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You ever go looking for a GU gel or Stinger waffle before your hike, run or ride and then realize that you're actually out of all of your sports nutrition?
Today's guest on Gear & Beer wants to make sure that never happens to you again!
Today on G&B the founder of Fuel Goods, Laura Jorgensen, sits down with Colin & Producer Dave to talk about her new brand that she describes as Chewy for people who play outside.
And with this conversation about edible gear, the following beer pairings were made:
Laura: Burial Enlightened Aren't We All
Colin: Deschutes Lemonade Shandy
Producer Dave: Stoked Hazy Pale Ale
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Gear & Beer is part of the Rock Fight podcast network. Be sure to check out THE ROCK FIGHT for the best outdoor industry commentary on Apple or Spotify.
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Want to see your favorite piece of gear or favorite beer featured on a future episode? Send your feedback and suggestions to myrockfight@gmail.com or send a message on Instagram or Threads.
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Episode Transcript
Colin (00:02):
Welcome to Gear and Beer, the podcast for Gearheads beer buffs and adventurers with discerning tastes, and the latest edition to the Rock Fight Podcast Network. I'm Colin Tru and I work for brands and makers in the outdoor industry for over 20 years, and I am rolling solo today as Justin Hausman is again out in the field testing gear and drinking beer. But that's all right. We got producer Dave with us. What's up Dave? Hello. And we're going to replace today we're going to replace missing calories and not just with some frosty cold beers, but also with today's gear. That's right. We're talking edible gear and we are joined by the founder of the newly launched brand Feel Goods. Laura Jorgensen, welcome to the show. Laura,
Laura (00:41):
Thank you so much for having me. Guys,
Colin (00:42):
What's happening in this year in Asheville? What's happening in the southeast right now is summer is starting to loosen. Is the humidity starting to wane a little bit?
Laura (00:50):
It's actually quite beautiful here. Right now we're going through that season where some mornings are quite cool, others are regular. It's very bipolar right now. A little bit, but someone who grew up in South Florida, this is nothing.
Colin (01:04):
Alright, well before we get to learning all about refueling after awesome outdoor activities by using fuel goods, a couple of housekeeping items for our gear and beer listeners. Be sure to follow and rake gear and beer wherever you're listening. We need those ratings folks, a five star rating and clicking that follow button that's the most important part is the best way to support the show. You can also reach out and make suggestion for future gears and future beers by emailing us at my rock fight@gmail.com. Follow along over on Instagram where our handle is just rock fight co. There's no dot anymore. David, I took the dot out. It's just rock Fight co and sign up for our newsletter by heading to rock fight.co and clicking on join the mailing list. Alright, well let's get into it. First we're going to talk about the gear itself because I think the theme for today, Laura, and you correct me if I'm wrong, this is your company, but sports nutrition is gear. Do you agree?
Laura (01:53):
Yeah, I think it can definitely fit into that world. It's anything that you use for the activity that you do could technically be gear.
Colin (02:00):
It's the thing that people don't talk about. I feel like it's the thing we need the most, but maybe talk about the least. And I use a sales manager for Goo Energy Labs for a little bit and also for Bar, and I used to tell folks all the time, it's my favorite brands I've worked for because number one, my sample could fit in my pocket, which was great. It was when I was tech prepping shoes and I had to haul around a shit ton of stuff. And also it's like you all need it. And I also, if you have a good piece of food and it's like you're going to need this, whether you need to skip lunch or you want to have a snack or you're out there hiking or running or cycling or paddling or any of the things that we like to do, you need to refuel. So I would think it is actually a crucial piece of gear.
Laura (02:37):
Thanks Colin. Thanks for joining. It's to your point, it's the least sexy part of it. You don't get excited about going and buying a new bar necessarily, but if there's the new shoes or the new this, everyone's in, whereas fuel is always the afterthought and I think that's what we're here to change and it is finally getting a little bit of its time in the sun, so we're excited to see it.
