Epicore Biosystems' Wearable Hydration-Monitoring Gx Sweat Patch Launches Alongside Companion App

A wearable sensor which monitors hydration through sweat analysis, developed by Epicore Biosystems, goes on sale this week as a consumer product — under the Gatorade brand as the Gx Sweat Patch.

The idea of tracking a user's health by monitoring their sweat isn't new: Sweat sensors have been developed, which monitor hydration, stress, athletic performance, vitamin levels, and even drug uptake — but few have landed on the market as a consumer product.

Epicore Biosystems' sweat sensor, however, has made the leap. Developed in partnership with PepsiCo, Epicore's hydration-monitoring wearable is now in stores nationwide — and is being sold under PepsiCo's Gatorade brand of sports-centric drinks.

The Gatorade-branded sensor made headlines a year ago when research suggested it could be modified to read cytokine levels, rather than sodium chloride levels, as a means of warning in advance of an impending cytokine storm created as a result of infection from SARS-CoV-2. While the commercial variants available now don't do that, they do track hydration levels — and in bright colours, too, with sweat wicking into micro-channels to be dyed orange then switching to purple to reflect the concentration of chorine ions.

While the patch itself has no electronics, it's designed to be paired with a smartphone app that analyzes the color changes through the camera in order to generate a "sweat profile" — and make recommendations on how much Gatorade you should drink as a result.

More information on the Gx Sweat Patch is available on the Epicore Biosystems website, while the patch has launched this week across the US at $24.99 for a two-pack; capturing a single "sweat profile" consumes one patch, which is discarded after use.