PORTLAND, Ore. — Velana Colón, a mom of three young kids, is on a mission to transform the sports drink aisle.
The Portland native and Jesuit High School alum, spent years formulating a healthy, organic sports drink for kids called K+. And now it just hit the shelves at New Seasons stores in Oregon, and others in southern California.
"The K stands for kids, the Plus is how they're going to perform when they're not slowed down by artificial dyes and chemicals and too much sugar," Colón said.
The avid health nut, who now lives in Los Angeles, says she started to get smarter about looking at the ingredients in the neon colors of the big drinks like Gatorade and Powerade. She didn't let her kids drink them, and started searching for an alternative.
Starting with coconut water, Colón played around at home mixing in organic cane sugar, potassium for electrolytes and purified sea salt. She knew she had something when her kids loved it, and hired a professional food lab to get the formula perfect and certified organic. At 14 grams, K+ boasts less than half the amount of sugar of the competition. A 20 ounce bottle of Gatorade for example, has 34 grams of sugar in it, equivalent to six cubes of sugar.
"It really bothers me that the whole reason our kids are out on fields and playing is for better health, so when your kid drinks a sports drink that's not healthy, you've just gone and undone all that hard work," Colón said.
Now, Nike has just taken notice and will start stocking K+ on it's Beaverton campus, because while it's formulated with kids in mind, it's great for any athlete. Even the family of one of the biggest athletes in the world, Lebron James. His wife, Savannah James, just become a co-founding parter with Colón and has hit social media announcing her signature Lemonade flavor K+.
"Savannah is definitely ready to step out on her own," Colón said. "Her kids are more grown up now, she's been really busy being a mom and that's really why I wanted to be her partner because her focus has been on being a mom and being an advocate for herself."
Now the women are set to take on the biggest names in the beverage industry and fellow moms are ready to try it.
"It's nice to support local people and entrepreneur people," said Jen Hill, a mom of two we talked to at the Beaverton New Seasons store. "We know how hard it is with kids and getting anything done outside the house is amazing, so we'll give it a try."
You can find K+ at all New Seasons stores. And you can buy it online. Learn more here