About Us
Origins
Inspired by tried-and-true emergency responder protocols, our Co-Founder and CEO, Justin Li, initially thought to combine first aid science with athletic base layers while on duty as a sworn law enforcement officer in the California desert. With rugged terrain, a formidable adversary, heavy protective gear, and high altitude, Justin was looking to improve his odds in the field. Unwilling to add more weight to his kit, he realized that efficiently offloading heat to stay hydrated was the best way to boost his endurance, strength, focus, and recovery. After the mission, he realized that solving this problem could have implications beyond Constitutional law enforcement. Improving performance through hydration could help people who sweat—especially athletes seeking a competitive performance advantage, military personnel, and fellow law enforcement officers.
Armed with Otter Pops, a sewing machine he barely knew how to turn on, and his favorite compression shorts, he built the prototypes. After hacking together some crude samples, Justin teamed up with former Stanford Baseball player and problem-solving guru J.D. Willcox to form Qore Performance®. Taking a crash course in apparel design and American manufacturing, J.D. and Justin traveled the country to source and build out what would become TCCC Base Layers, culminating in a set of premium next-gen USA-made products that boosts hydration by 40%, giving athletes a distinct competitive advantage on the field.
Evolution and Creation of the ICEPLATE®
Qore Performance successfully launched another TCCC Baser Layer (then referred to as WHT or Wearable Hydration Technology) innovation--The Hydration Shirt--on Kickstarter in December 2015. During the campaign, the U.S. Army called us. They sought a way to solve the “body armor cooling problem for soldiers" downrange in CONUS training environments. While TCCC Base Layers are potent and efficient weapons in helping your body offload heat, there are some situations where operators need more power than TCCC Base Layers can provide. The Army was clear: they wanted 140+ watts of cooling power over two hours without any batteries, moving parts, or additional weight to the Soldier. The tradeoff had always been weight - nothing on the market was lightweight enough and cost-effective enough to be feasible, and most of the more powerful initiatives involved 'ground-up' approaches, redesigning a soldier's whole kit.
In our work with TCCC Base Layers, we had become experts in absorbing and extracting heat. We knew that the single most potent coolant readily available is water, which operators also happen to *already* be carrying. So we set out to more efficiently repurpose this water, talking to end users and interviewing dozens of veterans from Special Mission Units, white-side SOF, Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen about their constraints. Operators were constantly telling us the drawbacks of their current canteens and bladders. Their list of issues with existing canteens and soft bladders included noise, lack of space efficiency, prone to rupture, freezing in cold conditions, and many others. Their crude practice of shoving frozen bottled water in their plate carriers, cargo pockets, and every nook and cranny available to keep their bodies cool was both maddening because their leadership allowed these conditions to exist and inspiring because it presented us with a once-in-a-lifetime problem-solving opportunity. However, the inefficient placement and the limited mass of each water bottle provided only a fraction of what was possible. Enter ICEPLATE®. We designed ICEPLATE® to minimize weight, maximize duration, and maximize body contact. We put in a drain so operators can finally drink all their water. We ensured it was thinner and lighter than the current standard issue. As a bonus, it also provides added protection against impact. Working with the top thermoplastic engineers and designers in the U.S., ICEPLATE® went from concept to prototype to reality in only six months and is now deployed across all branches of the U.S. military and in the kit of body armor users worldwide.
ICEPLATE® and Face-to-Face Ordering
Just two months after launching ICEPLATE®, we received this LiveChat: 
Justin headed to Arizona and met with Kevin Fry and Daniel Trotter at Chick-fil-A Scottsdale 101. Shortly after the meeting began, Kevin and Daniel were outside testing IcePlates live. ICEPLATE® appeared to fit the bill perfectly. It was powerful and long-lasting, easily fitting over standard uniforms. Daniel purchased five units to run a pilot and sent Justin to meet with Phil Thomas at his Scottsdale store, who also purchased five units to run his own pilot program.
Extremely pleased with the performance of ICEPLATE®, Kevin, Daniel, and Phil connected Justin with the Hospitality Team at Chick-fil-A Corporate, who asked us to make ICEPLATE® available to all Chick-fil-A stores. We have recently expanded to work with several other outdoor Industrial customers, including Dutch Bros Coffee, Raising Cane's, Boeing, FedEx, Costco, Valvoline Instant Oil Change, and Shake Shack.
These great folks inspire us with their dedication to hiring, retaining, training, and empowering great people. We are proud to work with them.
ICEVENTS® and The Honeymoon
In October 2017, Justin married his wife Tracy. While they were on their honeymoon in Hawaii, Justin noticed a repeating pattern of honeycombs, leading to his vision of reinventing plate carrier shoulder pads from the ground up. He remembered how ineffective all of the shoulder pads for his existing kit were from the many days spent on duty in the high alpine deserts and border regions of Southern California. They were hot and still fatigued your shoulders - an inherent design injustice. He saw a way to both distribute load and ventilate at the same time. He sketched a crude drawing on a piece of hotel stationary that would later become ICEVENTS®.
Three months later, the first ICEVENTS® Classic prototype was born, far surpassing expectations. It was both breathable and load-distributing. The team knew the impact potential of what they had just created. ICEVENTS® Classic launched Thanksgiving week in November 2018.
Origin and Mission
We see endless possibilities in people. We believe one of humanity's greatest strengths is the ability to build tools to realize the grandest dreams and boldest visions.
We build these tools for American Security and American Prosperity. We aim to empower people to realize their full potential in everything they do. The IceAge Ecosystem is a declaration of defiance, a refusal to recognize constraints. It is a collection of tools designed to help the good become great and the great become legends.
This is our vision for Building A Superhuman Future®.
Our IceAge Ecosystem is an advanced array of simple but novel technologies that solve complex thermoregulation problems, delivering capabilities once thought impossible at such an accessible level. These tools empower people to boldly defy the constraints of their environment and be the most excellent version of themselves.
The "Qore" of this ecosystem is the ICEPLATE®: a low-profile, 50 fl oz, hands-free, BPA-free water bottle designed for plate carriers, backpacks, and vests that nearly eliminates the constraints of heat and cold, helping users Stay Frosty in every climate. With our patent-pending TotalDrain Technology and incredible impact resistance, the stackable ICEPLATE® is as versatile as it is powerful. Our ICEVENTS® multi-purpose, ventilated load-bearing pads protect the shoulders, backs, and hips of the most elite warfighters and law enforcement officers across the U.S. and in dozens of Allied nations. We also offer ICECASE, a cooling and productivity solution for Apple iPads, and a full EDC Travel line using our ICEPLATE®, ICECAP, and ICEVENTS® technologies.
The ICEPLATE®, ICEVENTS®, ICECASE, and ICEPLATE EXO® lines proudly use American materials and are manufactured in the USA.
About Qore Performance, Inc.
We design, engineer, and build simple thermoregulation solutions to enhance physiological performance and create environmental inoculation for PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) users. Our IceAge Ecosystem is the bridge between Humans and Machines.
No private equity.
