How Did Gatorade Get So Big?

My grandmother lived on Long Beach Island, NJ and spent winters snowbirding in Florida. At some point in the mid-1970's, she wrote a letter to Gatorade saying how sad she was she couldn't find it back home, so the company (probably realizing she lived on a beach resort island) courtesy shipped a case of the stuff to the Beach Haven IGA, as well as to one to her. As far as we know, that was one of Gatorade's first appearances in the northeast. We used to have a copy of the thank you letter they mailed her. I kind of wish we still did, because in hindsight that was kind of a huge thing.

Shit’s good as hell when you got a fever

Michael Jordan was so popular, they could have made a movie about him playing basketball with the Looney Tunes

Those commercials with the athletes sweating out Gatorade were pretty effective.

“Powerade? Please” that made me laugh 😂

Gatorade: It's got what plants crave! It's got electrolytes!

When I was a kid I was at my cousin's house. We got thirsty and she reached in the cabinet for a tub of powdered Gatorade with that oldschool logo. I was like wtf? That looks like laundry detergent.

An interesting topic too is Powerade is sold in fast food restaurants: McDonalds, Sonic, Wendys, Whataburger etc. so im surprised they don’t have more of a market. Gatorade ABSOLUTELY wins at bottle sales but i’d be interested in that aspect of Powerade.

I'd like to see a "bigger than you know" episode about PepsiCo...

now you gotta do amazon since they sponsored this video

Michael Jordan took Gatorade to the next level. When I was young, i thought Michael Jordan invented Gatorade.

1:55 why is there a swastika just casually on the bookshelf

Dang I'm old, I remember when Gatorade used to come in glass bottles.

Your content is so amazing. You make the products I've been using and consuming my entire life seem so much more interesting.

When did Gatorade start adding so much fructose syrup. When I was growing up Gatortade tasted like unsweetened koolaid

I think that the great design work on the orange coolers and seeing them on the sidelines/in the dugouts on televised sports really helped brand recognition.

I miss the ‘90s glass bottled Gatorade. I still remember that clicking sound they produced when opening it cold fresh.

Anyone remember when Pepsi's sports drink was "All Sport?" Only to be dropped from production once Pepsi took over the Gatorade brand.

The first time I heard of Gatorade was in a marketing class at Old Dominion University in 1970. Our professor presented it as a case study and I didn't know it was a real product. I remember thinking what a silly name, even for a fictitious product. It doesn't sound silly anymore, of course, household term. Thanks for this video, Company Man, you obviously spent a lot of time producing it.

I used to think that Gatorade didn't do all that much compared to water, but I was completely wrong about that. In my sophomore year of high school I ran outdoor track. One of our earlier meets was on April vacation. This particular year in April it had suddenly gotten hot, so we went from running in 60 degree weather to high 80's/low 90's. The meet was supposed to start at 11am, but the bus broke down and we didn't start until 1pm. I had run the mile in previous meets and was going to try the mile/2 mile double for the first time. I ran within 1 second of my best in the mile, but was completely wiped by the end. I drank a good amount of water, but I was completely exhausted when I walked up to the starting line for the 2 mile. I did terrible and it made me not want to try the double again. Later that day I went home and was totally exhausted. Pulled some Gatorade out of the refrigerator and it was incredible how much better it made me feel. I was no longer feeling tired and weak. I have no doubt in my mind that I could have run faster in the 2 mile that day if I had been drinking a sports drink instead of just water.