PRESS RELEASE: Beverage Biz Insights | Dec. 12, 2018
LIFEAID Beverage Co. has a full slate of activities on tap for 2019, including overt push into energy drink occasions via tweak to FocusAid!
The entry will dial up (natural) caffeine and buildout of DSD network in western part of the U.S.
Co-founded by Aaron Hinde and Orion Melehan in Santa Cruz, California, started with FitAid—entry that was keyed to then-burgeoning CrossFit channel, challenging incumbent brand Kill Cliff and successively adding range of other carefully targeted entries under monikers like FocusAid, TravelAid, PartyAid and even GolferAid, moving from natural/specialty into grocers and then mass/drug channels. Unusually, what might be viewed as its core brand, LifeAid, did not emerge until the company was making transition from specialty channels to general grocers and c-stores. By now, SPINS data indicates that LIFEAID various brands collectively rank #3 in natural energy/functional set, behind Hiball and Rockstar; in conventional grocery, they’re #23 with just 7% ACV. The company has been adept at moving product online, 2018 will mark the first year that brick & mortars outperform the still-growing online biz, which has been stepping up Amazon/Prime activities, Aaron said in discussion Mon.
But FitAid remains the horse, absorbing 90% of the company's marketing spend, followed by FocusAid (generating 80% of volume of FitAid), with PartyAid and LifeAid vying for #3. The company recently transitioned TravelAid, with highly polarizing ginger bite, to ImmunityAid, in time for winter flu season, and anticipates it will move into #3 sales slot. Revamped item has quickly won 5K retail authorizations, Aaron said, and sold more in 1 month than TravelAid had in 12 months.
As for FocusAid, that entry has performed well, ranked as #2-selling item, but LIFEAID thinks it can do better. In effort to exploit energy occasion, co next month will dial up caffeine content from 45 mg currently to 90-100 mg range, with enhanced caffeine punch flagged prominently on package. Caffeine sources will remain Yerba Mate and Green Tea Extract. That will allow FocusAid to go head to head vs. energy drinks, Hinde indicated.
By now, the LIFEAID brand is ready to make big DSD push, in part to do better in immediate-consumption channels, and it’s been recruiting western houses like Hensley in Arizona, New Age in Denver, Golden in Utah and Bonanza in Las Vegas, with California soon to be inked in. On retail front, a 400+ store test in CVS is being expanded to 1,500 stores, while a 440-store test in Walmart will expand to all 3,500 stores with new functional sets. Brand’s c-store presence remains slight, including Terrible’s chain in Las Vegas and some 7-Elevens in Hawaii, and boosting that will be priority for 2019.
LIFEAID also will test international waters in markets like Australia, New Zealand and Europe,
particularly Nordic countries. Its main marketing/sampling vehicle has been Spartan Races, which allowed it to get its cans into nearly 1 mil consumers’ hands, between participants and spectators, this year.
For more information about LIFEAID Beverage Company and their full line of clean, nutritional blends to supplement your lifestyle, visit LIFEAIDBevCo.com.
Source: Beverage Biz Insights
Hydration and Performance in a Tasty Blend
During a round of golf in AZ, it is almost impossible to drink too much water. While it might not feel like you are sweating a lot because it evaporates so quickly, you need a significant amount of hydration while playing in the desert. While water is most useful, sometimes something a little more tasty is desired as is some mineral intake. Soda, beer or a sports drink might hit the spot, but their caffeine, alcohol or sugar isn't going to benefit your game. GolferAid offers good hydration with numerous performance minerals as well as a lightly carbonated citrus flavor. You can get hydration and performance in one drink.
GolferAid is a product by the LIFEAID Beverage Company that makes a number of performance/health drinks. Obviously, GolferAid has a specific focus. The first thing I appreciated is a drink without caffeine or taurine. Many "performance" drink include one of those ingredients which I'm not really a big fan of. It also isn't pure sugar so that too is another nice feature of trying to limit that as well. So even if you are on a pretty strict diet, you should be able to enjoy the best golf drink for a day on the course, GOLFERAID Performance Blend.
I didn't find too many local courses that carried GolferAid on their beverage carts so I brought my own. I often would have one to start, one at the turn. (I still had water in between.) While maybe it was just a placebo mental boost, but I did play some really good golf while drinking GolferAid. The list of vitamins and minerals is rather long for a 12-oz can. I don't know what each one does or how it impacts your golf performance, but if nothing else it had a citrus (hint of pineapple flavor) to it so it was enjoyable to drink regardless of gained golf performance or not.
GolferAid is a nice alternative to many other drinks out there. I like that it wasn't just a shot of vitamins, but a hydrating drink as well. It would be cool to see them offer it in a few more flavors like berry and fruit punch, but for not the light citrus drink will be my go-to pre-/mid-round beverage. I can't promise that you will lower your scores just by drinking GolferAid, but it certainly isn't going to harm your game like many of the other cart girl's beverage choices. You get hydration and performance in a tasty drink.
For more information, visit LifeAidBevCo.com.
+12 oz. for hydration
+Light citrus flavor
+Lots of performance vitamins and minerals
+No caffeine or alcohol
+Low sugar
—One Flavor
SOURCE: http://www.independentgolfreviews.com/golferaid-performance-drink.html
By: Brad Avery | Oct. 8, 2018
When you need a post-workout recovery drink, there’s FitAid. When you need to pull a late night studying, there’s FocusAid. When your looking to stay up all night for a wild time, there’s PartyAid. And when all that activity finally catches up to you, now there’s ImmunityAid.
ImmunityAid is the latest product from LIFEAID Beverage Company, a brand of functional beverages that serve specific consumer need states. The new orange-flavored SKU launched today at the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) Show 2018 in Las Vegas, running Oct. 8-10 and will soon be available in about 2,000 stores nationwide, including Whole Foods, H-E-B, Vitamin Shoppe and GNC.
Speaking with BevNET, co-founder and CEO Orion Melehan said the new line fills a consumer need for immunity-based beverages, and will also ideally help the company to maintain velocity during the winter when beverage sales drop but colds and flus rise.
