In his home-state for the 22nd annual Boyne Thunder Poker Run this weekend, Alex Pratt is all smiles. And why wouldn’t he be? Life is good for the 30-year-old Michigander.
Pratt is the founder of Good Boy Vodka and its ready-to-drink cocktail brand, and sales of both are rocketing skyward. A longtime powerboat fan, Pratt launched the spirt in 2020 at the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri and now it is distributed across the country. Introduced a couple of years later, Good Boy’s ready-to-drink cocktails—one of the most competitive segments in the adult beverage industry—are among the hottest such products on the market.
Annual sales from the vodka and ready-to-drink cocktails are on the cusp of reaching $100 million, according to man behind the brand.
But what really has the former professional motorcycle racer grinning at the moment is Jet, a famed SC 46 Outerlimits catamaran he purchased from original owner and fellow Michigan-man Burton Kirsten. Jet is about as bad-ass as bad-ass boats get.
It’s also the latest marketing tool at Pratt’s disposal, and the new owner has wasted no time putting it to good use. The 46-footer arrived at the Northern Michigan event will Good Boy livery graphics applied to is outrageous Stephen Miles Design paintjob.
“Brandon Piersma with Project Detail spent so much time making the boat perfect,” Pratt said. “It’s insane. I think people are going to love it.”
Pratt’s initial marketing efforts were purely grassroots—he focused on building his brand through the go-fast boating community. He branded his own boats with the Good Boy label, and soon enough Pratt’s spirit became a “thing” among high-performance powerboat fans.
“I’m just a hillbilly who sells alcohol,” he joked, then laughed. “And loves fast boats.”
Yet how many hillbillies have the marketing smart to bring on good-time professional golfer John Daly and high-flying extreme sports athlete as brand ambassadors? And Pratt doesn’t just have them hawking random ready-to-drink Good Boy cocktails. Each has his own flavor—ice tea and lemonade with a kick, of course, for Daly, Citrus-Circus for Pastrana in a nod to his traveling extreme sports show dubbed Nitro Circus.
Late next month, Pratt will head to the United Kingdom to compete alongside teammate Rob Lockyer in the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes endurance race using Lockyer’s 52-foot Outerlimits V-bottom. But for now, the Good Boy Vodka boss is focused on running the Good Boy-branded Outerlimits catamaran he purchased in tomorrow’s Boyne Thunder affair.
Even when he’s playing, Pratt never stops marketing.