It’s not quite football season yet, but three-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Patrick Mahomes is looking for a new arena to conquer.
Mahomes is entering the beverage business, joining former BodyArmor executive Michael Fedele to launch Throne Sport Coffee today in a venture that seeks to disrupt the RTD coffee category. Behind Fedele, the Kansas City Chiefs QB is the second largest shareholder in the brand.
“I wake up every single morning and I’m getting coffee,” Mahomes said. “It gets a little bit more during the season than in the offseason but I drink a lot of coffee.”
Fedele, who left BodyArmor in December 2022 after over 10 years with Coca-Cola, had been developing a “sport coffee” formulated for athletes and sent Mahomes prototype samples.
“I was able to try those out and know that I was drinking coffee which I love, but a healthy version,” Mahomes added. “I could drink it during the season and didn’t have to worry about the effects of how I feel after [or] if I would be sluggish after the coffee has worn off.”
Throne Sport Coffee is targeting health-conscious coffee drinkers, not energy drink consumers, Fedele said, but is doing it with a product that balances flavor with ingredients that speak to an active lifestyle.
The 4-SKU, NSF Certified for Sport line – available in Black, Mocha Java, Salted Caramel and French Vanilla – come in 11 oz. cans with 150mg caffeine, B vitamins, electrolytes and branched-chain amino acids for recovery. The cans will retail for $3.99. Throne’s flavored varieties are sweetened with pure cane sugar (8g added), are dairy-free and have 50 calories.
The brand initially will be in about 3,000 outlets in 20 states as well as on the company’s website and Amazon. Convenience chain Casey’s and Hy-Vee are two of Throne’s major launch partners as the brand focuses on c-stores and some conventional retailers in the Midwest and Plains regions.
Positioning as a better-for-you coffee product was important because athletes like Mahomes rely on coffee to fuel their active lifestyle just like other adults, Fedele said.
Mahomes reported he has already been passing Throne out to his Kansas City Chiefs teammates at practice and, anecdotally, Fedele said many Major League Baseball teams have reached out and begun carrying the coffees in their locker rooms as well.
Finding a niche in RTD coffees is no easy task as the category grows with celebrity-backed brands like Happy and Chamberlain Coffee targeting young consumers while artisan roasters (La Colombe, Verve and Equator) expand deeper in the set.
The active-lifestyle coffee drinker is not untapped territory either. Super Coffee has been positioning its high-protein, low-sugar RTD canned drinks to these consumers for nearly a decade with a variety of SKUs. Chocolate milk maker Slate has found traction among fitness-focused individuals seeking protein-rich, caffeinated drinks with its latte line.
Throne is betting that having the clout and reach of one of the best football players in the league will help propel the brand forward. Mahomes is no stranger to endorsement deals. Over the years, he has put his personal brand behind Essentia, PRIME, and BioSteel, but Throne is the first beverage brand that Mahomes has taken an active ownership stake in and has been part of the formulation and launch strategy.
“More than the investment you have to believe in the product and think that the product’s going to take off to another level,” he said.
Setting the brand up for that kind of success, Fedele has built his team with beverage industry professionals, many of whom worked with him at BodyArmor.
“Our team is a group of competitive people,” Fedele said. “From Patrick [Mahomes] to myself to the team that’s behind this brand, we play to win.”