Tom Brady, Mike Repole, and the Rise of Nobull as a $1B Wellness Brand

Nobull’s valuation continues to climb to $1 billion as Brady and Repole aim to build a one-stop shop spanning apparel, nutrition, and recovery.

A recent fundraising round valued wellness and lifestyle brand Nobull at $1 billion, company co-owners Mike Repole and Tom Brady confirmed to Boardroom on Monday. The news comes less than two years after Brady’s TB12 brand merged with the Nobull brand that Repole, the billionaire founder of Vitamin Water and Bodyarmor, had recently purchased.

In conjunction with the announcement, Nobull announced a nutrition division as the TB12 brand sunsets, and named influencer and entrepreneur Livvy Dunne and New York Islanders rookie phenom Matthew Schaefer as endorsers and brand partners.

“I want to support people’s vision. I want to support their health and wellness,” Brady told Boardroom. “I want to support their journey through the challenging parts of their life. And I think that’s really what this brand represents. It’s been such a great journey looking back two years from where we were to where we’re at now. And I know two years from now, it’s going to be even at a far greater place.”

Repole and Brady both stressed that Nobull wants to fulfill people’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being, and they believe nutrition checks off all three boxes while setting themselves apart from competitors in apparel.

“Unlike other footwear and apparel companies, no one’s doing protein and electrolytes,” Repole said. “Tom and I are building this one-stop shop wellness brand for whether you’re an elite athlete, a weekend warrior, or you just live in the sport of life, and you’re just trying to figure out how to get through a tough week.”

For Brady and Repole, Dunne represents everything they want from a brand ambassador, an elite athlete and pioneer who you definitely want on your side as a competitor.

“She just handles things the right way. And there’s a performance element that is so special when you reach the very top and hold yourself to a very high standard,” Brady said. “For young women to look up to someone who puts her heart and soul into everything, and deals with triumph and adversity equally as well. They’re always looking for people who are aspirational in their way they approach their lives, their sport, and the way they approach their newfound fame. She goes out there and gets it done with grace.”

For Schaefer, he not only embodies toughness and the ability to overcome adversity both on and off the ice, but is a natural continuation of Nobull making inroads in hockey. It first started catering as a brand to the CrossFit community and, in October, signed a deal with the NHL to be the league’s official training shoe. Teams and players are now prioritizing the brand off the ice, and Repole and Brady are looking for young athletes like Dunne and Schaefer to represent the next generation of the brand.

And while Nobull wants to have you covered on both performance and nutrition, it also recently purchased golf lifestyle apparel brand Public Rec to be the company of record for their consumers’ recovery and recreation time as well. Public Rec will also factor into Nobull’s LIV Golf sponsorship. In the future, Repole said Nobull is also looking to enter the self-care products market and to focus on how people are protecting their bodies internally and externally, in addition to a media platform featuring speakers like Brady who can share their inspirational stories.

“Our goal is to inspire those who aspire to be better at what they do in life,” Repole said. “Tom and I will both tell you this. If you love what we are saying and you go buy Nike sneakers, we’re okay with it. If you go buy an Adidas t-shirt, we’re fine with it. If you go buy another protein drink, we’re okay. We want to just inspire you and give you a blueprint that we’ve both had for 30, 40 years of our lives that we just want to pay forward. And we want to bring on others that have had that level of success to help us, and recruit some young superstars who already have that Nobull mentality.”

While hockey equipment, a golf brand, and protein and electrolytes don’t seem to naturally fit together as an overall brand strategy, Repole and Brady have built a $1 billion brand together in two years. And as Brady continues to grow into his second career as a TV analyst, NFL team exec, and entrepreneur, Nobull is positioning itself as a challenger brand led by two people with proven track records of that winning mentality they’re looking to inspire in others.