As athletes, there are so many different components that go into being the best at your sport. In addition to your everyday training, stretching, eating right, getting proper sleep and staying hydrated are equally as important as the techniques you work to master at practice.

However, how many athletes actually know how to properly hydrate? Drinking not enough water, or even too much water, can be a huge problem for athletes. The bigger issue, however, is that most active people do not have the resources that professional athletes have to track their hydration properly. The makers of Trago are on a mission to make hydration awareness/tracking easier than ever.

“We are passionate about water,” Jac Saltzgiver said. “We became curious about how much we drink everyday. So we set out to solve that problem, which led us to a more important question, how much should we be drinking?”

“We found that proper hydration depends on three main factors: Your body type, the weather, and your activity level,” Saltzgiver said. So Trago was born.

Trago is the world’s first “smart” water bottle cap. It fits most major water bottles (Nalgene, Camelbak, HydroFlask) and synchs with your iPhone or other wearable devices. Using bluetooth low energy, the extremely user-friendly app can automatically gather weather data or, if used with devices like Fitbit and Nike+, automatically knows your activity level. The technology in the cap paired with the app are unique to each user, which allows coaches or trainers to monitor each individuals’ water intake.

“In speaking with many DI coaches and trainers, one of the biggest things we’ve heard is that it just has to ‘work out of the box’ and be extremely user friendly,” Saltzgiver said.


An example of how user friendly the Trago app is with goal setting, updates, and athlete tracking

Saltzgiver and his brother Davis have been working on this product for the past 10 months. They have assembled a team of engineers who have worked with clients such as Fitbit, as well as medical devices and ultrasonics. Their first step in launching Trago began this morning, as their Kickstarter page is now live. “Prove demand and then get your product into production,” Saltzgiver said.

Most athletes and healthy individuals are very aware that water is an essential component toward one’s well being, but Trago changes the game in that it is targeted to each individuals’ needs.

“We realized there is a better way to hydrate, one that is intelligent and constantly evolving based on your specific needs,” Saltzgiver said.

You can donate to the Trago Kickstarter campaign here and learn more about this up-and-coming technology.