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It’s been a minute, GoodSport, but we’re glad to hear that things are trending in a positive direction.
If you’re not familiar with GoodSport, it’s a unique kind of sports drink that’s made from 97 percent dairy products.
When we last left Michelle McBride, a sports mom and the brand’s founder and CEO, the world was trying to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and GoodSport was new to the market.
“I didn’t want my son drinking the artificial sports drinks that were offered to him at his games,” she told AGDAILY at the time. “I wanted a sports drink from a natural source that would provide truly effective hydration.”
The sports drink brand has been largely online and in retail stores in the Chicago area, but recently, Costco Wholesale has added it to shelves in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Kansas. This is being done for a limited time as a trial run.
“This regional expansion represents a major step forward for the brand as demand for clean, science-backed hydration continues to grow,” McBride said. She explained that GoodSport contains no artificial flavors, sweeteners, or dyes; delivers three times the electrolytes of the leading sports drink; contains no added sugar; and can hydrate better and longer than the competition in peer-reviewed research.
“This is a big moment — not just for our brand, but for anyone who’s been looking for better hydration without compromise,” she added.
The research McBride references is from the Hydration Lab at Arizona State University. There, in 2024, researchers learned that the specific type and levels of electrolytes in a sports drink directly affect how well it works. The researchers compared GoodSport to water, Gatorade, and BodyArmor and found that GoodSport was more effective for rehydration due to its combination of sodium and potassium — which GoodSport extracts from milk.
“There is a lot of science in formulating a sports drink properly and working with dairy ingredients,” McBride said.
Dairy Management Inc., the Center for Dairy Research, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the co-founder and former director of the Gatorade Sports Science Institute were instrumental in launching GoodSport and helped with the four-year long research and development program.
The brand recently launched its seventh flavor, Mango, and has begun partnering with a handful of NFL athletes to promote the products.
McBride said that she hopes the expanded access to GoodSport in Costco stores will make it easier than ever for athletes and active families to choose this dairy-backed hydration that’s built for summer.
