First time reflections. Smokingpipes Daily Reader.
• Stanion, C. (2023, April 21). The Chicago Pipe Show. Smokingpipes Daily Reader.