Sep 17, 2026 · 51 min · 10 segments
What if the secret to performing better, feeling better and going home safer was as simple as how you hydrate? This episode we sit down with Toni McQuinn, co-founder of Body Armor — the Gold Coast…
Toni McQuinnGuestMaccaHostSarahHostNow we've chatted about Tony.
Can we talk about, we chatted about, you know, the beginnings of body armor and things like that, but can we talk about body armor now? What do you guys stand for? What do you do? What are your products and what's your purpose?
I think, I think, um, you know, the way elite athletes have massive amount of teams behind them that ensures that best performance and best recovery, right? But when we look at the tough jobs around Australia, and that includes lifeguards as well and mining and construction and whatnot, very often, like I mentioned, those individuals are either pushed upon energy cans or sugary drinks or, like I said, what's in the vending machine.
So Body Armor basically works with organizations or partners with organizations to try to get them to treat their workforce like industrial athletes is a term that we
utilize.
So it's bringing performance science to the individuals that need it the most to perform better, to feel better, and ultimately go home safer.
um yeah and now is you know we're kind of spread we're growing across sectors you know very much still i would say that 70 of our presence is heavy industry so you know mining construction manufacturing industrial um but we're starting to see that kind of grow across schools and things like that just around mostly driven by the ethos that we follow and formulating all of our products is looking to remove sugars looking to remove those chemical additives so we have absolutely no artificial colors flavors or sweeteners um and then the the composition of each of our formulas is looking at both kind of muscle recovery or physical output and cognitive performance so um yeah we've started kind of attracting a lot of uh you know schools and and and the youth coming through that are looking for the healthier option than what's traditionally being available to them yeah
yeah
sure can you tell us a little bit about like what makes a good sports drink like what are the things that you should be looking at when you look at a label um and you want to like optimize your recovery i mean i know when i was competing in pool rescue and all of those kind of things i'd go get a whiz fizz from like the top shelf because it was just pure sugar and that was the thing that was kicking me through but if you ask me what's the difference between all of these different sports drinks i would have no idea
And I think over the last decades, really, companies have done an excellent job from a marketing perspective, right? And so it's often been the case, since we've gotten into the business and we've been able to see, peek behind the production curtain, it's often the case that the product itself, very low budgets are put towards it to create the bare minimum, and then funding is put into the marketing to create a narrative to get individuals to
buy
Yeah.
But when it comes to looking at different types of formulas, the very first piece that one should be asking is what am I trying to achieve? And what I mean by that is if I'm a professional marathon runner, we'll say.
I will need a very different protocol and formulation than the everyday kind of punter.
Now we've chatted about Tony.
Can we talk about, we chatted about, you know, the beginnings of body armor and things like that, but can we talk about body armor now? What do you guys stand for? What do you do? What are your products and what's your purpose?
I think, I think, um, you know, the way elite athletes have massive amount of teams behind them that ensures that best performance and best recovery, right? But when we look at the tough jobs around Australia, and that includes lifeguards as well and mining and construction and whatnot, very often, like I mentioned, those individuals are either pushed upon energy cans or sugary drinks or, like I said, what's in the vending machine.
So Body Armor basically works with organizations or partners with organizations to try to get them to treat their workforce like industrial athletes is a term that we
utilize.
So it's bringing performance science to the individuals that need it the most to perform better, to feel better, and ultimately go home safer.
um yeah and now is you know we're kind of spread we're growing across sectors you know very much still i would say that 70 of our presence is heavy industry so you know mining construction manufacturing industrial um but we're starting to see that kind of grow across schools and things like that just around mostly driven by the ethos that we follow and formulating all of our products is looking to remove sugars looking to remove those chemical additives so we have absolutely no artificial colors flavors or sweeteners um and then the the composition of each of our formulas is looking at both kind of muscle recovery or physical output and cognitive performance so um yeah we've started kind of attracting a lot of uh you know schools and and and the youth coming through that are looking for the healthier option than what's traditionally being available to them yeah
yeah
sure can you tell us a little bit about like what makes a good sports drink like what are the things that you should be looking at when you look at a label um and you want to like optimize your recovery i mean i know when i was competing in pool rescue and all of those kind of things i'd go get a whiz fizz from like the top shelf because it was just pure sugar and that was the thing that was kicking me through but if you ask me what's the difference between all of these different sports drinks i would have no idea
And I think over the last decades, really, companies have done an excellent job from a marketing perspective, right? And so it's often been the case, since we've gotten into the business and we've been able to see, peek behind the production curtain, it's often the case that the product itself, very low budgets are put towards it to create the bare minimum, and then funding is put into the marketing to create a narrative to get individuals to
buy
Yeah.
But when it comes to looking at different types of formulas, the very first piece that one should be asking is what am I trying to achieve? And what I mean by that is if I'm a professional marathon runner, we'll say.
I will need a very different protocol and formulation than the everyday kind of punter.
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