The goal was to create a series of bars that would provide clean energy for skating when eaten before or during a session, as well as help aid in recovery when eaten afterwards.

– Johnny Lozano

FLATBAR energy.

For a long time, the relationship between skateboarding and nutrition has been like that creepy guy you hear about that visits children's play areas to give candy to the kids; appealing on the surface, but probably with some hidden intentions. It's been overwhelmed almost exclusively by energy drinks, that often take a similar approach - using girls to trigger your primal senses to trick you into buying their products. Well, now there's a new option in town, one that's opted for a much more humble advertising route - using fully grown, sweaty men to advertise their products - and one that's actually healthy: FLATBAR energy.

FLATBAR is an energy bar(s) made by skaters, for skaters. It was founded by Johnny Lozano, the master of skate influenced recipe names, and the guy who's been posting weekly recipes on The Berrics under the alias Salad Grinds and Bean Plants for the last few months. After chatting to Johnny about FLATBAR, I instantly got behind the idea. It was clear that his goal was to create something healthy and something that would actually help skaters, not just whilst they skate, but something that would nourish the body in the long run too. It was an idea that was easy to support.

Usually, when it comes down to choosing a snack, unless you're going for something like a banana, it's almost impossible to find something that exists entirely of just, food, that at the same time is healthy and not full of added shit. A quote I always remember is "Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognise as food.", and although my great grandmother would probably have no idea what a papaya is, this is a solid guideline to go by when choosing your food, and it's what you get with FLATBAR. Each ingredient has been carefully selected to ensure you're only getting high quality, highly nutritious foods, and some that you probably don't have in your diet already - foods like goji berries, quinoa, blueberries, papaya, cashew nuts; the kind of stuff you know you would love to eat but usually avoid to not burn through your savings.

On top of this, each bar has no added sugar or artificial sweeteners, they're all gluten free, non-GMO, vegan, and almost entirely organic. With all the unhealthy products pretending to be food these days, it's pretty progressive to hear about something like FLATBAR coming from within the skate industry, especially when the thought of a meal prepared by your average skater generates the image of microwaved macaroni cheese. Alongside an already healthy, well-rounded diet, snacking on one of these bars will not only contribute to improving your health, but will provide a much better source of energy for your sessions, as opposed to snacking on something like potato chips.

words: Johnny Lozano

I started designing FLATBAR because I was working about 90 hours a week as an attorney and only really got a few hours a week to skate. I was looking for something that really primed me for a session that I didn't have to put a lot of thought into. While there are some energy bars I admired in terms of macronutrient breakdown, I didn't really enjoy the taste and I wanted something that came from within skateboarding. When I didn't see any energy bars that came from the skateboarding community, I decided it was time to start designing one that was as far as possible from the junk food that big companies cram down skateboarding's throat.

The ethos of FLATBAR is getting the energy we need from the most natural ingredients possible, while making sure the bars are delicious without imitating typical dessert flavors like cookies and cream and stuff like that. I wanted the bars to taste exactly like what was in them and to get all of their benefits from ingredients I could recognize.

You can find the exhaustive list of ingredients at www.flatbarenergy.com but the salient ingredients in each flavor are (listed in the picture below):

Banana Berrial Flip:

Banana / Blueberry / Almond / Sea Salt

Goji Berry or Go Home:

Goji Berry / Sweet Potato / Papaya / Pumpkin Seed / Cinnamon

Switch Mango Push:

Mango / Cashew / Quinoa

In formulating these flavors, the goal was to create a series of bars that would provide clean energy for skating when eaten before or during a session, as well as help aid in recovery when eaten afterwards. Each bar has a macro range of 180-190 calories, 7-9g fat, 22-25g carbs and 5-7g protein, which was designed to cater to both high-intensity and low-intensity sessions. By focusing on quick carbs from the fruits without neglecting plant based protein and good fats, the bar is ideal for both sessions in which you’re rifling off tricks nonstop and sessions in which you’re just cruising for half a day.

On top of that, because skateboarding is so punishing on the body, a parallel goal was to include as many ingredients as possible that were shown to have anti-inflammatory effects on the body. The most obvious of those are in the Goji Berry or Go Home flavor, which boasts the well-known red/orange inflammation fighters like papaya, sweet potato and goji berries; however, I wanted to enhance other flavors with anti-inflammatory ingredients like almonds, cashews, and blueberries, as well, to make sure that no matter which you choose, you're getting a bar that's going to help you keep doing what you love.

FLATBAR has just finished research and development on its first three flavors and, assuming successful crowdfunding, will be available in the U.S. by early September 2018, and hopefully in the rest of the world not too long after. They've created a kickstarter to help get them off the ground with the goal of producing the bars on a large scale, and eventually getting them into skateshops and grocery stores near you. If you like the idea of FLATBAR and want to see some healthier options coming out of the skate industry, then contributing to their Kickstarter or sharing their idea is the best way to do it (Kickstarter backers will also be rewarded with their share of first production before it hits the shelves, along with other rewards like hand made chopping boards by Dave Bachinsky). You can find out more over on their website - www.flatbarenergy.com, or click the button below to check out the Kickstarter.

FLATBAR kickstarter