Colin (03:00):
Awesome. I mean I assume you're a food person because you started a food company, but I always never understood people. The last mile of anything I ever do is always like, what am I going to go eat now? This is in my head whether I'm going to make something at home or go out or whatever it is. So I don't understand people who, they're not hungry. When you're done recreating, what do you doing? Isn't that the 90% of why we
Laura (03:23):
Do this? I'm with you. We caught a lot of heat, especially when we were racing. It's like what are you racing for today? And we would think about it and talk about it. What is the meal? What is the treat? What
Colin (03:35):
Is the thing, the breakfast burrito I'm going to have at the finish? That's what I'm raising for it.
Laura (03:40):
And it's a sensitive area because then there's this toxic culture around food and like, oh, you don't have to perform to have to want that thing. And I'm like, no, you're absolutely right. You don't need to perform to want that thing. And that's not why I am doing it, but also I want to reward myself after this hard effort with a thing.
Colin (03:58):
That's a really good point because I've heard people say that too, but I'm like, I'm with you. I genuinely motivating myself with what I'm going to eat. Really, you know what? I'm going to eat a double cheeseburger today and I'm going to make sure I earn every one of those calories and it's going to be wonderful. Alright, so you alluded the fact that you used to do racing. So just give us the background. What is fuel goods and why does it exist?
Laura (04:17):
Yeah, that's a great question. So I worked corporately down in Miami and was doing that whole gig and got really into endurance sport and cycling and got offered a contract, which basically meant someone's like, you'll sign a piece of paper and you'll get to keep a bike. I'm like, well, I'm woo. And I certainly was not going to give up my career for that, but I was really excited about the thought of getting to race and travel and all that. So I said, how can I make this work? And it was in 2014, remote work wasn't the thing. So I ended up starting a e-commerce business. I could do that from anywhere. So we started with two endurance sports, the runner box and the rider box. And that allowed me to race and pay the bills, which was important to me. Did that while I was racing.
(05:09):
And then during Covid retired and was like, well, what's next for this brand? And one of the biggest learnings I think we found along the way was that elite and pro athletes, we had all these resources of people telling us how to fuel what to fuel, but we would meet all these people and the first thing they would ask us about was nutrition. The one thing everyone doesn't understand, they're like, oh, so what do you eat while you do this? Or what's happening here and all that? And I'm like, man, people need more help. It just needs to be easier. Why is this so complicated?
Colin (05:39):
It's really simple, but it's also everyone thinks there's a secret that they don't know.
Laura (05:45):
Correct. And there's the nuance of what works for me doesn't work for you. And there's so much noise in the space around this is the diet, this is the thing, this is it, and everyone claims to be it. And so if you're just a regular consumer, and we already said nutrition's not the sexy thing. I want to spend hours reading nutrition reviews or do I want to think about the new sexy shoes? Right? It's not the well
Colin (06:09):
And it creates doubt because as soon as then you're like, oh, let's say you have a great race and everything's like going like, oh, I fueled really well, but then you read that thing that's in the magazine, it's like this is actually the thing that everybody should be using and if you're kind of an idiot, if you're not using this thing and now all of a sudden the doubt creeps into your mind, well, should I be using that
Laura (06:25):
Thing correct? So we found it was this really hairy area that people just didn't understand and we're like, let's stop the madness. Let's just make it so much easier for people to get it because it's such an important part of sport and it's so overlooked. And I think it's part of the culture of this toxic race culture and performance culture creates a lot of the cloud around nutrition where we're like, let's stop it. There needs to be an easier place for people to go that's approachable, that they don't have to feel like they have to be a professional athlete to need that thing or justify it. Let's just make a fun easy way for people to get the fuel they need.
Colin (07:05):
When you started it though, and I think founder stories always find fascinating is because you really have to identify gaps or what's the difference? You don't want to be something that already existed. So even those original run in bike boxes that you were doing while you were still racing and that was still a fulfillment thing, that was still a package box of goods. So how did the business side of it come together aside from even helping on the nutritional knowledge side, but how about the business, the idea of let's put some things in a box and send it to folks. How did that all happen? I
Laura (07:36):
Mean it was during that subscription boom when those boxes started.
Colin (07:41):
Oh yeah, especially like fashion. Remember you get some jeans every month or something. Yes.
