Taking a “culture-first” approach to launching, sports and energy drink Pure Fuel has prioritized building partnerships and brand awareness before establishing itself in retail.
Despite launching in February 2023, the Philadelphia-based brand didn’t sign its first distribution deal until this February, opting to focus on lining up high-impact partners and selling on Amazon before making a firm push into retail.
The brand was developed by a four-person business partnership — former NBA basketball player Mustafa Shakur, entrepreneurs David “Doobie” Elliott and Ra-Tah Johnson, and app developer Derek Lance — along with California-based prune business Sunsweet Growers (through Lance’s father, Dane Lance, who was an executive at the company for 35 years).
Sunsweet, which has a minority interest in the brand, provided the formulation and manufacturing capabilities to develop Pure Fuel’s portfolio of caffeinated and uncaffeinated hydration beverages available in 16.9 oz. plastic bottles. The brand’s two product lines come in four flavors: Tropical Torrent, Limitless Lemonade, Berry Blitz and Watermelon Blast.
In both its “black” caffeinated and “blue” caffeine-free lines, the brand contains coconut water with no added-sugar, deriving sweetness from fruit juices and stevia. The drinks are fortified with electrolytes and, with the Hydra-Energy SKUs, incorporate organic green coffee bean extract and yerba mate for caffeine.
While holding off on prioritizing retail expansion, Pure Fuel has pursued high-awareness partners like the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, WNBA’s Chicago Sky and the MLS’ Chicago Fire. It has also aligned with podcaster-rapper duo Gillie Da Kid and Wallo267, influencer Dystany Spurlock and Allen Iverson’s Roundball Classic.
“The first 19 months were about awareness and infrastructure,” Johnson said, with a focus on developing an identity through melding music and culture over putting a product on as many shelves as possible
“The Sixers deal was never about selling product in the arena. It was about what it could do outside the arena,” he said.
Through its affiliation as the Official Sports Drink of the Sixers, Pure Fuel was able to land a meeting with Giant Food and has paved the way for collaboration between the grocery chain, the NBA team and the brand which includes marketing campaigns and POS activations like co-branded shippers.
While Pure Fuel has lined up over 500 retailers anchored in the independent convenience and specialty grocery channels, the brand is expecting to close seven other distribution deals by the end of November. Those pacts are expected to bring the brand into larger chains, including coverage all across Pennsylvania, Johnson said. From there, the brand will focus on the Chicagoland area through its partnership deals.
The drink brand is also scraping its Amazon sales data and social media platforms to find the places where the brand is resonating with consumers and is “most culturally relevant,” Johnson said. “Wherever we’re connecting with consumers, that’s where we’re tapping into. That’s where we’re focusing on launching.”
The sports drink category has seen an uptick of insurgent brands taking a stab at the strategic-backed incumbents, which control nearly 90% of the market share. Barcode has used its founders’ connections to the NBA to line up deals with many NBA teams, while PRIME and Unwell have leveraged their influencer credentials to increase sales quickly.
Other brands rising fast have used partnerships like Electrolit’s long-term Keurig Dr Pepper distribution deal or the broad, global appeal of Mas + By Messi’s namesake (backed by Mark Anthony Brands) to become a recognizable name in the sports drink category.
Clawing into the energy drink set could be an even tougher challenge with numerous startup brands carving out niche consumer bases in fitness, esports and various demographic groups.
While the business is minority-founded, Pure Fuel is not targeting a specific demographic but seeing an opportunity in homing in on communities that share cultural identities with music and sports, Johnson said.
“I don’t think it’s Black. I don’t think it’s white, or purple, yellow or green,” he added. “What makes music and sports unique is that it brings people together from different ethnic backgrounds, languages and styles. Music and sports unify them all.”