“We’re launching ImmunityAid at NACS because we believe the consumer really is going to resonate with the product in the immediate consumption channel where they can grab and go the product for its immediate intended use occasion,” Melehan said. “On the road map we think a lot of growth [for the company] is going to come from the convenience channel.”
Melehan said that when speaking with convenience buyers there is an increased focus on c-stores building out functional sets, separate from the existing sports and energy drink sets, and LIFEAID sees this movement as a chance to become a leader in the space.
Made with a blend of A,C, and D vitamins, zinc, turmeric, ginger root, chamomile, astragalus, and echinacea, ImmunityAid is labelled as a dietary supplement and contains 45 calories per 12 oz. can. It will retail for $2.99 per can.
“Think of it like Emergen-C on steroids,” said co-founder and president Aaron Hinde. “It’s everything that people would normally be taking during cold and flu season during the winter, or while travelling, to keep their immune system firing on all cylinders. And it’s not just pixie dust in there, we have a very efficacious dose of those key nutrients with a great flavor profile.”
According to Hinde, the company received feedback from consumers and from buyers at some of its top retail partners, including Whole Foods and H-E-B, to develop the new line. He added that nearly three-quarters of U.S. consumers currently take some form of nutritional and wellness supplements, and the company believes ImmunityAid could quickly become the “number two or three” top selling SKU across the brand’s product portfolio.
“One of our biggest criticisms in our early days was that we were way too niche as a company, but we always had this vision of LIFEAID being a very functional beverage company with different products for different needs and having solutions for those consumer needs,” Hinde said. “Now that platform is really being built out.”
Currently the flagship FitAid line, marketed as a post-workout recovery drink, remains the company’s top-selling SKU across all channels, with its nootropic-based FocusAid line matching roughly 80 percent of FitAid’s volume. According to Hinde, the company has so far put very little of its marketing arm behind FocusAid, but an organic trend for more controlled, better-for-you energy from millennial consumers who are seeking alternatives to the mainstream energy brands has sparked the SKU’s growth. To build the line out, LIFEAID is reformulating the product to increase the caffeine — sourced from green tea — to 100 mg per serving and refining the blend of Nootropics, which may improve brain function.
For the first five years after its 2011 launch, LifeAid was exclusively an ecommerce product. However, over the past three years the brand has rapidly ballooned its presence in conventional retail and gyms, currently counting 20,000 points of distribution nationwide — double where the company was a year ago. In retail, the brand has seen over 100 percent growth and in Whole Foods, Melehan said, same store sales are growing 50 percent year over year. However, the ecommerce side of the business, Hinde said, has provided the company with a list of roughly 300,000 consumer email addresses that can be tapped for new product launches and drive repeat customers out to retailers.
Partnerships with fitness brands like CrossFit and Spartan Race have helped LifeAid attract a loyal base of athletic consumers for its core products, but the diverse line of need-state based drinks has led those consumers to buy the brand’s other SKUs. Rather than focusing on in-store promotions, Melehan said, LifeAid has worked on building its field marketing team to continue to add retailers and touch new consumers at events — from obstacle course events to music festivals — across the country. He added that the company is opening up more DSD distributors, particularly on the west coast, and will be increasing its field marketing team from 72 full-time employees to 85 in order to match the new distribution.
“What we look at is the entire life cycle of the consumer and focus on providing as much lifetime value to our customer base as we can,” Hinde said. “A lot of people look at their marketing and say well okay, ‘we have our online marketing budget, our event marketing budget, our in-store activations’ and they’re treated like all these separate things. We don’t look at it that way. Everything connects. The wave of the future, especially in beverage, is that there will be no separation between online and brick and mortar — it’s all one.”
SOURCE: BevNet.com
For information about all of the LIFEAID Beverage Co. clean, unique blends, their health benefits, or to shop the lineup of refreshing blends visit LIFEAIDBevCo.com.
Press Release Jul. 23, 2018 at 2:30 pm
LOS ANGELES — FOCUSAID, a product of LIFEAID Beverage Co. is joining forces with Loot Crate, collectible subscription box behemoth, for the charity Gamers Outreach for an 8-hour fundraising stream on July 28th, 12pm PST through 8pm PST, accessible at twitch.tv/lootcrate.
Founded in 2007, Gamer’s Outreach provides equipment, technology and software to help children cope with treatment inside hospitals. Proceeds raised through the live stream will pay for “GO Karts” (Gamers Outreach Karts) – portable, medical-grade gaming kiosks nurses use to transport video games and entertainment to children who are unable to leave their rooms within the hospital. Gamer’s Outreach will equip hospitals and care centers with these specially designed gaming stations to minimize trauma and increase joy for these young patients.
Presented and powered by FOCUSAID, the clean and natural nootropic blend by LIFEAID Beverage Co., the Loot Crate gaming community will participate in a day-long stream full of fun gaming challenges and contests all while helping to raise funds and awareness for Gamer’s Outreach.
The stream will be filled with donation perks, incredible stream goals and challenges, fantastic giveaways from FOCUSAID, LIFEAID, and Loot Crate, with mega prize packs unlocked throughout the day.
On stream, hosts will include…
• Loot Crate’s own Mikey Petralia and Josh Ball (lootcrate.com)
• Actress Naomi Kyle (insta @thenaomikyle)
• Hyper RPG (twitch.tv/hyperrpg) studio head, Zac Eubank
• Streamer DI3SEL (twitch.tv/di3sel)
• Gamer & Model Mandie Roman (insta @GeekyGlamorous)
• ABC’s Once Upon a Time actor, Jared Gilmore (insta @therealjaredgilmore)
• Many more surprise guests!
“Loot Crate is happy to support such a worthy cause as we believe that the heroes of our fandoms can inspire heroic moments in our own lives. Hopefully we can inspire the audience of this live stream to be the heroes these patients need to get better,” said Matthew Arevalo, co-founder of Loot Crate. From retro games to the latest squad gatherings, the stream will surely provide entertainment while raising donations. LIFEAID CMO, Emily Sommariva explains, “We all need play to thrive. When the idea formed with Loot Crate to support Gamer’s Outreach’s efforts to bring joy to this special group of kids across the country, we said ‘Game On’!”
