While everyone in the beverage business has heard of Gatorade and Powerade, there always seems to be room for a new contender in the isotonic beverage category. With a new distribution deal - Launch Hydrate has arrived.

You may remember tasting Launch Hydrate as you walked into the 2025 NAMA Show. Josh Rosenberg of Forward Thinkers was side by side with the company’s COO, Dillon Houstoun, serving up Launch Hydrate to grateful convention goers. 

In this episode of Automatic Merchandiser’s Vending & OCS Nation Podcast, Bob Tullio talks to Houstoun and Rosenberg about the company’s unique formula for success: the beverage, the strategy, why it’s working, where it’s going, and how operators can capitalize by selling the product in workplaces and distributing Launch Hydrate to concessions -- that critical last mile.

One other note of interest: while convenience stores are the typical route to consumers for a beverage, Launch Hydrate is finding momentum in youth sports, winning loyalty with parents (today’s workplace customers) and young athletes (tomorrow’s customers), who are all attracted to a better hydration solution.