The partners behind the new sports hydration drink Pure Fuel are celebrating a new partnership with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Not bad, considering none of them knew how to run a sports energy drink company, writes Christian Red for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Only Ra-Tah Johnson, who once played high school basketball at Delaware County Christian School in Newtown Square, had any connection to the beverage field when he worked on ethnic and urban marketing for Coca-Cola.
Now the Pure Fuel partners include Johnson, 45; Gillie Da King, a Philadelphia rapper and social media influencer; Wallo, or Wallo267, another influencer; David “Doobie” Elliott, a Cheyney University graduate, and Mustafa Shakur.
“Part of why this is happening, myself and my partners, we all dream big,’ Shakur said. “Don’t think it happens without you being able to dream big.”
Johnson, Elliott and Shakur were given an opportunity to sample a sports drink prototypefrom Sunsweet fruit company and invest in the product.
“We hated the taste,” Johnson said with a laugh.
Believing they could do better, they perfected the taste they wanted, designed the packaging and the brand look and Pure Fuel was born.
Read more about why the 76ers picked Pure Fuel as their official sports drink in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
