By Alexander Stone
In 2005, Matt Nichol – then the strength and conditioning coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs – mixed a batch of amino acids and electrolytes in a shaker bottle. The NHL had just announced new drug testing regulations, and his star client, forward Mike Cammalleri, was frustrated: no sports nutrition company could provide documentation proving their products would pass league testing. Nichol’s improvised formula solved that problem. Its distinctive pink hue came from beet root powder, and it would eventually earn the hashtag #DrinkThePink. But at that point, it was just a trainer’s workaround – not a business.
From Locker Room to Market
Cammalleri, entrepreneur John Celenza, and Nichol formalised BioSteel Sports Nutrition Inc. in 2009, headquartered in Tecumseh, Ontario. The initial distribution model was deliberately narrow: sell directly to professional sports teams. By 2010, BioSteel products had been purchased by over 70% of teams across the NHL, NBA, MLB, and NFL. The brand’s early ambassador roster included Wayne Gretzky, Connor McDavid, Andrew Wiggins, Eugenie Bouchard, and Ezekiel Elliott – a roster that reads less like a marketing list and more like a sporting hall of fame.
The product itself was distinct from the market leaders. Where Gatorade and Powerade built their formulations around sugar and electrolytes, BioSteel’s flagship Sports Hydration Mix contained zero sugar and zero caffeine. Each 7g serving delivered 1,202mg of L-Leucine, 973mg of L-Glutamine, 544mg each of L-Valine and L-Isoleucine, plus 460mg of Glycine and 135mg of Taurine – a branched-chain amino acid profile more typical of a recovery supplement than a sports drink. The formula was sweetened with stevia, coloured by beet powder, and contained a B-vitamin blend including Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, B6, B12, Pantothenic Acid, and Biotin, all at 300mcg per serving. Mineral support came from calcium derived from Lithothamnion seaweed (branded as Aquamin), magnesium citrate, potassium citrate, and zinc hydrolysed vegetable protein chelate.
This was not a mass-market beverage engineered to taste like candy. It was a performance formulation designed for locker rooms that happened to sell well in grocery stores.
The Canopy Growth Gamble
In October 2019, Canopy Growth – the Smiths Falls, Ontario cannabis giant backed by Constellation Brands – acquired a 72% majority stake in BioSteel for $37 million. The strategic thesis was explicit: position BioSteel for eventual CBD integration once federal regulations permitted, while leveraging Constellation’s distribution muscle to push the brand aggressively into the US market. Goldman Sachs, in a 2021 investor report, called BioSteel an “emerging disruptor in the sports drink category” that “reminds us of an early-stage BodyArmor.”
The expansion strategy, however, came at enormous cost. In July 2022, BioSteel signed an eight-year deal worth approximately $14 million annually to become the official sports drink of the NHL and NHLPA – the largest sports marketing investment in the company’s history. Additional partnerships followed with Patrick Mahomes, the Los Angeles Lakers, and U.S. Soccer. By mid-2023, BioSteel was burning through $15 million per month in cash, and sales – though growing – could not keep pace with sponsorship commitments. In September 2023, Canopy Growth filed for creditor protection in both the US and Canada, listing $12 million in outstanding sponsorship obligations.
The Windsor Rebuild
When BioSteel entered a court-supervised sale process, multiple parties expressed interest. The NHL itself reportedly considered acquiring the company outright, though it ultimately did not submit a bid. The winning bid came from an unlikely buyer: Dan Crosby, a Windsor, Ontario entrepreneur who ran the Coachwood Group of Companies, which included sports nutrition brand Canadian Protein. In November 2023, DC Holdings Ltd – Crosby’s entity – acquired the BioSteel brand and intellectual property worldwide. The US manufacturing facilities were sold separately to Gregory Packaging Inc. of New Jersey. Total proceeds to Canopy Growth: $22.4 million.
Crosby’s approach was deliberately scaled back from the Canopy era. Rather than pursuing expensive national distribution and headline sponsorship deals, the new strategy prioritised profitability over growth. Eighty to ninety percent of BioSteel’s revenue was already Canadian. Crosby focused on maintaining that domestic base while selectively expanding into US hockey-centric markets – primarily the Northeast and Midwest. He shed the costly NHL-level partnerships and redirected investment toward grassroots initiatives: youth hockey associations like the OMHA and Hockey Calgary, collegiate athletics through Ontario University Athletics and U SPORTS, and a student-athlete ambassador programme.
Manufacturing at Home
In January 2025, BioSteel opened a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Windsor, Ontario – a move that completed the company’s transformation from outsourced brand to vertically integrated producer. The NSF-certified plant produces powders and stick packs in-house, with machines capable of generating upwards of 100 million stick packs per year and between 1,000 to 10,000 containers of powder daily, depending on demand. Ready-to-drink sports beverages continue to be produced by Flow Beverage in Aurora, Ontario.
The NSF certification is not cosmetic. It verifies that every product meets ingredient specifications and contains no banned substances – a non-negotiable requirement for athletes subject to league drug testing. BioSteel now controls the entire production chain from sourcing to packaging, a level of oversight that few competitors in the hydration space can match.
By late 2024, Crosby reported that BioSteel was profitable again, generating roughly half the revenue the brand had reached at its peak under Canopy Growth – approximately $75 million annually compared to an estimated $150 million at its height. The company invested nearly $2 million in Canadian youth sports in 2024 alone, and added 20 to 25 full-time positions at the Windsor facility.
A Market That Demands Clean Labels
The timing of BioSteel’s rebuild coincides with a structural shift in the broader sports nutrition market. Valued at approximately $71.55 billion globally in 2025 and projected to reach $138.48 billion by 2033 at a CAGR of 8.7%, the sector is being reshaped by consumer demand for clean-label products. Sports drinks alone accounted for 38.7% of global revenue in 2025, but the sub-segment is under pressure: traditional volume leader Gatorade saw retail dollars remain essentially flat in 2024 while protein drinks grew 16% in the same period. Liquid I.V., a direct competitor in the hydration mix segment, posted $905 million in sales with 28.2% year-over-year growth.
BioSteel occupies a specific niche in this landscape. It is not competing on volume against PepsiCo’s $7.5 billion Gatorade franchise or Coca-Cola’s 11.8%-share BodyArmor line. Instead, it positions itself as the performance-grade alternative – NSF Certified for Sport, sugar-free, transparent in its ingredient disclosures, and built from the ground up in professional sports rather than in a corporate boardroom.
The company’s ambassador roster has expanded beyond hockey to include UFC fighter Kevin Holland, PWHL goaltender Kristen Campbell, second-overall draft pick Danielle Serdachny, and Football Ontario athletes. Every one of these partnerships centres on the same proposition: the product BioSteel makes for its sponsored athletes is identical to what consumers buy in shops.
That authenticity – born from a trainer’s frustration with untested supplements in 2005 – remains BioSteel’s most durable competitive advantage. In a market crowded with billion-dollar conglomerates, a Canadian company that started on a hockey bench has carved out a position that neither money nor marketing can easily replicate.
For more on the science of sports hydration, see our analysis of electrolyte formulation in competitive sport and our guide to choosing the right sports nutrition products.
