CREATIVE STUDIO CREATES FUNCTIONAL SPARKLING WATER BRAND FOR YOUR BRAIN

Brainroot Launching As World’s First “Creativity In a Can” - Made by Creatives for Creatives

Convicts, the creative agency that makes the right kind of trouble for the world’s biggest brands, has flipped the script with the ambitious launch of Brainroot, a functional sparkling water brand engineered to build brain health and boost mental clarity with natural ingredients and free of caffeine and sugar.

Brainroot is now in beta and live product testing within the Convicts business and social community, owned D2C channels and in distribution at Venice Beach, California, retail locations. Convicts has offices in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, and Byron Bay, Australia.

“Brainroot is a nootropic sparkling water built for creative minds,” said Pete Maiden, founder and CEO, Convicts. “It tastes good and is good for your brain. It has zero sugar, zero caffeine, zero calories and solves the afternoon creative slump without the post-caffeine crash. It supports the focus and flow creative minds need to do our best work. This product is what happens when a group of creatives decide to fix a problem with.”

The evolution of Brainroot follows the highly unconventional path of Maiden’s career. Raised on a small farm in rural Australia, he studied sociology at U.C. Berkeley and graduated with a dreamy goal of helping to make the world a better place. He landed a job as a staff writer and on-camera host for Rolling Stone, produced videos for the magazine’s website and founded Convicts in 2015 to empower those movers and shakers who wanted to change the status quo. The agency name is a provocative nod to Australia’s peculiar colonial past.

“We always look for like-minded brands, partners and clients,” said Abby White, business director, East Coast, Convicts. “And we believe in building original content and IP that lives up to that pursuit. This felt like a natural and inevitable extension of our brand, our history and our pursuit to create with conviction.”
The product was formulated to solve four problems: help reduce brain rot, the OED’s 2024 word of the year; provide sustainable packaging; offer transparent ingredient labeling; and deliver sugar-free sustenance. Each of these issues were cited as important by a sizable majority of U.S. consumers, the initial target audience.

The Convicts team believes that the product’s evolution from an internal goal of finding a product that would cure their own afternoon slump, avoid the caffeine and sugar crash and support the ups and downs of a stressful creative process would have universal appeal. The agency cited research that showed some 9 out of 10 Americans self-identify as “creative.”

The Convicts team worked with high-profile performance psychologists and best-in-class formulators to design a functional sparkling water based on science-backed nootropics that supports cognitive function, increases focus and mental clarity, reduces stress and provides hydration and neurogeneration. The Brainroot line has two major variants: fruit-flavored and focus-forward blends (Life Lime, Lemon+Aid and Berry Brain) that contain lion’s mane, ashwagandha, ginseng, vitamin B6 and a clear, unflavored sparkling water brewed with vitamin B6 and magnesium L-threonate.
“We made it to support our brains—and for every thinker, dreamer, designer and doer who needs to lift their creativity and brain health. This water is built to help our brains work better. Every brand detail was designed to spark imagination and deliver a fun message that cuts through the cultural noise.”

We looked to the dialogue between the conscious mind and the subconscious, the place where ideas spark before they make sense. From there, we rejected the safety of rules and embraced pure creative freedom. No guidelines. No constraints. Just instinct and exploration. When creativity isn’t contained, it doesn’t behave; it explodes. What emerged is a brand that moves, shifts, and surprises, mirroring the raw, magical power of the human brain.

Convicts CCO Tom Law collaborated with acclaimed designer Pete Baston on the brand logo. The color palette is bright and bold, selected to feel magical and dreamlike.

The product launch follows a content, culture and community-first strategy driven by Convicts’ creative ecosystem. In addition to the beta and community product testing, the agency will move to place Brainroot into the hands of top-tier creators and influencers, create experiential activations, pop-ups and brand collaborations.

The product is launching in tests in greater Los Angeles storefronts, coffee shops, wellness studios and shared workspaces. The next phase includes expansion into DTC channels (Amazon and other sites) and in-store at West Coast natural-leaning groceries, including Erewhon. In 2026, the brand will expand into New York City at independent grocers, coffee shops, wellness studios and shared workspaces and in summer 2026 in the Hamptons’ hot-spot The Surf Lodge.
Following the vibe of its founder and purpose, Convicts has always led with original work and has followed through on that purpose, building a daring creative portfolio of original content and IP. The agency partners with huge global clients such as Qantas, Spotify, Estée Lauder, Cash App, Ian Schrager and Audi. The agency maintains a strong social stance and has partnered with fashion brand St. John’s and director/producer Shonda Rhimes for a women’s empowerment campaign; and created stay-at-home PSA and New York Tough content for New York State during the pandemic.