On a daily basis, our team is committed to staying ahead of the curve when it comes to our product development. My office is littered with bottles from competing nutrition companies, new companies, store-brand knock-offs and homemade concoctions. The Amazon delivery people know my house and our office all too well. If we’re not receiving a new book on some funky new diet, we’re trying a random new product we found in the backwoods of the internet.
The other day, Jesse walked into my office and handed me a concoction that included coffee, turmeric creamer, moomiyo, MCT oil powder and coconut oil powder. It was actually quite good and definitely improved my afternoon.
Needless to say, we can’t produce every product that we try. But sometimes, we see trends moving at a strong enough pace that we’re able to move out of our comfort zone with confidence. (Hence our decision to launch the Elite line last year, which has proven extremely successful.)
A shift in our personal diets has led us to look into Paleo-esque solutions in the supplement world. Two sticking points came to mind immediately: Sweeteners (both Fructose and Sucralose) in our Hydrate & Recover and dairy in all of our proteins.
I became relatively obsessed with finding a totally unsweetened hydration product and a dairy-free protein powder that didn’t taste like $h*t (can I just say shit?)
We quickly found that no one is making an unsweetened hydration product that is worth it’s salt (get it… sodium?). We already knew that no other products compare to Hydrate & Recover, but it was dismal to look for one that was even trying to do it without sweetener. By the way, when I say sweetener I mean NO sweetener, not even Stevia.
On the protein side, we narrowed it down to three options. Beef, bison and egg. What we learned? Egg protein is nasty. I’m sorry, I just had to say it. If you have one that you love, let us know. But we tried and failed.
We quickly decided that beef or bison would be the way to go, and narrowed it down to beef based on supplier availability.
So that brought us to our decision to create a Paleo(ish) hydration and protein. Why do I call it Paleo(ish)? If you’ve read up on hardcore Paleo principles, you’ll notice that supplements don’t fit in at all. A true Paleo diet consists of meats and certain vegetables and nuts. No supplements, no protein powder, no Hydrate & Recover. Obviously, that doesn’t really fit our world-view perfectly. But it doesn’t not fit either. We hunt, fish and eat from our own gardens. We don’t eat a lot of sugar, we avoid heavily processed foods, and we stay away from wheat (most of the time…).
To us, building products that fit into a Paleo(ish) lifestyle feels like a natural fit.
There are numerous other benefits to these products, besides the desire to feed our inner-caveman. Beef protein opens our products up to anyone with dairy allergies or sensitivities to soy or whey. Unsweetened hydration will be a big hit with endurance athletes who cannot stomach a sweet taste on a sour stomach. (If you’ve ever felt the need to puke during a workout, you know what I mean. If you’ve never wanted to puke, I suggest you try harder.)
Why am I telling you this seemingly unimportant back story? Because I think it’s important. With the launch of our new journal, we’re making it our goal to become a more transparent company. We want you to know why we’re doing what we’re doing, and we want to get your feedback on our ideas, trials and errors.
So during the process of building the Paleo(ish) line, we’re going to keep you up-to-date. We’re planning on launching the new products in early Fall. We’re already on our second round of taste-testing and we’ve made some incredible progress so far. My next post on this subject will fill you in on flavoring decisions and our first taste tests.
When I told people I was going to write these articles and pre-announce our new products, many asked if I was worried about the competition taking our ideas and producing it before we do. Here is the honest answer to that question – If our competitors want to release these products before us, they will simply be knocking off or private labeling someone else’s product. Formulating and testing products takes time, especially two products we have never made before. So if you see one of our competitors release a similar product in the next couple of months, please feel free to give it a try. But know that our products will be formulated from scratch with the upmost attention to detail.
The best thing that we can do is stay transparent and show you the whole process from start to finish. As you read these updates, we hope you’ll develop an understanding for the amount of care we put into our products. Because when it’s all said and done, you put those products in your body. You’ve given us your trust and we’re going to continue to earn it.
