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Wednesday, 20 February 2008 | Levent OZLER
Design and Nutrition Come Together in Y Water
New Children's Beverage Combines Innovative Design, Green Technology and Nutritional Research
Y Water Inc., a Los Angeles-based company committed to creating great tasting, nutritious beverages for children, announced the launch of Y Water: a low-calorie, low-sugar, vitamin-infused, flavored beverage packaged in what will surely be an iconic Y-shaped bottle designed by the celebrated Yves Béhar. The USDA certified organic drink, available in four flavors, is infused with vitamins and minerals chosen to help address the growing concern over childhood obesity and to provide a healthful alternative to sugary, non-nutritious choices. After consuming the beverage, children can use Béhar's modular playful bottle as a toy, turning a normally disposable product into a vehicle for creative play.
Thomas Arndt, founder and president of Y Water, wanted the container for this beverage to be as innovative as its formula and turned to Béhar's San Francisco design studio fuseproject to develop a unique packaging solution. Rather that simply downsizing a regular, adult water bottle, Béhar's and his team created a stable, symmetrical, bright, durable, nine-ounce bottle that is fun and easy for children to use. For Béhar, the cheerful, three-dimensional Y shape inspired the product name Y Water, and also riffs off the two questions kids most commonly ask: "Why?" and "Why not?" Once empty, the bottle becomes a toy. It can be linked with other bottles through biodegradable rubber "Y Knots", connectors that help to create spaceships, animals, robots, or whatever else a creative child can imagine.
 "We look to this repurposing of the Y Water bottle to not only encourage children to be creative, but to encourage children to think about reuse rather than simply discarding these into the trash," says Béhar. "We want to create a new paradigm for children's products that encourages unique new behaviors and a productive afterlife for the product."
Y Water also discourages discarding empty containers in the trash by making Y Water bottles 100% recyclable. The bottles are made from Eastman's Eastar copolyester, a tough plastic used in the medial industry and certified safe for food use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The bottles are environmentally safe and do not leach chemicals. Once finished with the product, parents can log onto www.ywater.us and receive a free mailer to send the bottle back for recycling.
Of course, what's inside Y Water is just as innovative as what holds it. Arndt was inspired to create Y Water after he couldn't find anything in the supermarket that he wanted his own young sons, ages 9 and 7, to drink. "They didn't want water and the school had banned soft drinks," recalls Arndt, a former brand manager for wellness drink company Carpe Diem (parent company for energy drink Red Bull). Partnering with Dr. Olga Padilla-Zakor, of the respected Cornell Institute of Food Science, Arndt sought to develop a low-calorie, organic beverage.
 "With Y Water, we wanted to address parents' concerns about the calorie count, healthfulness and organic quality of the products they give their children, while pleasing kids too," says Arndt.
Y Water contains all natural and certified organic ingredients and uses no preservatives, artificial coloring, or artificial sweeteners. Unlike the usual saccharine "fruit" flavors marketed to children, Y Water is available in exotic flavor combinations: Bone Water combines a shot of calcium with organic white grape juice, organic hibiscus, organic banana and strawberry flavors, and a touch of organic spearmint oil, while Brain Water features zinc, organic rosemary, lemon and acai flavors and organic caramel color. Will kids like these sophisticated flavors? Arndt says that they passed a crucial test market-his kids and their friends-with flying colors.
Y Water's attention-getting names-Muscle Water, Bone Water, Immune Water, and Brain Water-communicate the idea that the ingredients are the building blocks of healthier bodies. To convey this information to children, Mr. Arndt collaborated with the creative ad firm, Kastner & Partners, who created a tag on each bottle presenting nutrition information accompanied by whimsical pictures and witty messages for young consumers. For example, the tag for Bone Water features a skeleton and the line, "because you don't want your skeleton walking out on you." Muscle Water has an octopus in high boots, and encourages kids to drink it "because you never know who's going to challenge you to a wrestling match."
Kastner & Partners also developed Y Water's website, a fully interactive environment that provides children and parents not only information on Y Water but innovative ideas about creatively using the product.
Y Water is available at Southern California Whole Foods, the nation's largest retailer of natural and organic foods for $1.69. It will be available nationally by the case through Amazon.com.
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