About LIFEAID Beverage Co.
LIFEAID is The Functional Beverage Company, and creator of of premium, healthy and convenient nutritional products for different active lifestyles. Products are currently sold in over 12,000 domestic outlets and over 22 countries, having twice now placed on Inc. 500’s Fastest Growing Companies. Learn more at LIFEAIDbevco.com.
About Loot Crate
Founded in 2012, Loot Crate™ is a leading subscription commerce platform targeting super fans of entertainment franchises. Loot Crate partners with major studios, game companies, comics publishers, professional sports leagues and personalities in the shared curation of premium and exclusive consumer products in themed mystery boxes, delivered directly to subscribers’ doorsteps. Loot Crate was ranked #1 fastest-growing private company by Inc. magazine’s Inc. 5000 as well as #1 on Deloitte’s Fast 500 list for 2016. For more information and to sign up for a Loot Crate subscription, please visit www.lootcrate.com.
About Gamer’s Outreach
Gamers Outreach is a 501(c)(3) charity organization that provides recreation to children in hospitals through the power of video games and the gaming community. Hospitalization can often be a lonely, isolating, and scary experience for young people. Gamers Outreach eases those burdens by providing equipment, technology, and software that help kids cope with long-term treatment. More information can be found at www.GamersOutreach.org.
SOURCE: https://www.bevnet.com/news/2018/focusaid-partners-loot-crate-gamers-outreach
Brad Avery | Feb. 22, 2018
There’s nobility—and money—in wanting to achieve mass appeal,
building a brand that appeals to as many types of consumers as possible.
But few brands succeed in truly reaching a universal market. It’s a time-honored tactic, in fact, to thrive by thinking smaller — focusing in on specific demographics, need states, or consumer identities to build loyalty. For a long time, this simply meant “college students” or “moms on the go,” but some brands have started to take things even deeper, selecting niche target audiences that live in their own communities or form their own online tribes.
Brands big and small are now finding emerging subcultures to build their beds in. From startup recovery drinks crafting an identity around cult fitness brands to big soda companies focusing in on the emerging gaming community, we took a look in this two-part series at how companies large and small are searching for wide success with niche, but fast-growing communities.
FitAid Hits with CrossFitters
LIFEAID co-founders Aaron Hinde and Orion Melehan first met in a CrossFit gym in 2009, so it’s appropriate that their workout-based FitAid product would become the Official Recovery Drink of the 2017 CrossFit Games.
FitAid, in fact, was carefully built and cultivated around this particular fitness subculture. Oft parodied for its customers’ cult-like devotion to their all-in style of workout, CrossFit has built a loyal consumer base, so a beverage brand built within the culture targeting not only their nutritional needs, but their whole identity, was in a good position to resonate. Its founders say FitAid, one of the multiple functional beverage sublines released under the LIFEAID master brand, is formulated with vitamins, electrolytes, and other ingredients to fit the needs of CrossFit athletes. The brand’s early business strategy involved getting the product in those gyms.
In creating FitAid, Hinde and Melehan — like a large group of insurgent brands, from competing sports drink Kill Cliff, itself a former CrossFit Games sponsor, to a variety of energy bars and snacks — sought to find a way to access a large and still growing customer base made up of several key age groups. According to a report from Rally Fitness, CrossFit counts roughly 4 million members worldwide, with 42 percent ranging between 25 and 34 years old. 19 percent are between 35 and 44, while 18 percent are minors. The demographics skew evenly between men and women. The $4 billion company has experienced massive growth in the past decade, expanding from 13 locations in 2005 to more than 13,000 worldwide today. The company’s low-tech gym setup and franchise model has also given it the ability to rapidly scale and bring in new customers.
Of the roughly 10,000 gyms LIFEAID products are currently available in nationwide, about 4,000 are CrossFit locations. As LIFEAID expands its distribution in traditional retail channels, its connection with its base gives it an extra edge in grocery and at retailers where CrossFitters shopped, such as Vitamin Shoppe.
“That gym channel has been a great driver because it’s very consistent with that health-conscious consumer who we’re targeting,” Hinde said. “That consumer who happens to shop at Whole Foods, and at Kroger’s, and at Publix. We’re able to get turn from day one in a traditional retail environment, which is extremely crowded, because we already have that core community that we’re bringing to the table that we can mobilize.
Having company leaders in Hinde and Melehan who live the lifestyle — and participate in the grueling events — gives LIFEAID another layer of authenticity.
Knowing CrossFit’s unique vernacular and partnering with the culture’s celebrities for social media influence have both been vital to developing an authentic relationship with the consumer base, and not coming off as another invasive brand just looking to exploit a community.
Working within CrossFit has also opened the door for Hinde and Melehan to move into similar fitness-based markets — a transition that reveals another set of growing fitness communities that are being targeted by entrepreneurial brands.
In 2016, Hinde and Melehan began running in the Spartan Race obstacle competition when LIFEAID (FitAid) was signed as the event’s official recovery drink. According to Hinde, Spartan Race and CrossFit had a significant overlap in their consumer base, giving the company “street cred” as it integrated and was introduced to new consumers.
“We followed a very similar approach,” Hinde said. “Got some top influencers and ambassadors on board, ran a few races ourselves, started showing up to events on a smaller scale level, and then when the time was right we wanted to step up and do finish line sampling for all the racers.”
The company has innovated around the partnership, premiering CrossFit-exclusive FitAid RX and the protein-heavy FitAid Fuel snack packets in order to better fit the needs of that consumer. But beyond CrossFit and Spartan Race, much of LIFEAID’s portfolio is built around niche target audiences. Using a uniform can design, the company also markets products such as GolferAid, intended to help golfers improve their performance on the course, and TravelAid (now ImmunityAid), an immunity drink aimed at frequent travelers. The company’s FocusAid is recommended for students, gamers, and office workers and features Nootropics and other allegedly brain-boosting ingredients, while PartyAid focuses on providing clean energy.