Laura (07:46):
So that's when it started and everybody was on that kick. And I think that I have a bit of a leg up and that I actually came from business. So I was able to translate that, take my business skills, add them to the platform we had from being professional endurance athletes and smash that together to create a viable and successful business. And I think we continue to adapt and that fuel goods is a great example of that. I think a lot of people started businesses during a wave of something, but they didn't really have a business. They had if I'm in a ton of business tailwinds, this will survive. And as soon as we're not, it's going to fail type situation where we were constantly evolving and thinking what's next? I mean, think of we started that 10 years ago, think of just how nutrition and dietary needs and preferences have changed in the last 10 years.
(08:43):
So that's where fuel goods stepped in and we're like, Hey, you can customize to the hilt. You can get exactly what you need. I mean technology helps us get you there in a lot of ways that we couldn't before. It was like a large portion of the population could sign up for a box that had no stipulations and they would eat it now. No way. So we just said, Hey, it needs to look different. So when we retired from cycling, we were really thinking about what's next. We're like, first of all, it's cool that we have this thing for runners and cyclists, but nutrition across the board is pretty much the same. You alluded like paddling, hiking, this the form,
Colin (09:24):
It's calorie replacement, that's all it is.
Laura (09:26):
Correct. The form that you might take it in and at what frequency, cadence, those things change, but the actual modality that you're ingesting, it's all calories. We don't need to keep this brand hidden into endurance sports. We need to bring this out to the whole world with a bunch of options customized and things. And that's where this kind of expansion and added brand came in.
Colin (09:54):
Well that sounds good, but you know what else? Sounds good guys. I think a cold beer sounds pretty good. What do you think? And on this show, it's not gear without a Beer. Let's go around the horn and see what everyone brought that could be easily be paired with easily attained performance food boxes. So what did you bring to the gear and beer conversation, Laura? So
Laura (10:10):
Just like me, this could be a bit controversial, but I brought a triple,
Colin (10:15):
You're controversial. No idea.
Laura (10:17):
I think I boldly speak out about things I'm passionate about in ways that some people are scared to.
Colin (10:24):
People should aspire to be like that.
Laura (10:26):
Well that's why I like you calling. I brought a triple IPA from burial, a local brewery and it's called Enlighten. Aren't we all? And I think that is the goal of fuel goods is to help enlighten people and like a good triple IPA. It's got some balance complexity.
Colin (10:43):
What's the A BV in that triple?
Laura (10:47):
It's 12.7.
Colin (10:49):
We're going to have Laura just pound that beer and then we're going to see if she makes it to the end of the
Laura (10:53):
Podcast. No, we'll see how vocal I am by the end, right?
Colin (10:56):
Like, okay Lord, we got to cut it. We're done. The podcast is
Laura (10:59):
Over, right? You're the first guest we've had to kick off.
Colin (11:02):
Yeah, this is three hour conversation about fuel goods. I mean, come on man. Dave, what'd you bring? What'd you bring? What beer did you bring?
Producer Dave (11:10):
I brought a stoked hazy eye, pale Hazy, pale Ale from Henhouse Brewing in Santa Rosa, just up
Colin (11:22):
The road from Mr. Justin. Justin Houseman. Not too
Producer Dave (11:24):
Far away, it's not my neck of the woods, but they came to Portland a couple years ago and did a little popup kind of showing, brought their brewery. We brought some styles, so the first time I'd had them, I have not had this particular beer, but the Stoked Pale Ale got a 90 in the beer advocate crowd and seems to have a good following. The one I had before was just the stoked pale, not the hazy, and it was pretty darn good little citrusy balance. It's only 5.4, so it feels more like water compared to what you're drinking, but I'm looking forward to trying this and I thought it would pair well with the cycling box that I got with the waffles and the oatmeal. And actually I forgot to tell you, I am flagging a little bit right now and so as an elite podcaster, I thought I would have my Manuka honey green apple gel that I'm going to take right here to give me some energy. This
Colin (12:19):
Is from the box. This from the box.
Producer Dave (12:21):
That's my last item in the box.
Colin (12:23):
Yeah.
Laura (12:26):
Go Dave, go. Yes. Wow.
