Behind The Brand: Athletic Brewing
The power of identifying and building an underserved category...
Starting Line
Athletic Brewing has made a substantial impact on the outdoor industry with their “Two For The Trails” program (over $10M funneled to trail advocacy so far). This week, we got to sit down with Bill Shufelt to hear about the founding story, creating a category that everyone had written off, and how he’s navigated the entire process.
Behind The Brand: Athletic Brewing
Bill Shufelt was a hedge fund analyst who didn't drink, couldn't find a non-alcoholic beer worth ordering, and one night his wife spun him around on a sidewalk and told him to do something about it. Eight years later, Athletic Brewing has 300 employees, four breweries, over a million barrels of capacity, and has almost single-handedly turned non-alcoholic beer from a stigmatized afterthought into 20% of all beer at Whole Foods.
In this conversation, Bill walks through the full journey: the two years of research before he quit his job, the valley of darkness where no brewery, distributor, or investor would take his calls, finding his co-founder John Walker through a brewing forum post (with the words "non-alcoholic" deliberately removed), and the grassroots field marketing strategy that built the brand one race, one taproom, and one six-pack at a time. He also gets into the competitive explosion that followed, why he views 200 brands entering his category as a positive, and what it's like to redefine success once the business reaches cruising altitude.
If you've ever looked at a category and thought "why hasn't anyone fixed this yet", this is the episode that shows you what happens when someone actually does.
Here To Help
The most common refrain we hear from friends working at brands is “we need to find content creators, but we are strapped on time”. This is the exact problem that Popfly has solved. If you’re working at a brand that needs this kind of help, you need to check this out (and tell them we sent you), it’ll be worth it. And…if you’re an athlete or creator, you should definitely get on this platform - there are brands, ready to support you and looking for your talent. We’re using it outside of the podcast and having a lot of success with it - and this is exactly why we wanted to partner with Popfly in the first place. Highly recommended!
Job Of The Week
🚀 Our friends at Popfly are looking for a full-time Customer Success & Onboarding Manager.
🎯 Milky Way Park (just on the pod a few weeks ago) is hiring a Head of Marketing and Engagement.
👀 This adidas role for Director of Partnerships & Affiliate Marketing is still open.
📲 Aravaipa is hiring a Social Media Manager in Phoenix.
🔥 There are more roles open in our Second Nature Slack Channel, if you’re not in there already, we highly recommend it!
Article(s) Of The Week
If this week’s episode on Athletic Brewing got you interested in exploring a few NA Beers, check out this newsletter, The Modern Substitute. Our friend Myles runs this weekly newsletter, which shares all the latest brands and products in the NA category.
Friend of the podcast and all around legend Yuri Hauswald took on an absolutely monumental task: starting dead last in easily the gnarliest 200 mile gravel race on the planet (Unbound) last weekend. The plan was this - for every rider he passed, he would raise money for charity. Yuri also handed out “golden tickets” during the race with prizes to the riders on course. He’ll be posting more about his race effort shortly, but until then, have a look at everything that went into it. Hats off to Yuri for an incredible effort (and outcome)!
Show Notes
BPC - Brand, Product, Content
BPC is our closing segment where we share Brands we’ve discovered, Products we’re using and Content that we love. Bill brought all kinds of great stuff to BPC this week, so we had to match his energy with one of our most in-depth BPC segments of all time! (Did anyone else catch him casually referencing a previous episode’s BPC??)
🇮🇪 Dirt - Ireland: Arguably one of the best ongoing content series in the world of outdoor, Huckberry’s Dirt series travels to Ireland.
👖 Gremicci: Bill called these his “weekend dad pants” with tons of pockets, perfect for climbing, too.
🧗♂️ Hopa Hopa Climbing Wall: Parents with active kids - here’s the pro version of the indoor climbing wall. These look rad!
🏃♂️ Kawa: Dylan ran into some hikers recently wearing these pants, and they caught his attention, so much that he stopped them to ask where they were from.
🏔️ Raide Research - LF 5L Vest: Our friends at Raide Research just released a new vest, just in time for a summer of running through the mountains.
🍺 The Modern Substitute: If you want to learn more about NA beers and beverages, our friend Myles puts together a weekly newsletter about all the new products and brands launching in the industry.
🚲 Kids Ride Shotgun: For anyone with kids, this is a great way to ride bikes together. The seat mounts ahead of you, so you can keep an eye on your kiddo. Highly recommended!
Thank You
First, a big thank you to Mel Strong for making the introduction to Bill Shufelt. This was a fun conversation to record, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Stay tuned for next week, we’re joined by someone who was briefly on the podcast a few months back, but we needed to have them back on for a much deeper conversation.
Looking forward to this. My wife and I were Athletic Ambassadors for a few years and they really had the program dialed. Made us feel "special," which is so clutch for loyalty. I can count on one hand (using only two fingers) my ride-or-die brands, and Athletic is one. Heck, I don't even drink the stuff anymore and I'm still ambassador-ing for them for free.