Driving product innovation together to drive sales together

MusclePharm, owned by FitLife Brands, is a Sports Nutrition brand that has seen its sales on Coupang grow 3X over the past 5 years. Headquartered in Nebraska, the brand originally began selling in Korea through third-party distributors and online sellers. The brand resonated with Korean customers and the team believed selling directly through Coupang would further expand MusclePharm’s reach.

“Our business was doing well on a distribution model, but we chose to sell direct with Coupang to build a better working relationship,” said Jason Keenan, VP of Sales at FitLife Brands, who acquired MusclePharm in 2023. “Having the ability to communicate as partners allows us to grow the business together and we see numerous benefits across distribution, marketing, shipping and even new product development as a result of our partnership.”

Working together, the teams recently leveraged trends in the U.S. to drive product innovation and introduce two new items specifically for the Korean market. MusclePharm saw that nostalgic candy flavors and products with children’s cereal flavors were trending in the Sports Nutrition arena in the U.S. Using that insight, the teams conducted market research in Korea and looked at what kids’ drinks were popular in Korea. They saw strong demand there for flavors such as hwachae and banana milk. As a result, MusclePharm recently launched a Melon Hwachae flavored pre-workout product as well as Banana Milk protein powder.

“Coupang has grown from one of MusclePharm’s smallest partners in Asia to one of our biggest today,” said Dayton Judd, CEO of FitLife Brands. “We view Coupang as a partner, not just a customer, in this valued relationship. We’re able to successfully come together to figure out a model that works for both of us.”

FitLife Brands employs just 40 people and works with manufacturing partners in Texas, Florida, Arizona and California. So as their sales increase and more product is needed to keep up with increasing demand, their growth is also helping support the growth of their partners in the U.S. In addition to MusclePharm, FitLife Brands owns 12 other brands across Sports Nutrition, Diet and Health & Wellness, and offers more than 250 products designed to support everybody on their path to better health and well-being. Based on the success it’s seen with Coupang, another one of its brands, Dr. Tobias, will be launching on Coupang later this year.