Where is innovation in sports supplements?

Food and beverage delivery have grabbed much of the cool factor attention in the sports nutrition market. However, the most bang for the buck is still in supplement form, which can deliver higher amounts of beneficial ingredients for building muscle and improving recovery/adaptations, among other body goals. Where supplement brands have a tougher task in innovating delivery—will gummies infiltrate the sports supplement space?—they can create unique products in areas such as formulation and flavor.

How is your brand innovating in the sports supplements market? NEXTY Awards at SupplySide West 2019 is a chance for such brands and products to win recognition for quality innovation.

Flavor licensing is one area where some brands are winning consumers. While pre-workouts that break free from the usual common citrus flavors to bring candy or mocktail flavors, for example. Protein powders that go beyond the Neopolitan ice cream flavors to bring a wider array of dessert (think pie) and indulgent flavors (e.g. crème brulee and hazelnut latte).  

Industry market specialist Josh Schall, J. Schall Consulting, explained Man Sports first introduced flavors based on famous candy brands like Sour Patch Kids and Starburst, but the company had to use similar sounding names. Then Ghost Nutrition licensed actual consumer brands such Warheads, Swedish Fish and Chips Ahoy. Licensing flavors is part of what Schall calls creating an exclusive experience for consumers.

Schall and Ghost CEO Dan Lourenço will present during SupplySide West’s sports summit, Finding New Pathways in Sports Nutrition, on Wed. Oct. 16 in Las Vegas.

Novel and emerging ingredients may also help sports supplement brands standout. This is a bit harder to do on the protein side, even with the slight whey protein tweaks like native and grass-fed whey. New Hope’s NEXT data analysis (based on Expo West exhibitors) has shown a big dip in innovation in the whey, casein and milk protein categories, with more opportunity for these ingredients in food and beverage. Egg protein was the only animal protein showing positive innovation numbers in supplements. Most protein innovation activity in supplements was on the plant side, with pea and rice dominating and hemp lagging—a real opportunity area, NEXT said.

With pea and rice leading the way, brands may need to explore the tons of other plant proteins (e.g. hemp, quinoa, seeds, etc.) to stand out. But overall, vegetarian/vegan is an innovation area for sports supplements. So is adding beneficial botanical ingredients, such as curcumin, ashwagandha or tart cherry for recovery, to staple formulas. Ditto for clean label, non-GMO and organic.

Many sports supplements blur the line between supplement and beverage, but tons of pre-workouts and protein powder products still bear Supplement Facts panels. One trend to consider for these supplements is alternative sweeteners. The legacy brands have been slower to incorporate natural alternatives such as stevia and monk fruit, but this is something for all brands to consider if targeting the growing part of the sports nutrition market, active lifestyles, which bring in many of the trends from the mainstream natural products market.

Does your company make an innovative sports nutrition supplement that incorporates any of these or other trends? If so, I invite you to enter the NEXTY Awards at SupplySide West 2019 that recognize innovative and inspirational finished products launched to the U.S. consumer market between summer 2018 and July 26, 2019.

The NEXTY Awards at SupplySide West recognize innovation, inspiration and integrity across 13 finished product categories. Winning products represent what’s “next” in wellness trends, in solving today’s health and sustainability problems, in ingredient innovation, in packaging, in condition management, in supply chain growth and transparency, and in health impact.

Products must be submitted by the CPG brands or their representatives, not by ingredient or component suppliers. The submission deadline is July 26, 2019. Winners announced at SupplySide West in Las Vegas, Oct. 15-19, 2019.

For more than 20 years, SupplySide has helped those in the food, beverage, dietary supplement, animal nutrition, personal care and cosmetic industries break through the hype and ambiguity to find the information they need to explore, discover, innovate and market their next best-selling product.