SōRSE Producers Series: Adapt Brands 

For the 7th post of our Producers Series, we spoke to Richie Harrington, founder and owner of Adapt Brands, which produces Adapt SuperWater. Harrington, a former Division 1 college athlete, first started using hemp during his recovery from surgery and is a big proponent of the benefits of hemp for overall health and healing. Adapt SuperWater’s base is coconut water, which is then infused with Superfoods such as mango, pomegranate and hibiscus which pair well with 25mg of Broad-Spectrum hemp found in every bottle. In our interview, Harrington explains his journey from athlete to entrepreneur, the significance of his company’s name, and why he chose SōRSE as his emulsion provider.  

Can you start by sharing your background with us, and what inspired you to create Adapt Brands?

The journey into this space began when I played college football at Oregon State as a quarterback. In 2013, during my junior year, I tore my shoulder badly after getting hit in practice. After surgery, I was dealing with a lot of pain and inflammation management, and subsequently, I started using CBD and hemp products as part of my recovery. What I noticed quickly was that when I stopped using opioids and switched to natural remedies like cannabinoids, I healed a lot faster. I was back throwing in 2 ½ months as opposed to 3-4 months.    

My surgeon asked me how I was recovering so fast, so I told him about my CBD regimen – and he agreed that it was making a positive difference. During this time, I was beginning to realize that there were natural alternatives to synthetic supplements, synthetic beverages, and protein powders that the body doesn’t necessarily process well. I was also concerned about the addictive quality of opioids, which we now know is a huge epidemic. That’s another reason why I started using hemp products throughout the healing process. Also, once I started taking CBD for ADHD, I didn’t need to take Adderall any longer. My experience with hemp products has been nothing but positive.   

After college, I moved back to California to work for the family business – Maui and Sons. It’s a California lifestyle brand that promotes clean living, eating well, and being active. After working in marketing and e-commerce for the company, one of my friends who had retired from the NFL was interested in getting into the cannabis space. We looked at grow-op opportunities but realized that it would be very difficult to raise capital for a venture like that. Even though that idea went by the wayside, I was still enthralled with the cannabis space and wanted to figure out how get involved.    

After talking to some of my mentors and advisors, they suggested that I create a product for athletes. I had been taking a superfoods powder and started looking more into the combination of superfoods and hemp. The first products I made were two CBD-infused superfoods powders in single-serve stick packs.  At the same time, my dad, being the entrepreneur that he was, had a coconut water business as part of the Maui and Sons portfolio. I pitched him the idea of doing a hemp-infused coconut water, but he insisted that I do it myself since he didn’t know much about the hemp space.   

In 2019, when I was looking for an emulsion supplier, I found SōRSE  through one of my investors and mentors. The SōRSE team then connected me to Power Brands for formulation help. At the end of 2019 we came up with the formulation for Adapt Super Water, a superfood-infused coconut water. Our formulation was finished in November 2019, right before BevNET. At BevNET, the SōRSE team let me offer samples of my beverage at their booth, in a space where I knew no one. It was a great event, though, because I met people who gave me advice on how to improve my beverage and build a brand.   

We launched the first Adapt beverage in January of 2020, and we were selling them in some Gold’s Gyms and some yoga studios – but then COVID shut that down – which gave me time to reformulate my beverage and reassess my approach to the market.  

During COVID, I had the opportunity to work at Power Brands beginning in June 2020. I started as a project manager, then became marketing and ecommerce manager, and quickly worked my way up to Operations Manager for the distribution center. It was an amazing learning experience – I touched every aspect of the beverage space including formulation, production, and sales. Last summer, I decided to relaunch Adapt, and tested the beverage in the LA market. Our SuperWater performed really well, selling out of product in seven weeks. I went back to running Adapt full time in November, and since then, I’ve been working on raising capital to scale, market and fully launch Adapt back into retail.  

Adapt SuperWater will be the first NSF: Certified for Sport Hemp beverage, opening up a new market of products for professional and collegiate athletes to safely take.

What is the significance of your company’s name?   

Adapt is a word that has been very fitting in my life. When one door closes, you must figure out what the next opportunity is. Since launching at the beginning of COVID, I had to figure out how to adapt to the situation and come up with a new product that would fit the needs of consumers today, but sticking to Adapt’s core mission. The word “adapt” just kept coming up in my life, and it made sense for what I wanted to accomplish. Of course, adapt is also part of adaptogens, which play a prominent role in our product as well. The logo is a leaf in a water drop, in the shape of an A, representing the combination of superfoods and hemp. 

The fun thing about being an entrepreneur is that every day there is a new challenge or a fire to put out. I like working hard. My dad always told me that if you take care of your business, it will take care of you. This is a time when I can afford to put in all my time and effort into Adapt and go after what I have wanted this company to be for the last few years. I’m very excited about what’s ahead.   

