NHL
BodyArmor will debut as the official sports drink partner of the NHL and NHLPA under a new five-and-a-half-year deal when the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin Saturday. The Coca-Cola-owned sports nutrition company replaces the league’s previous partner in the category, BioSteel, which went into bankruptcy protection weeks prior to the start of the NHL’s regular season.
BodyArmor CMO Thomas Gargiulo said the deal is the Coca-Cola-owned sports nutrition brand’s largest sports marketing investment in its 13-year history. It follows the brand’s foray into the Canadian market at the start of the year and its subsequent
signing of Oilers C Connor McDavid, a longtime BioSteel endorser, to its athlete roster. The NHL deal is a major splash for the brand in a market in which it has yet to establish significant brand recognition.
"Canada certainly was a big influence in in determining whether or not this was the right sport for us,” Gargiulo said. “It's the number one sport in Canada, and here the U.S. popularity continues to grow. There's just so much momentum on both sides of the of the border.”
Financial terms of the agreement, which runs through the 2028-29 NHL season, were not disclosed, but a source with knowledge of the deal said BodyArmor’s annual financial commitment is about the same as what BioSteel had been paying. The NHL-NHLPA deal was BioSteel’s largest sponsorship commitment, with parent company Canopy Growth declaring the sports nutrition brand owed NHL Enterprises LP more than $6M in missed payments when it filed for bankruptcy last September.
An invoice for legal fees filed by counsel for the monitor (a Canadian court-appointed third party) indicates BioSteel was working on a settlement with the NHL and NHLPA in October. The NHL declined to comment on the terms of any deal it may have reached. The court officially terminated the sponsorship agreement, which was set to run through the 2029-30 season, in November, allowing the league to pursue a new partner. BioSteel-branded water bottles and towels remained visible on NHL benches throughout the 2023-24 regular season.
“Nobody is prepared for a notification of a bankruptcy in a major category 15 days from the start of the season,” said NHL Senior VP/North American Business Development Kyle McMann. “So, we were forced through the monitor-led sale process to hold. We did not know for months if we would or would not have a partnership [with BioSteel]."
The Canada-based Coachwood Group of Companies, which purchased the BioSteel brand in a court-supervised sale, did not assume its previous deal with the NHL and NHLPA, but Coachwood Founder & CEO Dan Crosby talked to the league about the possibility of reaching a new deal. PepsiCo, an NHL partner in the carbonated soft drink, water, energy drink and savory snack categories, also spoke to the league about a possible reunion with its Gatorade brand, which was the league’s sports drink partner from 2006-2022.
Launching the new partnership in time for the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs has required a rush effort from both BodyArmor and the NHL. Before the deal was even signed, BodyArmor was already ordering thousands of squirt bottles, as well as coolers and other equipment to supply to NHL teams, well before the contract was signed in late March.
“We felt confident from several conversations early in the process that we were going to be able to get a deal done,” Gargiulo said. “It was just a matter of when.”
In-game exposure is key to the deal, as BodyArmor branding will appear on coolers, squirt bottles and towels used by players and trainers on benches, along with digitally enhanced dasherboard inventory. BodyArmor will also receive exposure around the NHL Draft and related content. It will also be a highly visible supporter of the league’s NHL Street youth hockey initiative. Gargiulo said the brand is considering supplemental deals with NHL teams and players.
NHLPA Senior Dir of Business Operations Jasmine Lew said top players, including McDavid, would feature in custom content pieces for BodyArmor.
BodyArmor's deal also includes sponsorship of the IIHF World U18 Championships and college hockey’s Hobey Baker Award, which is awarded to the NCAA’s top men’s ice hockey player annually. BodyArmor and the NHL each negotiated the deal without agency support.
The functional beverage space has evolved considerably in recent years, with up-and-coming brands like Celsius and Prime blurring the lines between sports drinks and energy drinks. Despite being in the market just two years ago, McMann said the NHL faced a different landscape that could soon see properties change how they define their sponsor categories.
“The pure isotonic is still the core of all sports hydration, but there are players now with various ownership equities -- some of them with the big Pepsi or Coke and some of them independents -- playing in the energy-but-sports hydration space," McMann said. “The newness of it didn't become an issue because we were able to align with a brand that does exist in the core isotonic space in BodyArmor.”
