Qore Performance made its leap into the DMV startup scene in 2015 with a Kickstarter campaign that closed $23,000 for their first set of products: a line of shirts, shorts and athletic sleeves designed to keep you hydrated during workouts.
Now, with their latest product, the IcePlate, the Fairfax-based company is making a pivot away from their apparel line and towards the military and outdoor performance markets. And that pivot comes with a low six-figure deal with the Marine Corps with Qore as a subcontractor.
The IcePlate is a wearable water bottle, designed primarily for those in combat. Think of it as the Camelbak Hydration Pack, but slim enough to fit under a kevlar vest and tough enough to stay intact after falling 50 feet. Designed to fit 50 ounces of water, users freeze the IcePlate overnight and wear the flat, octangular bottle under their body armor to keep them cool for about 3-to-5 hours. As the user's body heat melts the pack, ice-cold water is created to drink.
With the release of IcePlate, Qore co-founder Justin Li said the company is pivoting back to their original intended customer base: the Department of Defense and various military branches.
"Really, the IcePlate is a return to base, a return to home, a return to our original intention," Li told DC Inno. "The athletic apparel was actually our pivot."
When Li and fellow co-founder J.D. Willcox started putting the idea for the IcePlate out on their social media channels, Li said the duo started noticing a wave of enthusiasm from consumers. So instead of waiting to go through the lengthy Army acquisition process to become an official contractor, Qore decided to start selling their product directly to consumers. "We felt that it was our patriotic duty to bring it to market sooner," Li said.
Qore brought the IcePlate to market on Aug. 12, and Li said they were on track to sell thousands of units through 2016.
Pivots in a startup model are typical, and sometimes expected. In D.C. alone, the community has seen it with companies such as SocialRadar, which was acquired by Verizon late last year after pivoting from a consumer tech company to a software development kit.
And Li said that with each pivot that Qore has made, it's come with a lot of both deliberation and anxiety.
"You're constantly asking yourself questions when the pivot moment comes up — is this a distraction or is this an opportunity?" Li said. "And figuring out what is what is tricky and hard and creates sleepless nights. You're not really sure."
But, at the same time, pivoting to the military consumer base was easier than most pivot decisions, Li said.
"It just seemed pretty natural as soon as we started showing the prototypes to active duty guys and SWAT guys around the country and seeing their reactions to it," he said.
In 2017, Qore will announce its IcePlate 2 along with a few third-party accessories for the IcePlate while at the National Shooting Sports Foundation's SHOT Show in late January.
And the startup is working to bring IcePlate to more soldiers and military personnel through the #StayFrosty campaign, which lets people buy a plate to be sent to someone in the military, law enforcement or emergency services around the country.
"One of the cool things about IcePlate is that it's given us a very, very clear pathway of five to 10 years of incremental improvements with a very deep product pipeline," Li said. "We see ourselves being able to use hydration, cooling and protection — our mantra for the IcePlate — as a way to building a pathway to help, not only our country, but our companies to be much more efficient and put much fewer people at risk."
