Every semester we ask our students for brands they are following in an effort to learn more about what’s outside our bubble. While we always get some of the understandable, there is always a more massive group of companies they care about, engage with and follow that we learn about…or even brands… who are growing by smartly engaging with a different audience. This year the ones we had never heard of topped 37. Given our sample size was 36 students, each selecting three, that’s a lot of learning. Below is the balance, many tied to sport and culture. If you missed the first ten, click here. Also reminder that the words are theirs…great to hear and read the why… Enjoy!
Erdinger is a wheat beer brewery near Munich. In 2001 it decided to sell its non-alcoholic beer as a sports drink. That sounds strange, but the brewery has stuck with it for twenty-five years. It sponsors marathons, triathlons, and city runs and hands out free bottles at the finish line. Since 2008 it has been one of the main sponsors of the Biathlon World Cup, with its name on the boards and on athletes’ bibs.. In the United Kingdom its slogan is “your ritual after sport”
Flabelus, a Spanish shoe brand, is a brand that I believe has huge growth potential. In just a few years, Flabelus went from a small Spanish brand being sold only in collectives to having stores all over the world, including Milan, New York, and Paris, among others14. Their brand is known for its distinctive, vividly colored shoes, and they tell their story very much based on these principles, always highlighting color and different styles15. I think that, thus far, this strategy has worked well to expand the brand, the shoes they are selling have been used for centuries in Italy and Spain, and only Flabelus has achieved this level of international expansion. However, I believe that Flabelus needs to build its brand story to become more than just a trend and lean more into the lifestyle that it is selling, so that its shoes are seen as staples rather than simply trendy. They should tell this story by highlighting the heritage and history of the brand and shoe, as well as partnering with fashion icons rather than small-scale influencers. Despite this strategy requiring a much bigger investment from Flabelus, I believe that, in the long term, the brand will benefit from this, maintaining the brand as timeless and eventually turning it into a classic.
FORTA Cosmetics is on my watch list because it is perfectly positioned between the growing popularity of women’s sports and the beauty industry. The company was co-founded by Indiana Fever player and Stanford graduate, Lexi Hull, and launched in March 2026. The company’s main product is a “Lock and Go Setting Spray” which essentially was created to ensure female athlete’s makeup would stay on and not get ruined by sweat during athletic activities (FORTA Cosmetics). The company’s setting spray generated over $10,000 in its first 24 hours and later sold out (Beauty Independent, 2026). Since Lexi plays for the Indiana Fever, a team that already receives massive amounts of attention, the brand was able to organically generate buzz. It’s also helpful that Lexi had massive WNBA names like Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham post about the brand. Because FORTA is connecting its products to the cultural rise of female athletes, the brand has an opportunity to establish itself as a leader in the emerging “performance beauty” category.
Heaven Mayhem has already had a viral moment, and the founder took a company started with $900 of her own money and turned it into a $10 million business.2 As the product went viral and influencers like Hailey Bieber and Sydney Sweeney started wearing it, the brand became synonymous with the “cool girl aesthetic.” Now that Heaven Mayhem has had its first “moment in the sun,” the real storytelling begins: why should a consumer choose Heaven Mayhem if nobody famous is wearing it anymore? The company has already begun leaning into a strong storyline: that they create the little things that make you feel like yourself. In order to build this story, they’ve begun building community amongst real consumers, not just influencers, by involving consumers in recent activities and even inviting their community members to help develop their newest collection. This consumer engagement and consumer-driven storyline is helping to create an emotional identity for the company that everyone can relate to.
Jacquemus: Simon Porte Jacquemus is a French designer who started his brand after his mother passed way. He teamed up with Nike to make an exclusive collection for the French National Soccer team in the 2026 World Cup. I think he discovered that fashion and sports are starting to emerge as a great partnership.
