Everyone knows how important hydration is to our health. Our own Dr. Gerry Tolbert even wrote an article about summer hydration recently. But other than trying to drink more water or chugging down a sugary salty drink before or after a workout or sport, most of us have no clue if we’re doing it correctly. Enter Trago–the world’s first smart water bottle.
New to Kickstarter? Check out our crowdfunding primer.
As with most Kickstarter projects that involve gadgets, functioning prototypes were not available for review; however, as an avid runner, I could not pass up the opportunity to share what I feel is an amazing, potentially life changing, gadget with all of our readers.
The Trago, Spanish for ‘gulp’, is a smart water bottle that is promising a lot but Jack and Davis, the Saltzgiver brothers, have done extensive testing and prototyping with a mechanical engineer and an electrical engineer who, combined, have over 60 years of experience. They are ready to take it to the next step which is why they launched their Kickstarter. Because they are so far along in their early development, they are expecting to be complete with all development, tooling, production and begin shipping by March of 2016.
So what exactly is a smart water bottle, and why do you need one? Trago will use your specific body metrics (age, sex, height, and weight) along with specific activity and location metrics (altitude, weather, and activity level) to actually track how much water you need and how much you are drinking. The app will give you feedback as you workout or play, or just go through your daily routine on how you’re doing and when you need more or less to drink. This is not just for athletes or active people. Trago will help anyone keep properly hydrated.
Trago will use low energy Bluetooth to pair with your phone, and the Trago app will connect with your other fitness devices like Fitbit, Garmin, Jawbone, and Apple Watch and sync seamlessly with your other fitness apps like Apple Health, MapMyFitness, Underarmour Record, Nike+, MyFitnessPal, and Fitbit. All of this sharing of data will make your Trago that much smarter and better able to track and report back to you on your necessary hydration.
Although Trago will come with a water bottle, the design is versatile so that the cap (where all the tech is) will actually work on any wide-mouth water bottle like Nalgene, Camelbak and Hydro Flask.
If all of that data about your fitness and hydration still isn’t enough to pique your interest, Trago also promotes being environmentally aware. It will track how many disposable water bottles you saved and reward you for your contribution to the planet.
One last thing about Trago–it’s not just for individuals. Do you play team sports? Are you a coach or trainer? Trago will let you track multiple bottles and users so you can keep an eye out on your teammates or players as well. Trago will be an invaluable tool for coaches and trainers.
If you care about your hydration and love to get geeky about data and track your habits, head over to Kickstarter and get in on the great early bird deal to get your own Trago for only $39 and help them reach their goal of $50,000!
I’m all for cool gadgets (especially athletic gadgets) but this seems like a bit much. The scientific stuff I’ve read about hydration points to it being a much less complicated issue, and that many of the myths perpetuated by sports drink companies are not only wrong but potentially dangerous.
Here’s one article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110903133240.htm
Hey Mack, I totally agree with you and I think the folks at Trago would too. This is about just making sure you getting enough or aren’t getting too much water and breaking through all the myths that cause people to guzzle all those terrible sugary drinks or even “overdose” on too much fluids. Hypernatremia is very serious and, as long distance endurance runner, always something I worry about, even moreso than not getting enough fluid. That’s why I’m so excited about Trago. I’d like to worry less about how much I’m drinking and enjoy my runs! Thanks for reading!
Mack,
We completely agree about the dangers. The sports drink industry has funded 40 yrs of hydration research that somehow always ends up with the motto of “drink more more more”. At Trago, we do take a lot of data in order to take some of the guesswork and mystique out of proper hydration and help people hydrate with the right amount for them. Many times this will mean telling the athlete to stop drinking so fast or that they’re drinking too much. However, we believe Trago can fill that role intelligently.
One of our favorite Hydration specialists is Dr. Tim Noakes, who makes a brilliant case against over-hydration during long distance running.
Best
Trago Team
Thanks for reading and jumping in on the discussion Trago Team!
I live in Canada and ordered one via their website. The company seemed to have used a special batch delivery service for shippings to Canada. It has been almost a month and a half, and I have received nothing! I contacted Trago support, and they have not replied for 5 days. This is infuriating. I consider this company a complete scam until I have received an answer. If you are a member of the Trago team reading this, please sort this out immediately. My order number is #TRAGO1677, and my ticket ID is #TS00002046.