ABOUT
"SO WHERE DID DRINKER TOYS COME FROM?"
DRINKER TOYS invents & sells awesome leisure lifestyle products for water lovers. Our core product is THIRST MATE. It floats cans, koozies, party cups, tumblers, even a wine bottle. Keep your drink safe and close when you’re at the pool, lake, river or ocean! We also have awesome accessories like the LEASH to keep your drink close, CONNECTORS to hook 2 or more THIRST MATES together to create a Floatila, & RING IT! Ring Toss. Drinker Toys also curates complimentary products like BEACH TACS to tame your towel down at the beach & custom drinkware.
We grew up in South Florida and spent a lot of time at the beach and in the pool. We built stuff all the time, starting with Legos and Lincoln Logs, followed by Tinker Toys, Erector sets and Capsela machines & model trains & on and on. We loved the creative freedom to build whatever our imaginations could conceive.
“The Thirst Mate had a quick inception once the technology tipped in our favor. You see, this summer we bought a 3D printer. We started printing out all kinds of useful things we found on the internet: household stuff, office stuff, garden stuff. We were getting good at printing other people’s designs, but wanted to do more. Having a strong software and application background but no 3D modeling experience, we designed and printed a few simple pieces and they worked great. THIS WAS OUR “AH-HA!” MOMENT. We could make whatever we wanted! We started brainstorming on a floating drink holder. Fifteen minutes later, We were putting our ideas into shape using TINKERCAD and within an hour we had the design for what we now call MK I of the ‘beer bouy’ or ‘drink admiral’. We set it up to print and by lunch the next day we had our first prototype and tested it in a ditch full of water behind the office. We looked at each other and said HOLY HELL! IT WORKS!”
The Thirst Mate is the first product in the Drinker Toys family. Our vision is to develop a series of inter-connectable and infinitely configurable pieces that allow you to create more fun while you’re on the water.
DAVE BALLARD – Skilled in Media Consultation, Film Production & Postproduction, Colour Correction & Visual FX, Web Design, Art Direction, Product Development and Design, & LOTS of other stuff.
PETE BALLARD – Entrepreneur, Producer, Leader, Creative Problem Solver, Communicator, and Inventor
We both migrated to Atlanta where we’ve been in business together since 1999 when we started a post-production company for film, television, and commercials. Dave runs the creative/technology and Pete runs the business. We then grew into a production company, Labtopia Farms, where we helped clients better tell their stories to connect and engage their customers.
We’ve always had an eye on fun from the 24 foot fire pole in our first office and our epic Halloween parties, to Dave’s self-balancing electric unicycle.
With Thirst Mate we keep the fun afloat with ATTITUDE! COME ON ABOARD!