Similar to LIFEAID, in November, Kill Cliff—which has long fostered its own relationship with the sport and its athletes—partnered with another Spartan-like endurance event, Tough Mudder, to be the Official Sports Drink of its 2018-2019 season. The company also lends its name to the Kill Cliff Granite Games, furthering its presence in the competitive fitness world.
Meanwhile, GT’s Living Foods is also running with the Spartans, bringing its kombucha products to races as an official partner.
“We are an inspirational brand and we like to take a position of living life to the fullest and making sure each day is rich with experiences,” GT Dave, founder and CEO of GT’s Living Foods, told BevNET. “That kind of philosophy completely aligned and resonated with the Spartan community.”
Dave said he and Spartan Race founder Joe De Sena have long been personal friends, but only last year did the two brands opt to capitalize on their synergy. GT’s Kombucha is being served at all U.S. Spartan Race events this year, and Dave said he sees big potential for the community’s “Spartans” to find value in kombucha as an alternative to sugar-heavy sports drinks like Gatorade.
“What’s very clear in this Spartan community is that the majority of them aren’t really athletes, meaning they’re not doing this for a living,” Dave said. “A lot of them are doing this because they want to challenge themselves to a point of growth, a point of a breakthrough, and a point of new awareness about how their body is a beautiful instrument. That’s kind of our mantra as a brand, we want to help people be the best version of themselves and participate in that kind of awakening about how perfection is not real, but the pursuit of it is.”
On Thursday, Spartan Race signed one of its biggest beverage partners yet, announcing BodyArmor as its Official Sports Drink through the 2019 season.
The brand, one of the top selling sports drinks in the country seeing $130 million in sales in 2016, may lack the grassroots authenticity of a LIFEAID or the holistic health halo of a GT’s, but it can call on endorsements from some of the top athletes in pro sports.
“Partnering with Spartan is a no-brainer for BodyArmor,” said BodyArmor shareholder and 18-time NBA All-Star Kobe Bryant in a press release. “Spartan athletes are driven, competitive and they are obsessed with better, and that’s exactly what BodyArmor exemplifies as a sports drink. Spartan athletes demand the best in hydration and nutrition so it’s only fitting that BodyArmor will be providing them with the best hydration option out there.”
BodyArmor’s partnership with Spartan Race shows the niche market’s value to big brands. The clean hydration promoted by BodyArmor has potential to resonate deep with Spartan’s base, and with the full endorsement of De Sena, it’s being welcomed in with open arms.
Part II of this article will look at how brands are now targeting the emerging eSports tournament circuit as a way to bring in the millennial gamer demographic.
SOURCE: https://www.bevnet.com/news/2018/new-new-niches-brands-look-intense-sports-e-games-growth
By Jason Jaksetic
Why did Spartan and FitAid become partners?
Why do you find a “Spartan-approved” logo on a FitAid can?
Spartan Lifestyle Editor Jason Jaksetic sets the record straight.
I keep FitAid in two bags: my gym bag and my rucksack. I also keep it on my desk and in my pickup truck—both staging grounds for gym and mountain training sessions.
Surely, I enjoy FitAid most when I cross the finish line at a Spartan Race.
This is because in daily living, I’m one of those people who keep the throttle pretty close to the floor while simultaneously trying to stay lean and mean. (Let’s face it: most Spartans are. After all, a Spartan lifestyle is active and demanding.) Sometimes, when running this precarious balance of input and output, we start running a little low and need a boost, both in performance and recovery. And FitAid, amazingly, has Spartans covered in both situations.
ENTER FITAID.
There are many reason why you will find a Spartan logo on a can of FitAid. I’ll break down the main ones for you.
45 CALORIES.
Unless you are doing long workouts, extra Calories aren’t your friend. Especially drinkable ones. You are trying to burn Calories, not gain them. The 45 Calories found in FitAidare not excessive like the Calories most sports drinks. Anyone familiar with how hard you work to remove 200 Calories isn’t about to toss them back quickly during a workout. 45 is not zero, but then again, FitAid is not a ‘diet’ sports drink, full of artificial sweeteners.
RAW, ORGANIC BLUE AGAVE.
When nature has provided so many natural sweeteners, modern humans’ reliance on processed sugars and artificial sweeteners is perplexing. Spartans think so, anyway. That’s why they will reach for FitAid over sugary sports drinks. Agave is delicious. Agave is natural. Agave is a no brainer for a great tasting drink.
Skip the processed. Always. FitAid did.
PERFORMANCE AND RECOVERY.
FitAid pulls double duty. I drink a FitAid before and after my workouts, and sometimes during a long endurance session. The one before my workout fuels my endurance and performance. The one after helps me recover from the damage I did.
Incidentally, because most Spartans train early in the morning before work, it’s nice to get the energy boost after a workout with your recovery fuel so you can shower up and roll into the office on a mission to tackle the next challenge.
VITAMIN C, D, E.
Spartans don’t worry about vitamins too much when they have their diets dialed in and are consuming plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. But sometimes, especially when traveling or busy, it’s hard to get the vitamin-rich foods that are essential to a healthy diet and immune system. A day with FitAid is a day you know you have the key vitamins that keep your health covered.
AMINO ACIDS, BCAAS, GLUTAMINE.
Muscle fuel and muscle repair are at the core of performance and recovery. Feed your muscles well when they are most hungry, and they will be therefore you when you need.
TURMERIC.
Spartans love the performance and recovery aspects of this natural ingredient so much that we devoted a whole week of our Food of the Week recipes to exploring how to incorporate it into our Spartan diets.
LIGHT CARBONATION.
I love bubbles. You love bubbles. We all love bubbles. They are, well, just damn refreshing. FitAid delivers bubbles.
Maybe you are a seasoned Spartan, training and living hard. Maybe you are just starting to step on the accelerator and finding yourself lacking some energy as you engage in the Spartan lifestyle. On any gym and on any mountain, FitAid is the performance and recovery support you need. (With bubbles.)
