Smart Gx Bottle
Fuel the future of athletic performance
Gatorade
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ClientGatorade
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IndustryTechnology, Sports and fitness
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ServicesCustomer Research, Service Design, Industrial Design, Design Engineering, UX Design, Technical Development, Systems Engineering
The Gatorade Smart Gx Bottle is a tech-enabled squeeze bottle designed to help athletes set and track their daily hydration goals. It’s the heart of an ecosystem that positions Gatorade as a leading innovator in athletic performance.
To perform their best, athletes need to know not just how much they’re drinking, but what, when and how often. That’s a data problem with real world implications, and Gatorade was ready to solve it.
Over 50 years after inventing the sports drink category, Gatorade saw an opportunity to transform into a more holistic company, and retain ownership of the category. By leveraging the brand trust they’d built, they could provide tools that help athletes understand their habits and needs, and maximize performance from the inside out. They could make smart hydration monitoring accessible to anyone who breaks a sweat.
The result is the Smart Gx Bottle. It looks like a typical sports bottle, with a small magnetic charging port and a single waterproof button on the cap. Once you charge the bottle, press the button, and sync it to the Gx App, color-coded LED indicators pulse on around the drinking spout. As you drink, internal sensors measure each sip and update the LEDs, tracking your consumption in comparison with recommended hydration.
Designed on the field, for the field
Partnerships with pro sports teams and elite sports academies allowed Smart Design technologists to prototype, test and revise the design—eight iterations in total—under tough, realistic conditions. By observing how a prototype worked on the field, and interviewing players and coaches to get fine-grained reactions, we could then modify, update, and iterate. This brought some valuable insights:
Hydration behaviors can be improved through feedback.
Athletes love getting feedback, provided it’s immediate and clear.
IoT interfaces in sports situations must be zero fuss—there’s too much else going on.
Devices must run independently: nobody wants to fiddle with a smartphone on the field.
Innovation by Design Awards
The Gatorade Smart Gx Bottle was awarded an Honorable Mention in both the Sports and Recreation and User Experience categories at the 2023 Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards.
Core77 Design Awards
The Gatorade Smart Gx Bottle was named Honoree in the Interaction category at the 2023 Core77 Design Awards.
Good Design Awards
The Gatorade Smart Gx Bottle won in the Packaging category for the 2023 Good Design Awards.
Meet the Smart Gx Bottle
A tech-enabled squeeze bottle designed to help athletes set and track their daily hydration goals.
Pairs via BTLE with iOS App
Smart Design built and iterated an iOS app for research at two elite sports academies, helping define and optimize an ideal athlete experience.
Personalized
Custom printed name rings and on-cap LED lights give all athletes the option to make the experience their own.
Gx Pod integration
Works with Gatorade Gx Pods, unlocking a convenient and flexible sports fueling system with multiple formulas and flavors.
Easy charging
The Smart Gx Bottle has a five day battery life, and conveniently charges via a magnetized USB cable.
Brought to life through next-gen engineering and technology
To deliver on Gatorade and Smart Design’s shared vision, the Smart Gx Bottle had to provide real-time feedback and an effortless UI, in a form that fit effortlessly into any training routine. That required a familiar-looking bottle with a lot under the hood: sensors, embedded microprocessors, LED indicators track your progress towards your daily hydration goal, batteries, and wireless connectivity—seamlessly integrated, and waterproof.
Global partnerships enabled Smart to deliver on all fronts. ImpacX, an Israeli tech company, worked on the sensors and processors, while manufacturers in Tennessee and China helped dial in the molded details and complex internal structure.
To insure the Gx Smart Bottle worked flawlessly under the toughest conditions, Smart Design took responsibility for engineering all parts and assembly methods. We also oversaw development from concept to finished product, working directly with manufacturers to adjust tooling and processes, creating firmware specifications, and developing a coherent marketing strategy, tested and refined in parallel with the product.
Built for the sidelines
Engineered by Smart Design to be waterproof to 1 meter and withstand the abuse of pro-level play on the field.
Cutting edge technology
Hydration tracking is done using an advanced light-based sensor, developed with ImpacX and validated by the Gatorade Sports Science Institute.
Powered by the Gx algorithm
Personal hydration recommendations are generated using algorithms co-developed by Smart Design and the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, and used by professional sports teams.
Available to athletes everywhere
Gatorade has always been a sports performance brand, but the Smart Gx Bottle positions it as a sports technology leader, opening up new avenues for future expansion.
The Smart Gx Bottle can be purchased at Gatorade.com and select retailers.