Ready® Nutrition Announces Power 5 Partnership
Ready® Nutrition announced they are UCLA Athletics new exclusive provider of protein products making this the popular sports nutrition companies first partnership with a Power 5 university. The multi-year deal includes the right to supply protein packed products to UCLA’s 700 student-athletes representing 25 different Division I collegiate sport programs. The Sports Techie community blog has covered Ready as they grow their brand across the United States, this time with a Bruins athletic department business relationship. Investors, co-owners and product users include the NBA’s 2020 and 2019 MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo, as well as the two-time pro football Defensive Player of the Year, Aaron Donald. This positive news comes on the heels of UCLA suing Under Armour for more than $200 million because of a sponsorship termination clause as COVID-19 changes the finances of sports for almost all entities. Ready steps in as the UCLA Athletic Department’s nutritional ally at just the right time, like they seem to do quite a bit lately.
UCLA Athletics
The Director of Football Performance at UCLA, Frank Wintrich, had players first sample Ready Nutrition in 2019. That performance testing went so well that today, the entire Bruin student-athlete population has access to Ready’s protein-centric products.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Ready® to the UCLA family,” said UCLA’s Alice and Nahum Lainer Family Director of Athletics Martin Jarmond. “We want to give our student-athletes every edge and opportunity to reach their potential and be elite. Nutrition is such an important factor in athletic performance.”
UCLA Rose Bowl Sports Properties is the university’s multimedia rights holder and locally based sponsorship team for Learfield IMG College conducting business with local, regional and national brands aiming to become associated with Bruins Athletics.
“UCLA Athletics has such a rich tradition and I know they want the very best for their student-athletes. We are committed to helping them continue that tradition by supplying best-in-class products to meet the department’s nutritional goals for its athletes,” said Ready Founder and President, Pat Cavanaugh.
So Cal
This marks Ready Nutrition’s second partnership in Southern California’s massive marketplace. LA Rams superstar Donald signed on in 2019 as an investor and co-owner of the company after he used Ready Protein Water. This fit also made sense since Ready’s HQ is in Pittsburgh which is the same city where Donald played college football at the University of Pittsburgh.
The Greek Freak
In May of this year, global basketball star and now the defending two-time MVP, Antetokounmpo, followed the same path as Donald towards investment and co-ownership after using Ready’s products these past two hoops seasons. Congrats to Giannis for winning the 2020 NBA MVP award today for the second consecutive year and keep on using Ready.
Product Line
Ready features an all-natural, line of performance products such as Ready Protein Water, energy bars, protein powders and plant based functional snacks. Look for products currently available in more than 8,000 retail outlets across North America. Over 200 college and university athletic programs give their student-athletes Ready products. The brand is the Official Sports Nutrition Brand of four NCAA Division 1 Conferences.
They were also selected as the Official Sports Drink of The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), the largest athletic organization in the U.S. with around 700,000 athletes competing in 41 sports.
Sports Techie, I love UCLA. Especially UCLA Basketball, always have, hopefully, always will. I have seen a live Bruins football game in the Rose Bowl and a basketball game against crosstown rival, USC at Pauley Pavilion, an iconic arena I grew up wishing to someday play in for the school. Blogging about legendary Coach John Woodend and the digitized learning course for his amazing book, Pyramid of Success, was an honor. Needless to say, go Bruins!
I first spoke to Cavanaugh in 2011 when he was running Crons Brand. Ready Nutrition was founded in 2012 by the former University of Pittsburgh basketball team captain and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Hall of Fame member. Here almost ten years later, he seems to have a winning sportsbiz gameplan with Ready.
Cavanaugh believes his company is on pace to do $100 in sales by the end of the year because of double-digit sales growth annually. Aligning with Giannis, Donald and UCLA Athletics will help to achieve these numbers.
In 2018, Kobe Bryant invested a reported $6 million in BodyArmor earning Black Mamba 10% ownership or about $200 million after the Coca-Cola Company acquired them.
Is Ready Nutrition the next to get gobbled up by the likes of Pepsi, Nike or Starbucks?
If the price is right, you can bet on it.
See you later sportstechie in Seattle, Atlanta and around the world!
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