Producer Dave (12:29):
I'm ready. Is it good? I'm ready. Is it
Colin (12:31):
Good?
Producer Dave (12:33):
Yeah. You know what? It's exactly what it said. It's honey with a little bit of green apple, tasty, nice.
Colin (12:41):
More natural gels please.
Producer Dave (12:42):
Feeling more energetic and vigorous and ready to drink.
Colin (12:47):
Well, I feel like I feel bad. I'm breaking trend that I didn't find something locally from San Diego. You guys are doing local to where you are, but I had this in my fridge and it seemed perfect. I'm going in solidarity with our Portland based producer. I got a Deschutes, I got a lemonade Shandy.
Producer Dave (13:01):
Oh a Shandy. And
Colin (13:03):
That's because I have retired from endurance sports and I am now just hanging out at the aid station waiting for my runner or cyclist to come through and just sipping on a nice cold shandy on a hot day. I'm not doing any hard work out there. I'm just enjoying it. I'm not going to get any ice, Dave. I'm not going to pour it over ice.
Producer Dave (13:20):
We didn't open in a concert.
Colin (13:21):
Oh geez, we didn't. Oh Dave, you got to carry us today.
Producer Dave (13:25):
3, 2, 1.
Colin (13:27):
I forgot. I don't even know how I forgot to do that. It's terrible. Well, cheers everybody.
Laura (13:32):
Cheers.
Producer Dave (13:32):
Cheers.
Colin (13:37):
Oh, that's good. Not bad. What do you think, Dave?
Producer Dave (13:42):
Wow, that is a fantastic bale ale. Hazy. It's got flavor not heavy. That's really good.
Colin (13:51):
Laura already passed out. We lost her for the rest of the pod.
Producer Dave (13:54):
That was fantastic.
Laura (13:55):
I'm wondering, is it because you shot a liquid fuel prior to consumption and that just put the perfect palette?
Producer Dave (14:05):
It might have. You're right. And I feel like I can go run right now, so I'll be back. I'm going to go do a couple loops that's
Colin (14:12):
Right down the road, Laura. We'll have every guest coming on. We got a fuel box ahead of time. Okay, here's the routine. Okay, this is the technology. Here's when you take this. Just gel. Bring your beer after the beer. You have this.
Producer Dave (14:24):
Absolutely. I am a tipsy hummingbird.
Colin (14:27):
The gear and beer box would be pretty good.
Producer Dave (14:30):
A gear and beer box would be good. Actually that was one of my suggestions. I've got all these cool things to try in here. Could we include one of the, I dunno, the airplane bottles of Kentucky Bourbon or something? Could we have a runner shot shot, right. Or a tiny beer that would be
Colin (14:47):
Great. Cap pony bottle
Producer Dave (14:49):
Fitness shot, right? It's just gels thinking
Laura (14:52):
Of how fun it would look,
Colin (14:55):
Right? It has to be a can, right? You got to be able to crack it open. It has to
Laura (14:59):
Be. It has
Producer Dave (15:00):
Be a can. No bottle's fine. I'm good with that. I mean we can, nothing wrong with bourbon,
Laura (15:05):
I'll
Producer Dave (15:05):
Breakfast,
Laura (15:05):
Breakfast, alcohol, liquor laws or we'll just hide it in there.
Colin (15:09):
Alright guys, here's the situation as we kind of get into the specifics about fuel goods. So I'm sort of like Ricky Bobby right now. I like to go fast, whether it's running or biking or swimming or paddling. I'm not slowing down. I'm trying to win at everything. Problem is I'm just too busy to take the best care of myself that I can. I never have the right nutrition when I'm out training and I'm not home enough to go shopping. So Laura, how can fuel goods help me? You
Laura (15:33):
Know what? You are just our ideal customer.
Colin (15:37):
Oh my. Well thank you. Glad I'm here.
Laura (15:39):
I think that Chewy revolutionized this idea of autoship, right? And everyone's taking it on and that
Colin (15:47):
The pet company.
