Barcode has made its NBA connections a foundation of the brand, and is now taking those further with two new sponsorship deals with storied NBA franchises.
Today, Los Angeles-based sports drink maker announced it has been named the official performance drink of both the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat. The respective five-year deals grant Barcode branding on team benches, cups, coolers, towels and other NBA-approved equipment as well as activations with each franchise.
It might seem logical for Barcode to align with the San Antonio Spurs seeing as its star player Victor Wembanyama is an investor and brand partner, but it was never a foregone conclusion.
“To be very transparent and honest, we weren’t working on this deal first,” said Barcode founder and CEO Mubarak “Bar” Malik.
Last October, the performance water brand signed its first professional sports team partnership with the Brooklyn Nets as the team’s official fitness water.
As part of Barcode’s deal with Wembanyama, it had been working closely with the Spurs sports medicine team for the last year gathering data for its specially formulated drink tailored to Wembanyama’s unique hydration needs. Otherwise, there were no formal ties between the brand and the San Antonio basketball franchise. The Spurs were finishing the last year of their contract with Gatorade during the 2023-2024 season and instead of re-signing with the PepsiCo brand, the franchise pursued deeper ties to Barcode for the upcoming season.
“It started from a very authentic spot of creating a drink for Victor [Wembanyama] first and foremost, which made [the Spurs] want to have the best product for the rest of the team,” Malik said.
Over the last year, Barcode has solidified its distribution, landing a deal with Texas retailer H-E-B (also a longtime sponsor of the Spurs franchise) as well as an expanded partnership in California with Albertsons and on the East Coast with Rainforest Distribution.
The Miami Heat partnership was also accomplished with another helping hand from one of Barcode’s investors, former NBA player and current Miami Heat assistant coach Wayne Ellington.
Ellington’s connection to Barcode goes back to Malik’s days as the New York Knicks director of performance.
“He’s one of my closest friends and when I told him about the teams I wanted to pursue, he led me in the right direction of who I needed to get in front of and who I needed to speak with about getting a product in the locker rooms and into the hands of people who make decisions,” Malik said.
The timing was right as well because the Heat was coming off its sponsorship deal with BodyArmor while Barcode was targeting South Florida as a new market. Additionally, Malik has always admired the Heat franchise and how it has tied its cultural identity to the South Florida community.
“For them to choose us and for us to choose them, it keeps us at a standard,” he said. “We’re not just recklessly partnering with teams just because we think they’re cool. We want to win in this space. We want to win in Florida.”
The brand just announced it was now available in Florida-based gas and convenience store chain Murphy USA, has a handful of independent retailer partnerships and is in reviews at Publix.
One difference between the Heat deal and those with the Spurs and the Brooklyn Nets is that Barcode will be available as a concessions item at Miami’s Kaseya Arena.
Along with its ties to past and present professional athletes like Kyle Kuzma, Derek Fisher, Carmelo Anthony, Jalen Wilson and Jordan Clarkson, the company has been targeting less traditional opportunities in the sport drink category. The brand counts hip-hop artist Jadakiss as another investor and launched its fifth variety, blue raspberry flavored BLUEKISS, over the summer with an activation at New York Fashion Week.
Barcode has also been making inroads with the wellness community, especially in its home market of Southern California. It was featured in Winnie Harlow’s Island Glow Smoothie at Erehwon, and has sponsored fitness groups and is on-sale in a number of yoga and exercise studios.
“We’re headquartered in L.A. and we don’t have a major sports ambassador here,” Malik said. “But on every corner there’s a recovery studio, an infrared sauna spot or a cold-plunge party. That’s the community. We just want to make sure we’re always at the forefront of these activations.”