Bobby Smtih was born in Oregon in 1971 and lived there until 1998. While attending the University of Oregon, he teamed with Eli Babbs to form Idiot Green Productions. Over the next five years, a simple day of music turned into five nights free for all festivals known as the Dexter Lake Shake & Bake. (Dexter was the home of Eli's father Ken Babbs and his longtime friend Ken Kesey.) The influence of their Merry Band of Pranksters helped shape not only Bobby’s festivals but more importantly his lifestyle. It was also during this time also when his fascination with glass art began.

After college, Bobby moved to San Diego, California and began working for Spyboy Productions, a New Orleans based company owned and operated by Mario Madero, specializing in creating after-hours events that brought together artists who had never met before. With Spyboy, Bobby brought his event planning to such cities as New York City, San Francisco, Miami, Amsterdam, Prague, Madrid, Istanbul and Florence. Having the opportunity to travel the world, meet and see the work of masters of art opened his eyes to a vast enormity of art media, further deepening his appreciation and passion for glass art.

In 2004, he was approached by Jason Harris to team up and build a glass blowing studio on Maui. Their ideas ultimately were realized in the opening in May 2007 of DaFactory in Haiku. Bobby moved to Maui with his wife Jennifer in 2001, and in September 2007 had their first son, Syden Makani.