Laura (15:48):
The pet company, and we like to think of ourselves as the chewy of sports nutrition. We have one of our flagship products is a build your own box and you put it on autoship and you get to just put whatever you want in there, comes to your house. If you want to switch it up, you if you want to let it just ride forever, you can do that. But we've already alluded several times to the fact that nobody thinks about their nutrition until they have to, right? So you go into your cabinet and you're like, oh, damn it, I don't have what I need. Nobody wants that. So for us, we just want to take the thinking out of it because I fully recognized for me personally, and there's so many people like me that it's just not top of mind. I'm not thinking, oh, I really need to order that nutrition. So we just want to totally make it a non-starter, right? That's not going to be the reason that you don't do your workout. It's not going to be the reason that you don't hit your nutrition goals. It's just going to arrive on your doorstep. You're going to love when it comes because it's kind of like a fun thing. It's going to motivate you to do the thing. So for people, especially the ones that aren't thinking about it until they need to, the perfect solution.
Colin (16:56):
So it's really the autoship is almost for the situation I just laid out from that person who really needs nutrition to support what I'm working on. Because I did have a question. A lot of these things, and I'll actually left my box. I'm going to grab my box in a second, but the one you sent me, I've had some of it, but not all of it. A lot of things you can just go to the store and get. I mean it's a lot of real food items site's, a lot of real food items, which is awesome by the way. There's a lot of very basic sports nutrition items like goo and things like that, but it's that just sort of the people who are very consistent about what they're doing, but just want to get it on that kind of chewy, get it on that auto ship of great. I know the cadence and here's my box, it shows up and I'm ready to go.
Laura (17:33):
Exactly. I think you got one of the, we call 'em our gift boxes or ready to ship boxes. It's almost like a starter entry pack for you to try a couple things or for someone to gift somebody if they're like, oh, I have no idea what to get a cyclist. You can gift this box and there's going to be some wins in there, but once you're ordering for yourself, the autoship is the way to go. Then you pick everything you want. We've intentionally made the site holistic so it's not just gels and chews and protein, it's also snacks and things to get you through your day. I mean, that's where I derail all the time. It's just like, what's at my desk? What's around, what's in my car? That's kind of what keeps you going and I think that's where you can
Producer Dave (18:11):
Really, that's the hippies, chickpea chips that fits into that.
Laura (18:17):
Did you get hippies in your
Producer Dave (18:18):
Box? I did. I was very excited about Which kind
Laura (18:20):
Did you get? They're so
Producer Dave (18:21):
Good. The cheddar. I have it in before. I was just delighted to see them. I have to say I enjoyed the heck out of my the box. Oh good. I tried to for five days in a row, I tried to take just a couple items and make a ritual of it. I kind wrote notes as the things that I liked and didn't like. So just kind of keeping a track and Collins guys. But I would like you to talk about one thing that you've created, these curated boxes. I realize you want people to take advantage and make their own, but what's the thought process of what you put into these curated boxes? What's the intention behind the assortment?
Laura (19:07):
I think it's to vet down all the noise. Kind of like we talked about. There's a lot of noise. So we're going to say, we're going to give you a vetted assortment of different types of things. It's generally how it goes. So we have a list of the type of products we want to include in there. So we want to include some snacks, some protein, some on the Go fuel type options. And when we select items, we have three criteria they have to pass through. The first is mission alignment. If we look and we say, Hey, you're a crappy brand based upon are you sustainable? Do you care about people? Are you just some big corporate cog that doesn't put any of your employees person as bad press about you? You're probably,
Colin (19:57):
Do you misrepresent your nutrition facts on your packaging?
Producer Dave (20:00):
So nothing the bisco is what you're saying.
Laura (20:02):
Example?
Colin (20:04):
Well, I was thinking more spring energy, Dave, correct.
Laura (20:06):
Yeah,
Producer Dave (20:07):
Six to one.
Laura (20:09):
But we do a lot of that vetting so we can say, I mean I think our values and ethos are pretty clear and if we don't feel that a brands are, they're not a good fit for us, they may be a good fit for Costco or Walmart or something like that, but you're not going to find that in a fuel goods box. That's criteria number one. Criteria number two is nutrition, and we have a team of nutritionists on our team dieticians, and I think you'll probably see from our website and our ingredients, we generally lean towards more real food ingredients. We're not going to be like the GNC or shred that's got a bunch of yellow five and stuff like that in it. I'm not saying you're not going to find artificial ingredients in some of our products, but we definitely gravitate towards more minimally processed.