Loonen is a water brand built around purity, transparency and a disciplined approach to quality, with a story centered not on what it adds to its water, but what it keeps out, including microplastics. What makes the brand particularly interesting is how consistently that story is reflected across different choices. The glass bottle and its design reinforce the brand’s emphasis on purity and transparency. Even the bottle’s wide opening, designed to make it easy to add supplements or electrolytes, reinforces the story: Loonen provides a clean foundation, while the consumer remains in control of what goes in. Its website also uses imagery of children and nature, reinforcing a sense of purity, simplicity and connection to the natural, untouched world that the water represents. Even its choice of retailer, such as Erewhon and Whole Foods, supports the premium wellness-oriented identity it is building. Rather than simply telling consumers what the brand stands for, Loonen builds its story through the choices it makes: the product, packaging, website, and partnerships all communicate the same underlying values and tells the same story. Its mission is therefore not separate from the brand: it is embedded in the way brand operates.
Malbon, a fashion-forward golf brand, sits at the intersection of golf, street-wear, and skate culture. As golf becomes more mainstream, accessible, and appealing to a non-country club audience, Malbon can set the trends and styles to be worn on and off the municipal course. The brand has signed an impressive roster of pros including Jason Day, Freddie Couples, and up-and-coming star Jackson Koivun, as well as non-professional golf hobbyists, including JR Smith. While already making significant moves to tell their brand story, there is tons of opportunity for Malbon to get in front of non-traditional golfers and counter-culture enthusiasts as a trendsetting and tradition bucking democratizer of golf culture.
Nukleus, a new platform designed to function as a “front office” for athletes. It brings contracts, brand deals, payments, advisors, and other parts of an athlete’s business into one system. Las Vegas Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty is both an investor and a face of the platform (“Nukleus Names Raiders Running Back Ashton Jeanty”). What puts Nukleus on my watch list is also its biggest communications challenge: the platform does so much that explaining every feature could make the story harder to understand. I would simplify the narrative around one idea: every athlete is a business, and every business needs a front office.
Oner Active is a British athletic apparel brand like Lululemon or Athleta16. Its current brand story is based on the founder, a social media influencer, creating a brand for women to feel comfortable and confident moving in17. Despite the brand expanding significantly since its inception, I believe this is largely because its owner already had a following. However, I believe that, for the brand to expand even further as a sports brand,
Ophsides, a New York luxury streetwear label founded by Uyi Omorogbe and Gabriel Ruja, two former elite players who met through soccer. The name is a twist on “offsides,” and the brand is built around being an outsider in American soccer culture. I have followed Ophsides almost from the start. Early on, they collaborated with Joga NYC, a soccer community run by a friend of mine, and I was at that event and met Uyi and Gabriel. Even then, it was clear they were building the brand from inside the New York soccer scene instead of marketing it from the outside. Since then they have grown to 23,000 Instagram followers. That number keeps rising every week, and several of their recent reels have topped one million views. In recent weeks they have been featured by SoccerBible and Offball, and they have shown they can create a moment, taking over the scene around the Michael Kors, Calvin Klein, and Thom Browne shows during New York Fashion Week. The key to their growth is their game, which they play weekly in Washington Square Park. It is free to play and easy to pick up, and it builds drama naturally, because players are eliminated letter by letter when they spell out O-P-H. That makes every game a ready-made clip for social media.
Playa Society has become a dominant vehicle for women’s sports through official partnerships with the WNBA and standout athletes. As it rises, it must evolve beyond standard league merchandising into a full lifestyle platform, capturing off-court identities through video content and physical spaces to establish the brand not as simple game- day clothing, but as the premier uniform of modern sports culture.
Reale by Alix Earle, a new skincare line launched by one of today’s leading influencers. Earle promoted Reale Actives on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ahead of its launch, generating $1million in sales in under five minutes, with products reportedly selling out by the afternoon. With her reality show, Earle’s World, that launched in September, it features her skincare journey and brand launch in an episode. Earle’s existing audience gives the brand a strong foundation, while continued media exposure and social content could help lead brand to established business.
Revolut through its title partnership with Audi Revolut F1 Team. Revolut’s opportunity is particularly compelling because both organizations can position themselves as challengers entering established industries. Audi is beginning a new era in Formula 1, while Revolut built its identity by challenging traditional financial institutions. The partnership already extends beyond branding: Revolut Business is being incorporated into the team’s financial operations, and Revolut will power payment solutions for team merchandise, while both organizations have identified fan experiences and customer benefits as priorities. Revolut should use those assets to establish itself as the financial platform for the global F1 fan.