SOURCE: https://www.spartan.com/en/community/blog/lifestyle?article=42661
SANTA CRUZ, CALIF. – Hot off the heels of the traditional shopping season kick-off, LIFEAID Beverage Co., LLC. achieved an impressive volume of Direct to Consumer business during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend reaching just shy of $500,000 in direct website e-commerce sales.
The company, known for their niche “clean supplement blends” has seen a meteoric rise over the last year. 2018 is proving to be a potential break-through year for the brand.
For a second year, LIFEAID has secured a top spot on the Forbes list of Fastest Growing Companies and 2017’s list recognized the brand as the 2nd fastest growing in its category. FITAID, the Recovery Blend, which is popular within the CrossFit and OCR communities, recorded an impressive 35% share of the weekend’s sales. Notable portfolio performers included FOCUSAID and brand flagship product LIFEAID; while GOLFERAID, PARTYAID, and TRAVELAID rounded out the strong sales figure.
According to their VP of Sales, Dan Leja, “2018 is going to be a breakout year for the Brand.” Leja goes on to report, “We anticipate in excess of 12,000 traditional retail outlets, including some of the most established national retailers.”
This figure is 4 times what their retail penetration was in 2017. Authorizations include GNC, Kroger, Safeway, with significant reviews pending. At time of release, SPINS data is displaying promising results as they are positioned as a top 5 brand in their category over the last 24 weeks. Additional focus in 2018 will include consistent brand awareness efforts and building off their consumer successes to help bolster and sustain their current trajectory in retail.
About LifeAid Beverage
At LIFEAID, we fuel your passion with our clean and refreshing nutritional blends. Our products are tailored for your active lifestyle – without all the junk. LIFEAID products are available throughout the U.S. in more than 5,000 gyms and retail stores such as Whole Foods and The Vitamin Shoppe. Join us as we show the world there is a better way. For more information, please visit www.lifeaidbevco.com or contact press@lifeaidbevco.com
SOURCE: https://www.bevnet.com/news/2017/lifeaid-sets-e-com-black-friday-sales-record
I am on a Paleo diet and thus not a fan of sugar-loaded beverages, such as sports drinks. But I also exercise regularly, and during intense exercise, the body needs more than just water. That leads to the following questions: How healthy are sports drinks and how do they work? In this article, I will take a closer look at what happens in your body during exercise and the chemistry of sports drinks. I will also introduce you to Paleo-friendly alternatives from LIFEAID, a beverage company that’s popular in the CrossFit community.
THE CHEMISTRY DURING EXERCISE:
Before we answer the question of how healthy sports drinks are, let’s take a look at what happens in your body during exercise.
Generally speaking, there are two categories of exercise: Aerobic and anaerobic, which indicate if oxygen is part of the chemical process or not. In non-scientific terms, aerobic means “with oxygen” and anaerobic means “without oxygen.”
Aerobic exercise
Aerobic exercise includes jogging, swimming, biking, etc. During such exercise, the human body uses glucose and oxygen to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), water and carbon dioxide. The chemical formula for that is:
C6H12O6 + 6O2 = ATP + 6H2O + 6CO2 or
Glucose + oxygen = ATP + water + carbon dioxide
ATP is an energy carrier, and it is a crucial component to getting the energy to where your body needs it. Glucose is nothing more than sugar, and your liver produces it by processing the sugar and carbohydrates you eat and drink. Your body stores glucose as glycogen in your muscles and liver.
Anaerobic exercise
An anaerobic exercise is usually a form of high-intensity exercise that leads to the production of lactic acid. That happens when your body cannot get oxygen to your cells fast enough to trigger the process mentioned above. In such cases, your body just uses glucose and breaks it up into ATP and lactic acid. The chemical formula for that is:
C6H12O6 = 2 C3H6O3 + 2 ATP or
Glucose = lactic acid + ATP
GLUCOSE IS YOU BODY'S FUEL
As you can see, for both aerobic and anaerobic exercise your body needs glucose (sugar) to produce energy. So it makes sense for sports drinks to contain sugar, doesn’t it?
Sweat and electrolytes
When your body heats up during exercise, it produces sweat to cool it back down. As part of that process, it excretes electrolytes (salts) in the form of sodium and potassium. That’s why your sweat tastes salty, and sports drinks contain those salts.
THE INGREDIENTS OF TRADITIONAL SPORTS DRINKS
Many sports drinks, such as Gatorade or Powerade contain the following key ingredients:
Sugar (carbohydrates) in the form of glucose and sucrose
Electrolytes in the form of sodium and potassium
B-Vitamins that aid in energy metabolism
So the simple goal of sports drinks is to help your body, during intense exercise, maintain sufficient glucose and electrolyte levels. Now you understand why sugar-free sports drinks don’t make any sense.
DO YOU NEED A SPORTS DRINK?
As I have mentioned above, your liver produces glucose from the carbohydrates you eat. That’s a continuous process. As a result, and during light exercise, your body has access to enough glucose through its filled glycogen reserves.
However, high-intensity exercise can easily deplete those glycogen reserves, and you need to replenish them to maintain your performance.
Whether or not you need a sports drink during exercise depends on the type and intensity of the exercise. If you go for a low-intensity, 20-minute jog, you won’t deplete your glycogen and electrolyte reserves. So you don’t need the 21 grams of added sugar a traditional sports drink has. In such as case, water with a pinch of salt, if you prefer, does the trick.
Ketogenesis is the biochemical process by which organisms produce a group of substances collectively known as ketone bodies by the breakdown of fatty acids and ketogenic amino acids.
By the way, if your liver doesn’t have access to carbohydrates, it can produce energy from fat in the form of ketones. That process is called ketogenesis, and it is the base of the Keto diet.
HOW HEALTHLY ARE SPORTS DRINKS?
Beyond the artificial colors and flavors of traditional sports drinks, their Achilles heel is their main ingredient: added sugar. There is nothing wrong with giving your body the glucose it requires to function during intense exercise. In other words, in cases when your body would deplete its glycogen reserves if you didn’t replenish them. But giving sugar to a body that doesn’t need it, due to full glycogen reserves, is like ingesting poison. The same is true with excess electrolytes, especially sodium.