(20:54):
And then the third is efficacy and taste. Do we even like it, right? If we don't taste good, oh, there's a balance of efficacy and taste, right? If you are the most efficacious product on the planet, we'll probably give you a little bit on taste. We have ketones in our current box right now, and they're not the tastiest thing in the world, but the science behind them is super freaking cool. So there's a little bit of balance there, but those are the three layers that we look through and then we just tried to put it, did you get ketones in your box?
Producer Dave (21:25):
I did, and that was my issue was the ketones.
Colin (21:30):
I don't even know about ketones. It
Producer Dave (21:31):
Is the energy shot that I don't know what it tastes like, Colin. I can't really, I thought I had it, but then it just escaped me and I kind of went back to the space I had when I first dried it, which made me feel like lesser than it wasn't a good experience.
Colin (21:49):
Explain ketones, Laura.
Laura (21:50):
Okay, so ketones, they've been around for a while, but they're starting to gain a lot more traction. So ketones are naturally produced in your body and they are the most effective form of fuel given that your body can produce twice as much power with half as much oxygen. If you get
Colin (22:09):
Ketones, whose body do those ketones come from? Was that
Laura (22:12):
So Those are natural.
Colin (22:13):
That's why they taste weird. Dave,
Producer Dave (22:16):
I just, sorry. You know what? Just a couple things to add. It might go against their mission, but processed granulated, sugar, corn, starch. If there was ever something that could use a little bit of that, that would
Colin (22:29):
Be those are brought, like LeBron James' ketones I'm in, I'm going to drink that whole bottle. Let's go.
Producer Dave (22:34):
It's like it's more like his sweat glands. I think that's,
Laura (22:37):
Look, it doesn't taste great. The only time your body naturally creates ketones is when you're in an absolutely carbohydrate depleted state. So literally that's why people fast is to create these, is to go through ketosis. So your body creates ketones as an athlete or anybody who moves or does anything. Being totally depleted isn't going to get you. Yeah,
Colin (23:00):
Yeah. It's what you're trying to avoid, right? It's super
Laura (23:02):
Fuel, but you're so fucked that you can't, you're like the only thing that can get you moving. You guys were like, oh, well what if you could actually drink ketones? And I mean they're being used by all the top athletes now. Interesting. And by really everyone, because it's not so much just getting through a workout, it's even getting through an afternoon slump. There's a ton of brain benefits for mental clarity and things like that. So that's an incredible amount of science and scientific benefit from them. So that's where we say, hey, and we even put a forewarning in the boxes when we're talking about the product. We're like, look, this was not put in here for the taste. Not a 10.
Colin (23:44):
I do the fact you have these blind Dave, like, oh, what are these? Like, oh god, what
Producer Dave (23:48):
Did I just drink? I did. What have I done? But I will tell you, I did get the energy boost. I hiked three, four miles. I wrote 30 pages. It is, I complained about my congress. Well,
Colin (24:02):
Don't confuse that. The ketones with the cocaine, Dave, let's be honest. Be
Laura (24:06):
Separate.
Colin (24:07):
Yeah, we're together. I mean, I don't know, maybe that's a new form of an eight ball. Is this a 10? Ball ketones and coke? I mean
Producer Dave (24:12):
This is a cartel product. I could see that for sure.
Colin (24:16):
We also have things like I got the tiger B pain leading. It's not all stuff that you consume, right? It's other things like this
Laura (24:23):
As well, especially in the gift boxes. We have a lot of accessory type items in there because again, with the boxes that you don't know someone's dietary preferences or even flavor preferences, you're going to load that fully with nutrition. We want to make sure you get stuff in there that you're excited about and you're like, yeah, this is great.
Colin (24:43):
Yeah, you mentioned as a gift. I mean especially thinking folks in my life when I was doing a lot of racing and things like that, what a great gift. Even if it's not something maybe I eat regularly, I'm definitely going to have everything that's in this box. So especially the holidays coming up as well. I would imagine this is going to become a pretty busy time for you.