Set Active. This women’s activewear brand has been gaining popularity on social media and through creator marketing. While the brand is becoming more popular, there is no shortage of activewear brands on the market, so it’s crucial that companies are able to tell a story about how they’re different from competitors. For Set Active, this could include a story/campaign surrounding the multi-faceted athlete. Rather than creating highly technical apparel that is geared towards just one activity, Set Active could own the identity of the multi-dimensional woman who may be running, doing yoga, playing tennis, and going to Pilates all within the same week.
Rise & Rep is a new women’s sports-focused merchandising company started by Helen Bohorquez, who noticed a gap in the market for women’s sports-specific merchandise not tied to a specific league, team, or organization. Her curated designs and products address this specific market, with one of her most powerful products showing the mission statement of the company of “Making women’s sports impossible to ignore”; however, as someone fully in the women’s sports bubble and ecosystem.
Salomon. The brand was first invented for alpine skiers and winter gear, but today, only 10% of their sales come from skiing and the brand is now mostly known for hiking and everyday wear. As they slowly continue to rise in fame, it is important that Salomon continues to push the story that their shoes can be worn every day as well as on trails and courses rather than pushing one over the other
Satisfy: When living in Paris I saw this brand slowly grow over time, especially with my French classmates who were into fitness. Satisfy is a Paris running brand founded by Brice Partouche that sits between performance sportswear and luxury fashion. It passed €10 million in revenue in 2024, raised €11 million in January 2025 and is targeting €100 million within five years, with the United States already making up 40% of its online sales (Guyot). Its moment is the wider boom in running as a lifestyle.
Almost nobody outside tennis knows Solinco. Inside tennis, every player can spot its bright green Hyper-G string from across the court. For about fifteen years the company made only strings, and Hyper-G became the most popular string in NCAA tennis across all divisions (“The Hype Is Real”). I have played more opponents using that string than any other. From what I have seen, players pick it up from their teammates and practice partners. Advertising has almost nothing to do with it. This is the clearest example I know of relevance beating reach, which we talked about in class. Solinco has almost no reach, but inside college tennis it has more relevance than any big brand. In 2022 Solinco launched its first racquets. It hired Roman Prokes, who used to customize frames for Andre Agassi, and spent four years developing them.
Sporty & Rich started as an Instagram mood board and has grown into a brand with more than 200 retailers worldwide, flagship stores in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Shanghai, and Seoul, and collaborations with Adidas and Lacoste. Its imagery is built on tennis, country clubs, and vintage athletic leisure, but the story is mostly about the look. A recent example shows the opportunity. The Cadillac Racquet Club collaboration, a tennis-inspired collection launched during the 2026 US Open shows how timing a release to a major tennis moment can connect the brand to the sport. I would turn that into a repeatable model. Sporty & Rich could tie releases to the tennis calendar and add storytelling around the culture behind the aesthetic, featuring former players, historic clubs, and local community courts. Its flagship stores could host events and pop-up courts so customers take part in the lifestyle instead of only wearing it. That would give real meaning to the imagery that already defines the brand. The buzz measure would be social engagement around each tennis moment, and the business measures would be collaboration sell-through, store event attendance, and new retail partners. The main risk is coming across as exclusive, so including community clubs and accessible courts would help keep the story inviting.
Sports Club Atelier is a fashion-forward sportswear brand founded by designer Lauren McDavid that is reimagining traditional fan merchandise through limited-edition, elevated collections. Its focus on the intersection of sport, fashion and identity gives it a particularly interesting position as those industries continue to merge. I think Sports Club Atelier has the strongest opportunity to build a world around its products rather than simply sell them. For all three, the opportunity is similar, establish the story and identity now, while they still could shape how consumers understand them, rather than waiting until their growth forces the market to define them.
There you have it. Maybe helps with some Black Friday ideas! Hope you learned, i certainly did.
Our Annual Student Ask; Tell Us Three Brands You Are Following; We Got 37 We Had Not Heard of…
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