Hi there! We are Dmitri & Travis, nice to meet you!
Geeky Get-It-Done Introvert +  Crazy Fun Energy Extravert = A never dull moment in the city of San Francisco.

The story of mineral alkaline water began almost 40 years ago.

As a kid, Dmitri was constantly exposed to hazardous amounts of lead for many years. A favorite toy made of pure lead ended up being chewed on and played with leaving dark-gray residue all over his hands. Without realization, the lead poisoning effects slowly rolled in and became irreversible life-long struggle. While lead poisoning explains his “very-direct geeky-introvert” personality, the bone health became an alerting problem as lead poisoning limits calcium absorption making bones weak due to low bone density.   

Until becoming lactose intolerant as 40% of population, eating dairy was a good way to replenish the calcium. Switching to calcium supplements, caused digestive digestive problems so he began searching for options. 

In mid-2000s Dmitri and Travis met. Travis is Navy Veteran aka “Squid”, with completely opposite personality – outgoing, social extravert, athletic, health conscientious, 14-mile leisure run after a stressful day at work is a favorite and easy-peasy thing to do. Proper hydration and bone health is a must for every runner. In opposition, Dmitri’s geeky personality helped him to discover passion in chemistry, biology, physics, math, natural science, holistic health, engineering, and computer software during his school years. As these two met, Travis almost immediately became Dmitri’s water testing buddy. Not every batch was perfect and few big and small poops happened during the process 😉 but the idea of dissolved calcium in water was born, allowing calcium absorption sip by sip, all day long, providing the body with constant source while increasing absorption. 

During the development, they discovered that natural mineral water with high pH, or as we call it “alkaline water” today, is loaded with beneficial minerals necessary for healthy bones like calcium, magnesium, and potassium. When minerals in water are ionized they become negatively-charged and  highly bio-available. In addition, reducing the body’s acidity decreases bone loss. So the two scraped the idea of simply dissolving calcium supplements in water and started working on most advanced alkaline water without realizing it’s called alkaline. In Europe, water with high mineral content simply called “Mineral Water” and half of the time it is salty and  has kind of disturbing taste but healthy 😉 Making and drinking home-made alkaline water dramatically increased the bone density, but as new technologies and media became available they realized that sharing the goodness with the rest of the world was an inevitable next step to help many people stay healthy, hydrated, and have strong bones. Most advanced alkaline water was born.

Water purification idea was born at an airport.

While our tap water here at home is pretty good, we taste a big difference when refilling our bottles at gyms, office, airports, hotels, pretty much anywhere we go or travel to. Frequent, 45-minute business flight, resulting in a purchase of not so necessary single-use water bottle was the tipping point. There got to be a better way to have a sip of water without paying a buck and wasting plastic – it’s like paying a premium to pollute our planet. Bottles with filters – great idea but most of them look so basic and worse yet LEAK – that’s how one of us ruined a brand-new laptop on a second day at work…

After some research and help from friends, one foggy day in San Francisco (in supposedly sunny California) we made our first water filter that fits all the bottles we love. The freedom to choose any bottle and filter water on-the-go is epic! It worked so well that even hotel water in Vegas tasted great! Our excitement shared with friends over a glass of wine or maybe whisky turned into what is now known as GoFiltr Pure.