The seven-time Super Bowl champion will take the No. 2 shareholder position at the company as NOBULL seeks to expand into the wellness space. Boardroom sat down with the GOAT and NOBULL principal stakeholder, serial entrepreneur Mike Repole, to talk business, wellness, and more.
Tom Brady has been rewriting the script on health and wellness for decades. He seemingly outlasted Father Time during his 23-year career. Now, he’s making a business move that mirrors the secret formula that kept his so successful for so long.
The seven-time Super Bowl champion’s nutrition and wellness company, TB12, and his Brady Brand apparel company have merged with Mike Repole’s performance training brand NOBULL. The deal brings the NFL GOAT’s core businesses under the NOBULL umbrella, the companies announced Tuesday.
Repole, the billionaire entrepreneur who co-founded and sold Glaceau’s Vitamin Water and Bodyarmor, described the combined company as a $250 million startup focusing on all aspects of wellness. That includes sneakers, apparel, nutrition, supplements, protein, and mental health guidance. In a conversation with Boardroom, Brady and Repole discussed the connection they built over the last two years, bonding over business, family, and shared values that ultimately led to the two partnering together.
“Being part of great teams is what has brought the most joy to my life,” Brady, who will be the company’s No. 2 shareholder behind Repole, told Boardroom, “and as I’ve transitioned from playing sports, I still want to be a part of a great team. Since the day I met Mike, I recognized him as an incredible leader and I wanted to join forces with him. This was the best opportunity to do it.”
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Repole’s Impact Capital bought a majority stake in NOBULL last July, falling in love with a company founded in 2015 by Marcus Wilson and Michael Schaffer, two former Reebok employees who initially focused on the CrossFit community and remain at the company. With its newest deal in place, The 55-year-old Repole believes the business is a lot more scalable as it expands its consumer base with Brady’s help. NOBULL recently ended a run of three seasons as the title sponsor for the CrossFit Games, but remains the title sponsor for the NFL scouting combine as well as a sponsor for New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones, who the team drafted as Brady’s heir apparent.
Brady founded TB12 in 2013 with wellness coach and business partner Alex Guerrero. The company focuses on protein powder, electrolytes and supplements, marketing the sporting legend’s disciplined nutritional regiment and work ethic to the masses. Brady Brand launched in 2022, kicking off by signing 10 collegiate athletes to NIL deals, including Shedeur Sanders. Guerrero and the seven-time Super Bowl champion reportedly dissolved their business relationship in October. Brady will now focus on combining staffs with Repole to build an overarching wellness and lifestyle group that would help people become resilient and overcome adversity.
“What Tom has done with TB12 as a part-time entrepreneur, most brands would’ve never even made it this far,” Repole told Boardroom. “We see this as a bigger opportunity to take the brand to the next level.”
Throughout his life and Hall of Fame 23-year career, Brady, 45, said he learned more from losing and encountering challenges than he did while winning. Helping people manage and cope with those tougher times to become the best versions of themselves will be major parts of the NOBULL platform.
“The ability to help people and build grit and resilience is the NOBULL mentality that will lead to this NOBULL lifestyle,” Repole said. “And Tom being the narrator of this lifestyle is going to be having an incredible impact globally for this brand and for people.”
Repole believes NOBULL’s disruption will be organic. It’s the first company he’s been a part of, he said, that doesn’t worry about financial goals. The vision and the mission are there, so the strategy, tactics, and execution will come with the combined forces of Repole and Brady’s respective companies and family offices working closely with one another and NOBULL’s experienced management team. The new NOBULL is all about, Repole said, helping people becoming better versions of themselves every day.
Brady is just three years removed from winning his seventh championship and fifth Super Bowl MVP. His most recent ring came in the form of win with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. Mahomes goes for his third ring on Feb. 11 against a San Francisco 49ers squad led by a quarterback in Brock Purdy who, like Brady, was also a late round draft pick. Brady said he sees himself on both of this year’s big game signal callers.
“I’ve been where Brock’s been, and I’m fortunate to be where Patrick’s been, and I can definitely relate to both,” Brady said. “I have a lot of respect for Patrick and what he’s accomplished. He’s a real competitor. He is a winner. And there’s a part of this world that’s so self-focused right now, very self-serving. What I really respect about Patrick is he does the work, he puts the time in. And Brock in the same way. He’s got great values. The team cares about him. A lot of people talk a lot of shit about him, and he doesn’t seem to care. He just goes about his work and gets the job done.”
The Super Bowl will take place in Sin City for the first time, a city Brady personally invested in when he bought stakes in the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces last year. With 40 million visitors a year, he’s bullish on the city’s future as a major sports city.
“They’re trying to get a baseball team, they’re trying to get a basketball team. UFC is based there. There’s just a lot of great things happening,” Brady said. “It’s a great sports hub and hopefully we’ll continue to be for a long time.”
There’s also been plenty of speculation whether Brady would actually join FOX Sports as its lead analyst after he agreed to a reported 10-year, $375 million contract last February upon his second and final (we think) retirement. With FOX set to call Super Bowl LIX next year in New Orleans, the city and network where he played his first Super Bowl, Brady was asked if he expects to be on that broadcast.
“Oh you’re damn right I do,” he said. “And I can’t wait for it. The great John Madden was on the call [in the Patriots’ first win over the St. Louis Rams]. So it’s very meaningful to me.
“There’s a lot of time between now and then, and there’s a lot of goals I’m going to have to personally meet myself in order to be prepared for that. But I’m going to do it like I did everything else. I’m going to go work my ass off and show up every day and put the team first and be the best I can be for my teammates at FOX and hopefully provide the viewer a little different experience than they’ve had based on some of the experiences that I’ve had over the course of my 23-year playing career.”
It sounds like Brady is serious about his 2024 future both in the booth and in the boardroom as he dives headlong now into the second act of his public facing life.
