Gatorade Debuts Wearable Patch To Measure Hydration Needs

PepsiCo Inc's PEP Gatorade has introduced a wearable patch for personalized hydration measurement.

How It Works: The Gx Sweat Patch and its companion Gx App uses a lab-based sweat testing protocol to determine an individual’s specific sweat profile.

The patch is worn for one-time use on the left inner arm during a workout. The patch fills during exercise, and when the workout is over it can be scanned in the Gx App to determine the individual’s unique sweat profile.

After analyzing the data, the Gx App provides specific recommendations on hydration before, during and after exercising.

The Gx Sweat Patch retails for $24.99 and is available at Gatorade.com, and in-stores and online at Dick’s Sporting Goods. The Gx App is available for free exclusively on the Apple App Store.

Why It Matters. The patch and the app are the latest products in Gatorade’s Gx platform, which also includes the customizable Gx Bottles and the GX Pods offering powder for the do-it-yourself creation of Gatorade drinks.

As PepsiCo. expands the Gx product line, it has run afoul of intellectual property laws with Gatorade’s Gatorlyte, an electrolyte powder mix of sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium and magnesium designed for athletes with high electrolyte losses. Last week, a federal court in Texas blocked the product’s rollout after Mexico-based Laboratorios Pisa successfully argued that PepsiCo. ripped off the trademarks designs from its Electrolit line of rehydration drinks.

(Photo courtesy Gatorade.PEP)