Is it taboo? Or an opportunity?
Your edge is your competitive edge.
Brian Bordainick and Julie Schott, the pair best known for founding acne patch company Starface, are testament to that.
The daring duo have a reputation for fronting products that tackle social stigmas head on, from acne-patches to emergency contraception.
Products focus on hiding, concealing and straight up pretending it's not there.
This brings an air of shame to the issue from the jump.
Starface, on the other hand, made acne a neon badge of honour. The brand's pimple patches-a literal and figurative star in an industry obsessed with flawlessness-were big, bold, and unabashedly bright yellow.
They were not designed to blend in; but stand out, to declare, 'Yes, I have a pimple, and I'm not hiding it.'
Acne patches had existed before. But Starface turned them into a Gen Z icon, proudly flaunted by celebrities like Justin Bieber and, later, fictionalised on HBO's The White Lotus through the character of Portia.
Where other brands don't dare to go, Schott and Bordainick see an opportunity to connect and reframe narratives around personal imperfections and hardships.
Their strategy has only grown bolder with every venture since-whether tackling emergency contraception with Julie Care, smoking cessation with Blip, or their most recent challenge: drug safety with Overdrive Defense.
All of these brands tackle stigmatised issues, with some of the coolest brand design and messaging I've seen to date.
When we embrace what's traditionally shied away from and turn it into a proud statement, we're not just changing a product-we're reshaping culture.
With their latest, Overdrive Defense, Bordainick and Schott have turned 'harm reduction' from a clinical term into something unapologetically bold and rebellious.
The company sells an extremely orange box of test strips, 'established to save your life.' These strips check cocaine, heroin and other drugs for contamination with fentanyl, a deadly synthetic opioid.
'If you're not using drug test kits, you're basically playing Russian roulette with a loaded gun, man,' reads Overdrive's website. 'Passing that test? It could be the line between you walking away or not. So, get smart, gear up, and test your stuff. Life's already crazy enough-don't go out there without a damn shield.'
And that number is steadily rising.
Illicit fentanyl is driving the increase of overall drug overdose deaths in the US. It's responsible for a whopping 70% annually as other illicit drugs are being laced with the deadly opioid. An epidemic, it's now the leading cause of death in the US for people aged 18-45.
While the drug testing product category is a glaring necessity, it remains taboo.