Laura (25:01):
Yes, the holidays are absolutely our crazy time. Over half of our clientele are gift purchasers. They're buying it for someone else. And I think that goes to the nuance of sport is that if you don't do it, you have no idea what to get somebody. So again, we're just about ease and convenience. How do we make it easy for you? So if it's a one click button and all of a sudden someone has a package showing up on their door for the next year, it's a win for everybody.
Colin (25:30):
Alright, I want to press pause real quick. Everybody, we have to have a sip. How's our beers? Are they staying cold? How's that 12 percenter doing over there, Laura?
Laura (25:39):
Just like a good fuel goods box. It's better when taken in. Bitch.
Colin (25:47):
You don't have it all at once. That's insane. That's
Laura (25:49):
Insane.
Producer Dave (25:52):
That's a lot of energy. A whole lot of energy.
Colin (25:59):
Alright everyone, before we keep going, I need to tell you about our amazing teammates at Darby Communications. If you run an outdoor and endurance or an active lifestyle brand, there is no better PR or digital marketing belay partner or drinking buddy than Darby. They can help your business reach new heights and they might just keep you from falling on your ass. I mean, since we started working with Darby, more and more people have been reaching out to us here at the rock flight because of that messaging. Look, guys, if they can help us, they can help anybody. Hit them up@darbycommunications.com. Do it today. I do want to talk about the real food versus synthetic food because I stopped running, I was doing ultras and I banged up my knee and just decided not to do it anymore. But I definitely migrated through the go phase and the gels and the drinks. Just back to what actually a bag of chips is awesome. I mean, so how have you landed on that of your career as an athlete and even when you're trying to decide what to include, and you said, you mentioned you're starting to see more play in the real food world, but I mean, do you still feel like there's a real place for the synthetic foods? I
Laura (27:09):
Think some people really like 'em. I think that there's people that really, really enjoy them and I mean no judgment there. Whatever someone wants to eat, I think that they're not great for you. So how many of them can you eat? That's part of our belief. I think that all of this is supplementary, right? You cannot live off of fuel goods, nor would we recommend that, right?
Colin (27:38):
I don't know. I got my muffin here, I got my Kodiak muffin, you got some stuff like that, right?
Laura (27:43):
Dinner. I mean, I think that there's a lot of brands that have gone even more synthetic and then there's other brands that have gone a lot more natural. We're seeing both in the space, and I think that in the world of nutrition, a lot of people are pushing towards more real food options. So you'll see a lot more companies out there. I don't know if either of you got Kate's in your box, but they use a lot of real food scratch uses, a lot of real ingredients. A lot of brands are using a lot of real ingredients. I think that's a hard play. It's expensive. So I think that we'll continue to see low cost synthetic options that are available for people to fit that need. And then we'll see other people who are like, look, I'm willing to pay more because my health, because I'm capable one or two because that's important to me and you'll land there. So we really are mindful of that because as much as I'm real food as much as possible, it is more expensive. So we try to have options for everyone that still use as clean and as good of ingredients as possible without always breaking the bank. It's another one of those things that are just a hard balance.
Colin (28:53):
The last ultra I did, my crew, we made 10 egg and cheese burritos, and then at each age station they were just dumping ketchup on it at some point. You just don't want anything sweet anymore. Oh god. God. It's like
Laura (29:05):
I can't
Colin (29:05):
Have, cannot not have anything sweet.
Laura (29:07):
Nothing. Nothing. I mean with cycling it's the same thing. You're out there for hours and hours and hours and at the end of it, I just want anything savory. I mean when we raced, we raced with a lot of rice cakes. So for me it was always a mix. It was a mix of how much of this sugary stuff do I need to put in there versus how can I just throw, I mean pretzels, anything, something that's just not that.
Colin (29:34):
The different textures, those kinds of things.
