Prominent Athletes Making It Cool To Drink Non-Alcoholic Beer
A prominent investor in the San Diego-based Athletic Brewing Company, former NFL star J.J. Watt is truly invested in the product. He doesn’t merely support it, he consumes their non-alcoholic beer on a regular basis.
It’s been said that the three-time NFL Defensive Player of The Year made it cool to drink non-alcoholic beer.
“He’s like, ‘I just love drinking [your] beer on Saturday, watching college football,” Athletic Brewing Company co-founder and CEO Bill Shufelt told Forbes Magazine of Watt. “‘And I’d feel great on Sunday when I played in the [NFL] games.’”
Now, opting for a non-alcoholic brew as your first choice of beer would seem about as logical as checking out sports betting website reviews and deciding to put down a wager on the San Diego Padres to win the World Series. On paper, it might make sense, but anyone who’s tried this strategy before has found nothing but disappointment ahead in the future.
Clearly, the Athletic Brewing Company is changing that point of view. It’s currently the top-selling beer – alcoholic or non-alcoholic – at Whole Foods.
Even though some industry estimates are that non-alcoholic beer will soon occupy 20% of the market, this isn’t an either/or debate. Studies conducted by the Athletic Brewing Company have discovered that eight out of every 10 of their customers also enjoy a regular beer from time to time.
Athletes Selling People On Athletic Brewing Company
However, it certainly doesn’t hurt their cause that prominent athletes such as Watt are talking up the quality of their product. Companies hire celebrity endorsers for one reason and one reason only – because it works as a marketing ploy.
Along with former Houston Texans defensive lineman Watt, other athletes who are major investors in the Athletic Brewing Company are fellow former NFL defensive lineman Justin Tuck, tennis star Naomi Osaka, and cycling legend Lance Armstrong.
“Early on we were discovered by some elite endurance athletes,” Shufelt explained. “Then there was a whole second wave of people discovering us—and J. J. Watt was among them.
“When we began Athletic Brewing, we knew that we had the potential to take non-alcoholic beer out of the penalty box and open up new occasions for the beer industry. The fact that Lance, Justin and J.J., who are leaders in their own professional and personal endeavors, would see the value in our pursuit to offer a life without compromise, greatly validates our mission and sets us on the path for mammoth success.”
Shufelt believes that what these elite athletes are saying by promoting the consuming of non-alcoholic beer is that they are showing the weekend warrior type of athletes a way they can also enjoy a few cold brews without the worry about how they’re going to get home, or get up to go to work the next morning?
“The long and short, which is a big catchall, is like everyone’s an athlete in some way,” Shufelt told Yahoo Finance. “And this market was so underserved previously.”
Even Watt had to admit that when the chance to invest in the Athletic Brewing Company first came his way, he scoffed at the notion.
“The opportunity came very early on,” Watt explained on the Without Compromise podcast. “I’m from Wisconsin, which I believe is the place with the most bars per capita of any place in the world.
“This came across my desk and I said . . . ‘I think my buddies would kick me out of the state if I said non-alcoholic beer was an investment I was making. So I passed on it a couple of times in the beginning, just purely on where I’m from.”
Soon, Watt saw the potential more than the potential for the grief he might end up taking from friends.
“It kept coming across my desk and I remember thinking, ‘this is an impressive business plan’ and I always thought the branding was unbelievable.”
Watt tried the beer.
“It was unbelievable,” he said. “Until you do a taste test, you have no idea.”
Next, he met with Shufelt.
“Bill aligned with everything I think a CEO and a founder of a company should be,” Watt explained. “He’s extremely passionate about what he does and he has a firm reasoning for what he’s doing.”
To elite athletes, who know exactly the level of commitment it requires to reach the top of their chosen field, these were qualities that were going to resonate.”
Once he was all in, Watt could sit back and revel with enjoyment as he was also turning skeptical friends into believers in the product.
“Similar to myself, it’s been fun to watch people initially question it and then come on board full bore,” he said.
Tuck An Astute Investor
Like Watt, Tuck was an All-Pro defensive lineman. A captain with the New York Giants, he helped lead them to a pair of Super Bowl victories over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
Again like Watt, Tuck is wise in terms of where he opts to put his money. And he’s got the type of background that lets you know he doesn’t invest frivolously.
Since leaving the NFL, he’s become a major player in the business world. In 2018, Tuck graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business with an MBA. He is currently employed on Wall Street by Goldman Sachs.
Osaka is another prominent athlete renowned for her business savvy. In 2022, the tennis icon showed earnings of $51.1 million. Just $1.1 million of that total was earned by her on the tennis court. She was one of just six athletes that year to earn $50 million from off-field investments.