Starface, Blip And Julie Co-Founder Brian Bordainick Starts Harm Reduction Brand Overdrive Defense
For five years, Brian Bordainick has been building a stable of beauty and wellness brands that bring color and cachet to staid beauty and wellness categories, from pimple care to emergency contraception.
Now, the co-founder of Starface, Futurewise, Julie and Blip is modernizing another stigmatized wellness niche, harm reduction, with the launch of drug safety brand Overdrive Defense. Julie Schott, Bordainick’s co-founder on Starface, Futurewise, Julie and Blip as well as shuttered sustainable body care brand Plus, is an advisor on Overdrive Defense.
Overdrive Defense’s first product is Fentanyl Test Kit, a $12.99 five-pack of fentanyl test strips that help mitigate the risk of overdose and potential deaths by detecting fentanyl in street drugs like stimulants and benzodiazepines. Testing drugs for fentanyl has become an important harm reduction tool due to how deadly and ubiquitous fentanyl has become. In 2023, more than 112,000 people died from overdoses, primarily due to fentanyl, which is the leading cause of drug-related kits. In the 12 months ending April, overdose deaths dropped 10%. Overdrive Defense’s Fentanyl Test Kit is sold on the brand’s website and Amazon where legal.
Bordainick says, “With Overdrive, we wanted to explore how entertainment and a media-first strategy could help tackle the fentanyl crisis by providing the tools needed to keep people safe. Fentanyl, which caused over 100,000 overdose deaths last year alone, is fueling the worst drug crisis in U.S. history. We have an opportunity to make a material impact on the number of fentanyl and other drug-related deaths in our country.”
To execute a media-first strategy at Overdrive Defense, Bordainick brought on Ryan Weaver, who formerly consulted on emergency contraceptive brand Julie, as the brand’s executive producer and creative and brand lead. Overdrive Defense started rolling out social media content in February, posting slick videos featuring festival and extreme sports scene staples like DJ Carter Cruise and pro skateboarder Boo Johnson donning Overdrive merch. The brand has been engaging in communities where its audience is already engaged to spread the message of safer drug use practices to spaces where it will make the most difference.
“We have an opportunity to make a material impact on the number of fentanyl and other drug-related deaths in our country.“
Last week, it launched an out-of-home campaign in Austin, Tex., Bismarck, N.D., Des Moines, Iowa and Indianapolis, Ind. to target four states where fentanyl test strips are considered illegal under drug paraphernalia laws and thus unable to be distributed. The campaign has bold graphics and videos on digital truck billboards with with slogans such as “F*CK FENTANYL” and “Does Texas/North Dakota/Iowa/Indiana Want You to Overdose and Die?” The initiative is part promotion, part advocacy. Overdrive Defense hopes it will put pressure on state governments to revisit laws that hamper harm reduction measures. Bordainick also participates in political advocacy as co-founder of Square One Politics, an organization seeking out underrepresented Democratic candidates to run for congressional offices in conservative districts.
Overdrive Defense’s packaging is similarly bold. Partially inspired by safe sex marketing in the 1980s and 1990s, its principal color is an eye-catching orange that Weaver told the publication Creative Review was a riff on “cautionary shades and symbols that have a party connotation…We took traditional safety symbols and gave them a streetwear twist.” The packaging has symbols of Americana, too, such as stars that Weaver said highlights that fentanyl is an American problem.
Overdrive Defense has a giveback component similar to Julie’s one-for-one emergency contraception donation program. It donates 1% of net revenue to partner organizations working on harm reduction efforts in local communities. Its first partners are Los Angeles drug safety nonprofit End Overdose, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, National Harm Reduction Coalition and Pennsylvania Harm Reduction Network.
Seeing white spaces in taboo categories where many founders refuse to tread, Bordainick is carving out a niche of introducing brands where he believes existing over-the-counter solutions don’t resonate with the consumers that need them most. “Throughout my career, the brands I’ve co-founded have always taken on challenging, often stigmatized subjects, whether it’s acne, sexual health or smoking cessation,” he says. “I’m drawn to what some might consider complicated categories to flip the narrative and create meaningful, emotional connections between consumers and these issues.”
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