gatorade

There’s an old fashioned brawl brewing in the sports drink industry. The undisputed champion, Gatorade, has filed a lawsuit accusing its perennial challenger, Powerade, of “knowingly misleading consumers and deceptively overstating the product benefits of its sports drink Powerade ION4.” The lawsuit is in response to a rash of bold Powerade ads which claim ION4 is an “upgrade” from Gatorade because the Powerade drink contains four electrolytic ingredients, whereas Gatorade contains only two, thus making Powerade a more “complete” drink.

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Gatorade goes to great lengths to determine if “It” is in you. Sweat patches slapped on Maria Sharapova and Tiger Woods provide before and after snapshots of electrolyte levels and sweat rate. But, what about during competition? Swiss company Biotex is developing a garment with wireless sensors embedded in the lower back to provide real-time values for similar metrics. Hydrophilic and hydrophobic material draws the sweat into flexible sensors just two millimeters thick and a few square centimeters. Data can be stored for future analysis or transmitted to wireless phones or PDAs so athletes know to hit the water fountain before it’s too late.

“It’s like driving a car around town, if you don’t watch your gas gauge it will be too late and you’ll be empty,” said Project Coordinator Jean Luprano. “You need to know whether to slow down or if you can go faster.”

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Over the years, researchers at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) have tested hundreds of elite and recreational athletes to better understand hydration. A few months back they stepped on court to analyze the sweat of the worlds fifth ranked womens tennis player, Maria Sharapova. Tiger Woods went through a similar regimen in creating his own custom Gatorade formula, with fancy flavors set to launch this month. Ongoing tests on NFL and NHL players offer similar personalized suggestions on what to drink and when.

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