Why Athlelyte exists

I left a nine-to-five to build this. For eleven years I had a desk job in a downtown Toronto office tower, and the best hours of my week were the ones outside it: a Tuesday night basketball run, a Thursday soccer league, and whatever pickup game someone texted about. The worst part of those hours was what I drank around them: water, or a bottle of something with 30-odd grams of sugar in it.

The zero-sugar mixes I tried instead were American. I wanted one made here, for the way people here train, at a price I'd keep paying.

Formulating it was a pharmacist's job, so I found one: a friend from university who now runs a community pharmacy in Scarborough. Every mineral and vitamin in the stick pack is there at a level she chose on purpose, inside Health Canada's supplemented food rules, with no sugar and no caffeine. It mixes in ten seconds and tastes like something you'd finish.

This spring, at 34, I handed in my notice. We're starting where the sweat is: gyms and university athletics in Ontario. Then anywhere in Canada by mail.

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