In that regard, sports drinks are not much healthier than fruit juices or sodas. I say “not much,” because sports drinks often have a little less sugar than sodas and fruit juices.
PALEO-FRIENDLY BEVERAGES FROM LIFEAID
Sports drinks and Paleo usually don’t go together because the Paleo diet doesn’t include sugar-loaded drinks. Unless, they are made using Paleo-compatible sweeteners, such as stevia extract or blue agave nectar.
At LIFEAID, we fuel your passion with our clean & refreshing nutritional blends. Can you say the same about those other one-dimensional products whose “blend” is a bunch of additives, sugar, & added caffeine? Our products are tailored for your active lifestyle – without all the junk. Join us as we show the world there is a better way.
Stevia, for example, has zero calories and a Glycemic Index (GI) of 0. That means it does not raise your blood sugar level. Agave nectar has a GI of 30 and thus increases your blood sugar level slower than glucose (GI 100) and sucrose (GI 65).
LIFEAID to the rescue
My friend and workout buddy Felipe recently introduced me to the LIFEAID Beverage Company during an intensive rowing session, which ended with me lying exhausted on the floor in his basement. When he saw the misery I was in, he gave me a choice between a spoon of honey or a can of FITAID, LIFEAID’s recovery drink. I tried the latter and quickly felt better – thanks to the 9 grams of sugar and other ingredients that helped raise my evidently low blood sugar levels.
After I had recovered, I took a closer look at the ingredients of LIFEAID, which included:
Nine grams of sugar from stevia extract and blue agave nectar.
A proprietary blend of BCAAs, Glutamine, CoQ10, Glucosamine, Quercetin, Turmeric, B Complex, Green Tea and Vitamins (C, D, E), Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium.
No artificial colors, flavors or sweeteners.
LIFEAID is not a traditional sports drink
As we have learned above, your body needs glucose during intense exercise. LIFEAID doesn’t offer any drinks that contain more than 9 grams of sugar. That’s less than half the amount of sugar in traditional sports drinks. As a result, LIFEAID doesn’t market its products like sports drinks. Instead, LIFEAID offers drinks to supplement your lifestyle in a natural, and Paleo-friendly way through the following products:
LIFEAID beverages
FITAID: Recovery blend after intense activity or exercise
FOCUSAID: To help you focus
LIFEAID: A healthy soda alternative
PARTYAID: Helps you recover after a long night out
TRAVELAID: Natural blend to help boost your immune system
GOLFERAID: Performance blend for low- to medium-intensity exercise
I recently reached out to LIFEAID and asked them to send me some of their products for review. Thankfully, they did! During a recent 5k run, I tried their FITAID fuel protein blend and GOLFERAID before the race and FITAID right after, to recover. My goal was to finish the race in 27 minutes or less, and I came in at 24:31. So I have no complaints.
Me enjoying GOLFERAID before a 5K race
WHY I PREFER LIFEAID OVER TRTADITIONAL SPORTS DRINKS
Sugar is poison, and I try to stay as far away from it as possible. Sugar in liquid form is even worse because it raises your blood sugar level even quicker than other carbohydrates in solid form. However, during intensive exercise or activity, your body needs quick access to glucose (sugar). So sports drinks certainly have their place. But I am not a professional athlete, and I don’t earn a living based on my performance when I push the jogging stroller around the neighborhood. There are times when I empty the glycogen reserves of my body, but that doesn’t happen every time I exercise.
The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends not to have more than 36 grams of added sugar per day for men and 25 grams for women. In reality, you don’t need and shouldn’t eat any added sugar. But I guess the AHA had to come up with a limit that was realistic for the poor diet of the average American.
Gatorade has 21 grams of added sugar, which is 58% of the maximum the AHA recommends for men and a whopping 84% for women. If I had a bottle of Gatorade every time I exercised, I would most likely ingest more added sugar than necessary. That, in turn, would have severe consequences on my health in the long run.
That is why I prefer to err on the side of caution and stick with LIFEAID products for exercise. Each drink has only 9 grams of sugar and no artificial ingredients. Beyond exercising, my liquid diet consists of water, coffee, and a glass of wine for dinner. Recently, I started experimenting with Kombucha and Kefir, and I enjoy the occasional Mojito or Margarita. But I am extremely careful not to introduce liquid sugar into my daily routine, and I recommend you do the same.
SOURCE: https://michaelkummer.com/healthy-sports-drinks-work/
LifeAID Beverage Company makes a variety of supplements that provide targeted health benefits. The company recently launched a “2 Free Cans” offer online. Find out what the catch is today in our review.
What is LifeAID Beverage Company?
LifeAID Beverage Company can be found online at LifeAIDBevCo.com. The company currently offers 7 different beverages, each of which targets specific health benefits.
LifeAID offers a FitAID fuel pouch supplement, for example, that comes packed with protein and BCAAs. There’s also a TravelAID supplement to boost your immune system or a FocusAID supplement to boost your focus at work.
The company describes itself as “the leading manufacturer of premium, healthy, and convenient nutritional products for active lifestyles.”
LifeAID recently made the list of Inc. 500’s fastest growing companies. They’re based in Santa Cruz, California and launched in 2011.
What is the 2 Free Cans Offer?
You’re probably hearing about LifeAID today because you’ve seen the “2 Free Cans” offer advertised online.
When you visit the official LifeAID website today, you’ll see a pop-up directing you to buy 2 Free Cans today. All you need to do is pay shipping, and the cans will be delivered to your address.
Shipping prices vary depending on your offer. When you first click the offer, you’ll be asked to pay $5.70 in shipping for two cans. However, if you wait for the timer on the sales page to count down to 0, that shipping cost gets reduced all the way to $0.99.
You can choose any two LifeAID products for the free offer (except for LifeAID, which isn’t listed). You pick your cans, go to the sales page, enter your credit card information, and wait for the two cans to show up at your door.
