Prior Lake, Shakopee grads see if they can 'make it' in Red Bull contest

Prior Lake American

They won’t have their phones, credit cards or cash, but they’ll have to travel from Stockholm, Sweden to Amsterdam, Netherlands using only cans of Red Bull as currency.

Can they make it?

Three University of Minnesota Duluth students — including Shakopee High School graduate Nick Anderson and Prior Lake High School graduate Brandon Colucci — will do just that as part of the Red Bull “Can You Make It” competition April 10-17.

More than 200 teams from around the world, including 18 from the United States, will be tasked with reaching Amsterdam in one week from one of five starting points in Europe, using only Red Bull to barter for food, travel, lodging and experiences. They were chosen from more than 3,000 applicants worldwide.

“They take your cellphone, wallet, money, everything for the week and give you a 24-pack of Red Bull,” Anderson said. “It’s a pretty significant application process, so we’re excited to get going.”

The team, which also includes University of Minnesota Duluth student Andrew Achter, thrives on adrenaline. An introduction video they put together for the competition shows the longtime friends doing a variety of blood-rushing activities — water skiing, jet skiing, snowboarding, flipping and more.

Anderson and Colucci met in high school working at the same restaurant in Prior Lake.

The video starts with a Mario Kart-type select screen, asking viewers to pick one of the three bros on mopeds — hence the team name, BroPeds.

“The goal of our video was to be as creative as possible in the sense we’re going to generate more social viewing,” Anderson said.

A Red Bull representative who visited the University of Minnesota Duluth campus encouraged the trio to apply.

“We started putting ideas for a video together and put out a one-minute video together and promoted it,” Anderson said. “We got enough public votes to go in front of the Red Bull judges.”

The contest is about more than reaching the finish line — in between, checkpoints must be reached in order to receive more Red Bull to barter. Teams can also score additional points for having experiences like skydiving or snorkeling.

“Part of our strategy is to remain persistent and confident in our personal selling and bartering these cans of Red Bull,” Colucci said. “As a team, we have the energy to feed off of one another in order to never give up and make it to the finish line by generating the most points. We’re looking to do all sorts of adventurous things the normal person wouldn’t do.”

Red Bull gave the teams free flights to their starting points. If they make it to the finish line, they get a free flight home. If they don’t, the teams have to make their own way home.

“I don’t think getting from point A to point B will be challenging, it’s just what happens in between — finding food, finding a place to stay will be the challenge,” Colucci said.

Though most of the starting points are landlocked, starting in Stockholm means the BroPeds will have to find a way to cross the Baltic Sea.

“We have to get to Amsterdam, so somehow we’ve got to find a boat ride or there’s only one path across by road,” Anderson said. “It’ll challenge our ability to figure out ways to get across for sure.”

In the meantime, the team has been studying up on past winners from the 2014 and 2016 competitions.

“There’s blogs and videos from people who have previously won,” Anderson said. “We’ve watched the 2016 TV series on the best ways people have gotten across the continent. Suggestions are to bring pairs of roller skates ... hitchhiking is involved (and) sneaking onto trains.”

Since all three of the team members are college seniors, the competition will be one more way to spend time together before starting their professional lives.

“It’s a big opportunity to develop as friends and get to explore the world in the same sense,” Colucci said. “We have a good chemistry and a good bond that will keep us comfortable as we go through the competition and do things that will push our boundaries.”

This isn’t the last adventure for the BroPeds, however. After graduation, the three friends plan to take a month-long trip to the Philippines. And if they manage to score the grand prize, they’ll receive a private adventure trip from Destination Red Bull.