The company was founded by advertising exec and former liquor entrepreneur Mike Cessario, a heavy metal bartender Pat Cook, manufacturing expert JR Riggins, and the creator of a famous adult cartoon about a lovable demonic dog Will Carsola.
The Liquid Death water brand launches in the US today.
On sale now
It has also partnered with California incubator and investment firm Science Inc, which 'nurtures the next generation of future brands'.
Mike Cessario, co-founder/CEO, Liquid Death, said it is using aluminum cans to package the water because it doesn’t want to use plastic water bottles.
“Aluminum cans are far and away the most sustainable beverage container by virtually every measure,” he said.
“We wanted to make a healthy beverage brand that was even more fun, bold and hilarious than the unhealthy brands across energy drinks, soda and craft beer. We are also poking fun at all the “extreme” marketing that tends to be employed for the young male demographic.
“The name “Liquid Death” alone does a lot of heavy lifting to separate us from 99.9% of the bottled water space. And we source our water from the Austrian Alps, which is not common for any bottled water brands in the US.
“We are the only non-sparkling water brand to be packaged in tallboy aluminum cans that look more like beer than water. The average aluminum can contains about 70% recycled material, while the average plastic bottle only contains about 3%.”
Cessario added the company’s branding is deliberately dark and edgy, ‘making it the antithesis to existing water brands’, and the company spent time at Science Inc.’s startup studio, the same studio behind consumer brands such as Dollar Shave Club and MeUndies.
Conversation starter
It believes because the water comes in a can it looks like craft beer, making it ‘the perfect non-alcoholic conversation starter to grab at parties, concerts, and bars’.
Aluminum cans also stay ice-cold compared to plastic, and contains 20 times more recycled material per container than plastic, says the brand. Of all the aluminium produced since 1888, 75% of it is still in productive use.
“We are launching Liquid Death both online on our website and Amazon and in a few cool bars in Los Angeles and Philadelphia,” added Cessario.
“As you might expect with a brand like Liquid Death, we get a lot of love from the 18-35 year old male crowd. We have also been surprised to see how many 18-35 year old women love the brand as well.”