GOODBYE GATORADE: HOW BIOSTEEL IS (VERY QUIETLY) TAKING OVER THE NHL
In August 2011, with a new hockey season just around the corner, NHL fans were treated to a flurry of feel-good media stories emanating from a weeklong pre-season training camp run by legendary Toronto Maple Leaf Gary Roberts and former team trainer Matt Nichol. The event drew stars like Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos and Montreal Canadiens sharpshooter Mike Cammalleri, who, alongside a group of the league’s most promising prospects, all paid for the opportunity to press iron, grunt through excruciating exercises and run skating drills on the storied ice surface at Toronto’s St. Michael’s College School Arena.
The camp wasn’t just about training. It bore the branding of an upstart sports beverage firm called BioSteel, which had sponsored the event, stamped its logo on the practice jerseys and invited media to attend. BioSteel filmed everything, posting daily sizzle reels to YouTube. The event was, all told, a commercial for BioSteel, the all-natural hydrating drink Nichol had invented to help his NHL clients with their conditioning. In fact, Cammalleri and Stamkos were BioSteel brand ambassadors.
BioSteel used the coverage to lay a few heavy checks on Gatorade, the world’s best known sports drink. As one TV reporter noted, whenever the cameras panned down the bench during regular season games, the players were increasingly guzzling BioSteel’s distinctively pink drink, albeit from Gatorade’s familiar green bottles. The NHLers touted BioSteel as a superior alternative. As Stamkos enthused, “I use it the entire year.”
Gatorade, owned by PepsiCo, was not amused. The company’s enforcers complained to the NHL Players’ Association, which, along with the NHL, has a multimillion-dollar sponsorship licence with the giant brand. NHLPA lawyers, in turn, phoned BioSteel CEO John Celenza and told him in no uncertain terms that he had to cease and desist: no more BioSteel training camps for NHLers. (Stamkos was also warned.)
Celenza considered legal action but didn’t get far. “No lawyer I knew was versed in NHLPA group licensing,” he says. Today, his office bears stark evidence of Gatorade’s intervention. He has four framed and amply autographed jerseys from those camps; the first two prominently feature the BioSteel logo, while the final two just had the word “#camp” across the chest. “The NHLPA had to do what they had to do,” he allows. “At first it was frustrating, but we’ve learned to live with it.”