While the bottles Blackhawks players drink from during games "have the Gatorade logo on the outside, there's a good chance" Coco5 -- a Chicago-based brand of coconut water -- "is inside," according to Danny Ecker of CRAIN'S CHICAGO BUSINESS. Gatorade is the official sports drink of the NHL, which means "every bottle, towel and water jug on the bench must tout the brand." But Coco5 was "developed specifically for the Blackhawks," and the team itself "was the drink's first focus group." Coco5 was born in '09 out of Blackhawks Head Athletic Trainer Mike Gapski's search for a sports drink that "did not have Gatorade's colored dyes and other ingredients he didn't want to give his players." Unable to persuade Gatorade to "make changes he wanted, Gapski decided to create his own." Coco5 President & CEO Scott Sandler said that 18 NHL teams or minor-league affiliates "buy Coco5 for their players." Ecker noted the drink is "starting to turn up on grocery store shelves around Chicago" thanks to a "recent cash infusion" from Chicago-based investment bank Loop Capital CEO Jim Reynolds. Sandler estimated that '15 sales will finish between $2.6-3.6M, most of which "will come from pro sports teams and buyers in the United Kingdom and Ireland." Blackhawks C Andrew Shaw, "an avid Coco5 drinker, recently signed on as a spokesman for the brand and appeared in a 30-second ad." Reynolds said that the company will "turn to more local athletes for future promotion, but not until distribution ramps up" (CHICAGOBUSINESS.com, 5/18).
