Water or electrolytes? Runners, climbers, and other active athletes usually choose one or the other for convenience sake in order to limit what they carry while hydrating on-the-go wherever they may be.

MXXY Outdoor, creators of the first hydration system that seamlessly allows athletes to carry and dial-in their preferred balance of electrolytes and water, introduced the Mxxy Base Pack and Reservoir System September 1 on Kickstarter. The innovative new pack includes the company’s patented Two-Reservoir System and Dilution-Dial to ensure peak performance and permits users to dial in the percent mix of water and electrolytes or other stored beverage while on the go.

“We’re excited to unveil the Mxxy Base Pack to the public,” says Drew Dawson, CEO of the Mill Valley, CA, company. “As athletes who’ve spent more than a couple hours on a trailhead, we know that water alone doesn’t cut it. Our Mxxy Base Pack lets any adventurer dial in their perfect balance of supplements on the go.”

The new Base Pack was designed with simple functionality and ease of use in mind. The Two-Reservoir system snaps together allowing athletes to easily carry both electrolytes and water in a single pack. The proprietary Dilution-Dial has five settings to ensure the ideal mix of water and nutrition is delivered with a simple twist at any point and delivered in the selected ratio to the leak-free mouthpiece by a single tube.

What got my attention were the bladders or reservoirs, which as a long-time packaging editor I interpreted loosely as being pouches — these can be turned inside out for convenient cleaning in a dishwasher — to justify interest in such an ingenious system.

Our outreach for custom details yielded these highlighted comments from co-founder Nicholas Belgum.

The concept originated in high school.

The idea for a dual-chamber hydration pack with mixing capabilities originated in high school where we were first exposed to the issues of electrolyte depletion through our respective high school sports.  I played baseball, and my fellow co-founders played football and Lacross. The version that we just launched on Kickstarter has been in development since partnering up with Whipsaw Design in January.

Reservoirs/bladders/pouches, tubing, mouthpiece, and plastic exit ports are all developed and manufactured by our manufacturing partners at HydraPak.

HydraPak has been a leader in the hydration industry for many years now and has already developed reservoirs that were dishwasher safe and reversible. This was a vitally important feature for our reservoirs due to the fact that users are expected to fill liquids other than water such as electrolytes or caffeine supplements in the secondary reservoir. HydraPak was instrumental in getting our hydration system to the point that we wanted.

The reservoir dimensions are customized to fit 1.5 L in the primary (water) reservoir  and 750 mL in the secondary (electrolyte) reservoir.

The total volume of 2.25 L is slightly greater than the typical 2-L reservoir. Each reservoir is fitted with "Plug n Play" adapters from HydraPak that allow the tubing to disconnect from the reservoirs for easy cleaning.

Both reservoirs are made from 0.4mm thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) film and are totally BPA- and PVC-free.

The reservoirs close by folding a plastic flap over the top and sliding a plastic piece over the fold to make an airtight seal. This closure is much more secure than the screw-on caps you see on other reservoirs and is what allows the reservoirs to be completely reversible.

Finally, our 1.5-L reservoir has an internal baffle that users can opt to slide together to get a thinner profile of their reservoir at the loss of about 25mL of volume.

To fill the reservoirs, users simply slide off the plastic piece at the top of the reservoir and place the opened reservoir under a faucet.

Once the fluid reaches the max fill line, they will fold the extra plastic flap back over the top of the reservoir and slide the plastic piece over the fold to seal the reservoir.

To have the two reservoirs snap together, we had to design a handle that would attach to the current geometry of the HydraPak slide clips.

These handles are manufactured independently from the HydraPak plastic pieces, but fit seamlessly into their design. When both reservoirs are full and sealed, the user must simply put the two handles together where two magnets will secure the bottom half of the handles together and a plastic clasp will secure the top half.

The biggest concern with any hydration pack that holds fluids other than water is cleanability.

We spent months brainstorming ways to ensure our reservoirs wouldn't get gunked up with leftover electrolyte powder or filled with mold. Ultimately this led us to go with a modular design with two reservoirs that clip together rather than a single reservoir split in half to ensure that they can be turned inside out and cleaned in a dishwasher.

There are no moving parts to get the fluid up the tube into the user's mouth.

The only work done on the fluid is by the user sucking the fluid up the tubing and through the mouthpiece.

In fact, the only moving parts we have in the system are to alter the dilution of the two fluids which happens by rotating our dilution dial which pinches off a side of the tube to restrict flow.

The dilution dial has five specific dilution settings.

 The dilution settings range in 25% increments from 100% water and 0% electrolytes to 0% water and 100% electrolytes. We give customers the opportunity to dial in whatever mixture their body requires.

When the reservoirs are empty, the entire hydration pack weighs about 1.3 pounds.

When the reservoirs are full, the pack weighs about 6.3 pounds.

Backers have shown tremendous support in the first two weeks of our Kickstarter.

 In just the first 24 hours we were able to raise 50% of our $65k goal and we are currently sitting at 75% with several weeks left. Here’s the link for the Kickstarter post.

Following the fulfillment of our Kickstarter units, we will launch a fully integrated ecommerce site.

We plan on launching a new and improved version of the MXXY Base Pack, as well as the MXXY Summit pack which will be a fully insulated version for cold temperatures.

The MXXY Base Pack + Reservoir System starts at $84.99 and will ship December 15th timed for holiday gift giving.