Obviously, if you’ve been on the internet for more than a week, then you’re probably wondering: what’s the catch?
Here’s the weird thing: as far as we can tell, there is no catch. We went through the entire ordering form. The secure ordering form accepts payment with credit card, PayPal, or Amazon. Your payment method is charged $0.99 (or $5.70, depending your offer), and the cans are on their way to your address.
We even read through the terms and conditions to see if there was some hidden charges or fees. There weren’t.
Unlike other “free” offers you see online, LifeAID doesn’t force you to sign up to an autoship program. It doesn’t charge your credit card hidden fees, or start shipping you 24 packs of LifeAID products just because you ordered 2 free cans.
It ships you two free cans of LifeAID in the hopes that you’ll become a long-term customer. That’s it.
LifeAID Beverages
LifeAID currently offers seven different beverages, including all of the following:
-FitAID Fuel:
This fuel pouch is designed to be used at the gym or for on-the-go nutrition. The flavor is described as “tangy apple sweet potato”. All ingredients are paleo-friendly. Each serving contains 12g of grass-fed whey, 2,000mg of BCAAs, and 16g of organic carbs.
-FitAID:
FitAID describes itself as “the premier recovery supplement for your active lifestyle”. To help you recover, it contains ingredients like glutamine, glucosamine, turmeric, quercetin, potassium, magnesium, and B vitamins. Most of these ingredients are delivered at a dose that’s equal to, or above, 100% of your recommended daily value. In other words, taking one can delivers most of the ingredients your body needs on a daily basis.
-FocusAID:
FocusAID claims to boost your focus and mental clarity using ingredients like alpha GPC, Rhodiola rosea, acetyl-l-carnitine, ginseng, yerba matte, green tea, vitamins C, and D, and B vitamins. As you can see, FocusAID contains a variety of trendy nootropics. Just like with other LifeAID supplements, these ingredients are delivered at a surprisingly strong dose. All of the vitamins and nutrients (except for magnesium and vitamin C) are delivered at 100% of your recommended daily value (the vitamin C dose is 421% of your DV, while the magnesium dose is 63% DV).
-LifeAID:
LifeAID is the company’s signature drink. It’s designed to be taken daily to support your health and fill in the gaps in your poor diet. Key ingredients include healthy herbs like rosemary, turmeric, ginger, oregano, and cayenne, all of which help balance your body’s natural inflammation response. There’s also B vitamins, vitamin C, and magnesium to support your overall health and nutrient balance.
-PartyAID:
PartyAID is designed to get your weekend going – and keep it going. The formula incudes ingredients that “help you feel good when you are out having a great time”, then help you recover the next day. Key ingredients include 5-HTP to replenish your serotonin levels and milk thistle to support your liver health. Again, there’s a strong dose of most ingredients, including more than 100% of your daily value of most vitamins and nutrients.
-TravelAID:
TravelAID is an immune-boosting supplement you can take while traveling – or just if you need to boost your body’s defenses during cold season. TravelAID helps you boost your immune system and calm your nerves using ingredients like zinc, vitamins A, C, and D, chamomile, ginger root, and Echinacea.
-GolferAID:
GolferAID is a supplement aimed at improving your golf game. The supplement includes BCAAs, glucosamine, turmeric, and MSM to keep your joints feeling good throughout the game. There’s also Siberian Ginseng and CoQ10 to improve your focus, while the B vitamins help keep your energy levels up. LifeAID describes it as “the educated golfers [sic] supplement product of choice”. They recommend drinking it 15 minutes before you tee off.
One thing we really appreciate with LifeAID is their transparency with their ingredients and research. The company has published its full list of ingredients online. They also list the accompanying research that supports their various health claims. This may seem straightforward, but it’s a step that a lot of supplement manufacturers ignore.
The company also makes a big deal out of the fact that it uses no artificial sweeteners. Like many other companies that make this promise, LifeAID uses stevia as a sweetener (along with some sugar; a typical can contains 45 calories in total)
LifeAID Pricing
LifeAID supplements are available online through the official website at LifeAID.com, where you can only buy them in packs of 24 (unless you sign up for the 2 free cans offer listed above). You can also purchase a 12 pack through Amazon. Here’s how pricing breaks down:
FitAID Fuel 24 Pack: $69.99 ($2.91 per pouch)
FitAID 24 Pack: $59.76 ($2.49 per can)
FocusAID 24 Pack: $59.76 ($2.49 per can)
LifeAID 24 Pack: $59.90 ($2.50 per can)
PartyAID 24 Pack: $59.76 ($2.49 per can)
TravelAID 24 Pack: $59.76 ($2.49 per can)
GolferAID 24 Pack: $59.76 ($2.49 per can)
LifeAID is not currently listed for sale online through the official website. However, it is available for sale through Amazon. It’s the company’s original beverage.
When you purchase 2 x 24 packs at a time, you get free shipping when ordered through the official website. Amazon also has a variety of bundle offers and deals you can enjoy.
Some reviewers online also indicate that their gym sells LifeAID beverages.
What Do Customers Have to Say About LifeAID?
LifeAID beverages are generally well-reviewed. On Amazon, the beverages have a current rating of 4.5 stars out of 5, with a total of 136 reviews posted at the time of writing. The vast majority of those reviews (81%) were 5 stars. Here are some of the pros and cons reviewers mentioned:
Pros
Great for pre and post-workouts
Gives me the right amount of energy without being overwhelming
Shipping is free when ordering two cases at a time
Excellent focus
Crisp, clean, and refreshing taste
Natural ingredients with no artificial sweeteners (stevia is used for sweetening)
Cons
Not all reviewers like the taste. One reviewer said he has to “chug it just to be able to finish a can”
Overall, LifeAID supplements are very well-reviewed online, with most customers reporting that they enjoyed the taste, appreciated the natural ingredients, and enjoyed the targeted effects – whether they were focus-boosting, energy-boosting, or recovery-boosting effects.
About LifeAID
LifeAID Beverage Company is a health supplement manufacturer listed on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing companies. The company’s products, according to their LinkedIn page, “represent a far superior alternative to sodas, energy drinks, sports drinks, and even traditional health drinks.”
