What is an ecosystem?

Outside of athletics, many companies have used ecosystems to redefine themselves and create huge, enthusiastic customer bases. Apple created an ecosystem to move beyond being just a computer company. Google did it to expand beyond search.

But plenty of others have tried and failed. In working with Gatorade on their ecosystem over the past several years, Smart Design has come to recognize two key elements an ecosystem needs in order to be effective.

Products must support each other in ways that boost their value and utility in obvious ways.
A series of unconnected products is just a line, not an ecosystem.

The value provided must make sense for the company’s existing brand promise.
In Apple’s case, the promise is creative technology made accessible and simple; for Gatorade, it’s hydration for peak athletic performance.

These elements of the Gx ecosystem build on previously developed products, including an integrated athlete monitoring weigh-in station, a personalized non-IoT water bottle, and of course, Gatorade’s broad range of sports drinks, fuel, and recovery products. Alone, each product is useful and valuable, but together, they form an ecosystem which offers a unique experience—one that’s drawn the attention of serious athletes around the world.

Gatorade and Smart Design had big goals for Gx, but kept them flexible. This meant thinking far beyond a single soccer team, but refusing to constrain the outcome too early. By 2018, more than 50 professional sports teams worldwide were using the Gx check-in stations, personalized sports bottles, and digital hydration-tracking platform. And while the eventual composition of the Gx ecosystem wasn’t fully known, we knew it would bring pro-level tracking and insight to a broad consumer market.

It starts on the field

In 2014, Gatorade was on the eve of its 50th anniversary. As a global market leader, the company wanted to position itself for the future, innovate for its customers in areas such as sports science, and elevate its position as an elite brand for pro athletes.

When the Brazilian National Football Team asked for help preparing for the World Cup, the goals aligned on a huge opportunity: How could they leverage intuitive design, cutting-edge technology, and evolving sports science to boost pro-athlete performance—then apply what they learned to personalized products and services for everyday consumers? They turned to Smart Design to help move the finish line on what’s possible.

Smart Design began working closely with the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) who were researching heat stress and dehydration during exercise. A systemized approach was developed to test and analyze how each athlete sweats: how fast, how much, and in what concentration. Using the data gathered, Smart Design designed and built an integrated digital platform to deliver personalized sports fuel recommendations for each athlete to help optimize their training.

Pilots deliver proof

In 2021, Gatorade launched the Gx Sweat Patch and mobile app, which went on to earn awards and recognition from Fast Company Innovation Awards, CES, Beverage Digest, and SXSW.

But by then, versions of the patch and app had already been in use for two years, as part of an extensive piloting program with elite high school athletes throughout the US.

Running pilots allows designers to try out concepts in the field with real target users, collect feedback, and refine. But when developing an ecosystem, it’s critical. Ecosystem products are only as valuable as their interoperability allows, and as any engineer can tell you, the potential problems in a system expand exponentially as you add components. Pilots are the only way to effectively spot those problems and work around them when multiple products are in play.

Getting the Gx Sweat Patch and app to work together seamlessly, for example, was a multi-step process involving prototype apps with hand-coded data. Each step was tested in real-world pilots to direct the next round.

Piloting also adds much-needed points of achievement and celebration in ecosystem development. Designing the Gx Personalized Bottle—a predecessor to the Smart Gx Bottle—provided insights into how athletes respond to personalization features. It also offered a stepping stone to further innovation, confirmed that the humble sports bottle could be an object of focus and enthusiasm, and prepped both Smart Design and Gatorade for next steps.

Designing this bottle and these interactions drew on every insight and trick we’d learned working with Gatorade up that point. The Smart Gx Bottle is a sensor-enabled, WiFi-connected smart device that has to perform in high-intensity athletic environments, and work seamlessly with all other elements of the Gx ecosystem. Getting that right took multiple rounds of prototyping, real-world testing, and user feedback, leading to not just a unique connected device, but an integrated experience that changes the game for elite athletes.

The takeaway for brands

Gx is proof that ecosystems can generate enormous value, and not just for consumer tech companies. For established players wanting to transform, diversify, and stay relevant in the face of more specialized upstarts, ecosystems offer plenty of potential.

It also demonstrates the importance of understanding your existing brand value, and building products that deliver on that through new channels. Gatorade understood that it made sports drinks, but its value was supporting optimum athletic performance. The rest followed.

Finally, Gx is a multi-step, multi-product product story, with lots of prototypes, pilots, experiments, insights, and refinements. Gatorade is a sophisticated brand that understood the complexity of the journey as well as the potential payoff. As for the Smart Design team—we’re honored to have been a part of that journey from day one.