Nearly Two in Three Youth Vapers Use Geek Bar, a Brand Not Authorized in the U.S.
About 1.44 million U.S. middle and high school students used e-cigarettes in early 2025, and nearly two in three of those youth vapers reported using a single disposable brand: Geek Bar, a University of Minnesota public health alert found.
The alert, published on 5 October by the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) together with NEJM Evidence, is based on publicly available data from the 2025 National Youth Tobacco Survey. It found that 13.4% of U.S. middle and high school students had ever used e-cigarettes and 4.1% had ever used nicotine pouches, while 5.2% currently used e-cigarettes and 1.7% currently used nicotine pouches.
The central finding is the brand concentration. Sixty-four point one percent of youth who vaped reported using Geek Bar. That is a marked shift from 2024, when Elf Bar was the leading brand among young vapers; the study notes Geek Bar's share had increased sharply over the year. Fruit was the most popular e-cigarette flavor, while mint led among pouch users.
The regulatory significance is direct. The FDA has said that Geek Bar products are not authorized for sale in the United States. A dominant share of the youth e-cigarette market sitting on a product without marketing authorization is, in the agency's framework, a marker of the illicit-channel problem its enforcement guidance and review backlog are meant to address.
For public-health policy, the data narrow the target. If roughly two-thirds of youth vapers use one unauthorized disposable, a regulatory action that reaches that product reaches the category's largest youth segment, and the study's flavor data point to the product design that carries the appeal.
The alert does not assess changes in use since early 2025, and the brand-mix finding reflects the brands young people reported at the time of the survey. The University of Minnesota team will track the brand mix in the next National Youth Tobacco Survey cycle, a data set that the FDA has long said it uses alongside its own enforcement data.