Who do you envision the Adapt consumer to be? What benefits do you hope they gain from drinking your beverages?

 Adapt’s goal with our SuperWater is to offer an alternative to synthetic beverages, supplements, and opioids by combining natural, organic superfoods with the beneficial qualities of hemp. What I want people to realize with Adapt products is that there are better alternatives out there for what ails them, alternatives for products that we are told we should take but that are actually more harmful than helpful. My goal is to help combat the opioid epidemic, especially in the world of sports and athletics. I have lost friends to opioid overdoses – if I can help change one’s life with an alternative product, that would be amazing.  Because of my background in sports, I have a lot of experience and have seen firsthand the damage pain medication for muscle and joint pain relief can do to a person.   

Natural hydration is another aspect of a healthy lifestyle that’s important. Our product is 100% pure coconut water as our base, and we add functional ingredients to build functional stacks that help the body recover. We tie functionality to each of our products – our mango beverage with l-theanine and chamomile is for recovery, and the pomegranate hibiscus beverage is for immunity. There is no added sugar or preservatives in the drinks; they are sweetened with monk fruit.   

Adapt’s beverages are not just for athletes; they are for anyone who is looking for a healthy and natural way to protect and restore their mind and body.

An aspect of your company that stands out is the focus on “superfoods.” How did you learn about superfoods – and are there any challenges incorporating them into your product formulas?

I first started to learn about superfoods from the family business. Coconut is an amazing fruit because it offers natural electrolytes, sodium, and potassium – you can’t find a lot of fruits with that combination of benefits for beverages. Beyond coconut, I started researching other fruits and functional ingredients that would bring a lot of benefits with them. Pomegranate and hibiscus are high in antioxidants, and mango combines very well with the coconut and the terpenes found in hemp. I think 25mg is the perfect amount of broad-spectrum hemp extract for this beverage, for consumers to really feel the effects.

How do you educate your consumers on CBD and how to use your beverages in their daily routine?

For people who don’t know a lot about CBD, this analogy works really well. Your body is a puzzle, and sometimes your body doesn’t have the pieces that it needs to function at its peak performance. Hemp too has a lot of puzzle pieces (the cannabinoids, the terpenes, the flavonoids), and when you ingest it, your body will pick and choose the pieces that it needs to fill in the spaces that are missing. This all happens in the Endocannabinoid System, which looks for the cannabinoids that we don’t naturally produce and uses the cannabinoids from products that we ingest.  

I think it is also important for people to know that one person’s experience with hemp and CBD can be quite different from another person’s. Our bodies are unique, and we need different things. I really started to notice that when I started taking in more superfoods, that my mind and body would react positively to certain ingredients.  

How did you find SōRSE, and why did you choose SōRSE’s emulsion solutions over other providers?

I found SōRSE in 2019 through one of my investors and mentors who had been working with Mad Tasty. I had asked him who their emulsion supplier was, and he said it was SōRSE. I connected with the SōRSE team and tried the emulsion, and I was really happy with how it tasted. I tasted others, but none of them stood up to the taste factor for me. I knew SōRSE was a product I could work with on the formulation side because it paired so well with the coconut, the monk fruit and the other ingredients I was using. The mouthfeel is also important to me, as is the consistency and reliability. I want to have great quality suppliers throughout the supply chain, which is why working with SōRSE is a no-brainer for me.  

Why did you choose to put “Powered by SōRSE” on your products?

I believe in SōRSE as a supplier, and I believe in SōRSE as an ingredient. With this business, I am looking for long-term partnerships, and SōRSE has proven to be the perfect partner and ingredient for these beverages. Being able to cross-market these days is critical. Being the first NSF: Certified for Sport hemp beverage on the market will  show consumers and other companies that there are alternatives to opioids, and that will be huge for both companies.  

Is there a lesson you’ve learned about starting your own business that you’d be willing to share?

The best lesson has been learning how to adapt and be open to what is around me. You have adapt to be able to compete and move on. During COVID, we saw a lot of businesses not make it because they couldn’t adjust or pivot to what was going on around them. You not only have to be able to change your organizational structure and your procedures, but you might have to change your products as well. I believe that any movement forward, whether it’s an inch or a mile, shows progress.

What excites you most about being in this industry? What is your prediction for the cannabis-infused product space?  

 I think the alternative health market is on the precipice of getting big. Being a first-mover in the industry is what excites me the most. We also have this great opportunity to help people who are looking for an alternative product to synthetic beverages and supplements – so why not go for it? I really appreciate how innovative people are in this space.

In terms of predictions, the hemp beverage space is ready to explode. I think there are a lot of great opportunities to create products that will benefit people – and I love thinking beyond our SuperWaters to what the next Adapt product will be.  

Adapt Brands will be relaunching SuperWater in the Los Angeles area on March 1. To find out more information on Adapt, check out their website: https://adaptbrands.com/