The company is based in Santa Cruz, California and was founded in 2011. The two co-founders, Aaron Hinde and Orion Melehan, first met each other at a CrossFit studio in Santa Cruz. Orion was a Certified Financial Planner while Aaron was a chiropractor who worked with local athletes. The friendship turned into a business partnership, and the rest is history.
LifeAID Review Summary
LifeAID is a well-reviewed beverage company that offers a wide range of supplements for athletes, golfers, office workers, students, and partiers. Each can of LifeAID contains 45 calories and has no artificial sweeteners. The beverages also contain surprisingly strong dosages of their active ingredients – which is something we don’t always see with other beverage companies.
Overall, LifeAID is one beverage company that can help you enjoy targeted health benefits in many different ways.
Santa Cruz New Tech MeetUp: Verve Coffee in Tokyo, LifeAid on Inc 500
By Jondi Gumz, Santa Cruz Sentinel
Colby Barr slept on partner Ryan O’Donovan’s couch for a year when the bootstrapping duo set out to create one of the best coffee companies in the world.
The enterprise they founded, Verve Coffee Roasters, will be 10 years old in the fall.
How it has grown: Nearly 200 employees, four cafes in Santa Cruz, three in Los Angeles, one in San Francisco and another in Tokyo; wholesaling and supplying Silicon Valley giants such as Facebook, eBay, PayPal, Yahoo and Pinterest; partnering with Manresa Bread of Los Gatos for baked goods; online sales where buyers can pick beans from a country, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Kenya, or a grower such as Juan Benitez of Honduras.
”On our bags, we say ‘made in Santa Cruz’ — we want to remain independent,” said Barr, who spoke Wednesday night to 240 people at Hotel Paradox at the Santa Cruz New Tech MeetUp showcasing lifestyle companies.
He recalled building Verve’s first cafe on 41st Avenue in Pleasure Point without a contractor, spending $160,000 and opening with less than $3,000 cash on hand.
Now that newly remodeled cafe has added Manresa biscuits and avocado toast to the menu.
“We hope we can improve the quality of life for the farmers and for the customers,” Barr said.
Aaron Hinde, 41, who started LifeAID Beverage Co. with fellow father and golfing buddy Orion Melehan, reported the 6-year-old startup made Inc’s fast-growing 500 last year and will be in the top 100 this year.
“We took on the conglomerates selling sugar water,” he said, explaining each LifeAID drink has a different set of ingredients from green tea and yerba mate to vitamin C, echinacea and zinc.
With eight new hires, LifeAID has 54 full-time employees in Santa Cruz and 50 part-time brand ambassadors in locations across the U.S.
At the start, the future was far from assured.
The food scientist hired to work on the formula had to be persuaded that sugar was not needed to create palatable drinks.
“How did you make them taste good?” came the question from the audience.
“Trial and a lot of error,” said Hinde, whose staff handed out free beverages.
Taylor West, 28, co-founder of Humble Sea Brewery in 2014 with two 20-something buddies, worked out of a carport in Ben Lomond.
They raised more than $1 million, including a $500,000 Small Business Administration loan from Heritage Bank of Commerce to fund their brewhouse and tap room seating 25, which opened on Swift Street on March 17.
Advertisement
They invested $130,000 in brewing experiments, testing 60 recipes in 2016, and putting on 30 events to find out what people like to drink.
It costs $3,000 to brew 300 gallons of beer that can be sold for $18,000, West said.
Now Humble Sea Brewery has 14 employees and an expensive piece of stainless steel brewing equipment not yet operational.
“Our equipment can’t run without power,” said West. “We’re waiting for a PG&E upgrade.”
John Felts, 31, co-founder of Cruz Foam, got a big round of applause talking about a new biodegradable material made from shrimp shells to shape a surfboard.
The next step is to raise $250,000 and make a full-scale prototype in Santa Cruz.
Caitlin Davies, 36, a UC Santa Cruz alum, is launching her startup, Mountain Sea Adventures, taking groups on moonlight hikes and stand-up paddling after working seven years as a guide. Trips range in cost from $55 to $250.
She plans to give back by taking young women out on adventures, with the first group from Digital Nest in Watsonville.
UC Santa Cruz student Vernon Cole gave a polished demonstration of a new app called Real Time to help college students meet students who share their interests.
Afterward, tech veteran David Dennis complimented him, adding, “We should talk.”
Verve’s story made an impression on Cameron Lowe, 20. He has a startup called Stickify Brand, which turns logos into decals.
TECH OPPORTUNITIES
Here are some tech opportunities from Wednesday’s Santa Cruz New Tech Meetup:
Conscious Living: Santa Cruz-based company offers a taste of conscious living 1 p.m. June 8 at Scotts Valley Hilton, 6001 La Madrona Drive, Scotts VAlley.
OutSite: Inspired by a visit to Santa Cruz, founder offers eight properties for co-living and co-working and plans to expand to 100 locations by 2020.
Small Business Week Food Slam: 4-6 p.m. May 6 at Food Lounge, Center Street, Santa Cruz.
Fields and drones: Demonstration 2-4:30 p.m. May 7 with Drone HIV, Transition Robotics, Aero Vironment and InspecTools
at Monterey Bay Academy, Watsonville, mixer at 5 p.m. at Elkhorn Slough Brewery, 65 Hangar Way, Watsonville
Startup Challenge: 24 finalists pitch at 4 p.m. May 12 at Cal State Monterey Bay.
Abbott Square: Six new restaurants, two bars, performances and a secret garden opens June 2.
Get hired: Santa Cruz New Tech MeetUp 6 p.m. June 7 with Amazon, ProductOps and three big companies whose names will be announced later are looking to fill 500 local jobs.
Accelerators: Santa Cruz New Tech MeetUp Aug. 2 with first companies to participate in the new Santa Cruz Accelerator.
SOURCE: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/business/20170504/santa-cruz-new-tech-meetup-verve-coffee-in-tokyo-lifeaid-on-inc-500