Laura (29:36):
Yeah. Yeah. So I think everyone's got to find their own balance and as long as you're able to do that, I mean,
Colin (29:42):
All right, so let's have one last wig of beer. Everybody. What we we're at the end. I'm not quite at the end of my beer. I'm going to have to sit here and probably finish it when we're wrapped up. I don't know. I think Laura's going to fake us out and she's not going to finish her
Laura (29:54):
Look over there. No, no way. I'm going to,
Colin (29:55):
Did we all acce? We all aced our gear and beer pair ke and beer pairings. We're happy with our pairings.
Laura (30:00):
I'm very happy with my pairing. I think so I would like to know what your guys' favorite from the box was
Colin (30:06):
And these things. Oh, that's a great question.
Laura (30:08):
Feedback gift.
Producer Dave (30:08):
Well, I'm definitely the untapped waffle. The chai waffle was excellent and I'm a fan of that category anyway, so that's pretty good. I thought the Kate's Real Food Snickerdoodle protein bar was pretty awesome as well. It wasn't expecting its texture. You see kind of protein bar and they all kind of fit in that same kind of, this was not that at all. Not at all. It was way more crusty cookie like flaky. So definitely down with that. So those were great. I mean look, I also like the powders and the stuff to put into the water bottles. Just put that in, throw it in the water bottle. I can drink on it for the next couple hours. Yeah, I really like
Colin (30:52):
Those. I need to go shopping again and get a few new things. I mean, had some basics in mind and definitely I'm always a sucker for stinger waffles no matter what and I always will be. They're always probably my favorite actually. I've been avoiding trying scratches bars. I just never really, I don't know. That
Producer Dave (31:09):
Was pretty solid. That was pretty solid.
Colin (31:10):
It's kind like a Crumb or cliff bar, I'll be honest. It's not like, yeah, but I get why people would like it. And honestly on a ride actually the texture of it is probably easier to chew. If you're thinking any performance moment, I actually would probably like it a lot.
Producer Dave (31:22):
That's as a snack point. It's not because a Cliff bar is anything but crumbly. I mean it's literally a block of,
Colin (31:28):
I will say scratches,
Producer Dave (31:30):
Organic matter,
Colin (31:31):
Scratches, raspberry Chew are pretty great and I've been kind of pretty with my go-to choose have been the pro bar chews. They've been my favorite. But these actually I really like These were good.
Laura (31:43):
They've done a good job on those and I think they've done such a good job that their bars just sit in the backseat because there's known for a lot of their hydration and their shoes.
Colin (31:52):
Well I love their beverages. I've always loved scratch beverages.
Laura (31:55):
You and me both. They are just really excellent.
Colin (31:59):
Alright, we can wrap it up there. Where can people buy their own fuel goods box? What do you recommend? How do people get started?
Laura (32:05):
I recommend going to fuel goods.com if you've never messed around with nutrition at all. I'd say start with just one of those ready to ship boxes. If you think you're at a space where you ready to pick some, a little bit of what you're doing, absolutely. Build a subscription, build your own custom box, try some things out. It's so fun to switch it up every time. And I think it's just a good male experience that everybody needs to their doorstep. And if you've got kids, you're going to have to race 'em to the door for it. I can guarantee that
Colin (32:37):
That's true. I don't know how mine survives. It's been sitting at my, the kids haven't even looked at it. I'm like, half these things would've been here. They think
Laura (32:41):
It's beer. They think it's,
Colin (32:43):
That's a good point. Well thanks for coming to the show guys. We loved having you. Thanks so much. Yes, thanks so
Laura (32:48):
Much for having me
Chris DeMakes (32:49):
Guys. Thank you.
Colin (32:51):
Gear and Beer is a production of Rock Fight LLC, our producer today. It's David Carat Art Direction by Sarah Bedrock Gen insert. I'm Colin. True thanks to our guest today, Laura Jorgensen and here to take us out to the voice of the Rock Fight podcast Network Krista makes. He's going to perform for you now live the gear and beer theme song and we'll see you next time.
Chris DeMakes (33:17):
We have experienced lots of tails to tell. Just like you're with your pal out on the trail. We review outdoor gear with the perfect beer. Now let the games begin. So glad that you are here at the break, the put in the trailhead. We're going to crack up in the and by the beverage where we can celebrate those losses. We hope so. Close line is.
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