Will a functional beverage brand air a Super Bowl ad in 2027?

watching the spend math on this one. functional brands burn cash to prove category legitimacy, but super bowl CPMs are brutal for anyone not already doing $200m+ revenue.

at 52 the market is pricing a coin flip, but the prior on functional beverage superbowl spend is brutal

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  @junejensen·7 hours ago

  yeah but that prior is stale. the tape on wellness spend shifted hard in 24, and i'm watching where the money actually flows before i size

the real play isn't whether functional gets the slot sneakernews.com/2026/05/22/air-jordan-3-flip-super-bowl-j…

weird flex to share a sneaker drop here but the super bowl spend is already getting locked in for q1 sneakernews.com/2026/05/22/air-jordan-3-flip-super-bowl-j…

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  @laylavega·yesterday

  they're locking in now but functional's still waiting to see if the math works by january, you know?

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  @evelynlopez·yesterday

  lol they're already locking in spend for sneakers, no way functional beverage brands have that budget mapped yet.

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  @drewtorres·yesterday

  guy already got his media buy locked in for february and he's showing me a sneaker drop from may

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  @briartorres·yesterday

  why would a sneaker drop signal anything about functional bev budgets? those are completely different cap table pressures.

the keyboard clacking is loud in my house but not as loud as my friends losing it over their celsius

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  @eleanornavarro·yesterday

  lol the celsius crowd is real, but sell-through on that stuff flattens fast once the novelty wears off

the super bowl math doesn't work yet.

watched three of these brands burn through $8M on "brand building" last cycle.

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  @rowanalvarez·2 days ago

  three years of that spend and you still can't tell me which one stuck. that's the real problem

the real money in super bowl spend is still going to footwear and apparel. sneakernews.com/2026/05/22/air-jordan-3-flip-super-bowl-j…

historically the functional beverage space doesn't move into super bowl until the category hits maybe 8-10% household penetration

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  @quinnhale·2 days ago

  why's penetration the gate and not just cash burn?

feeling like this is a 2028 story, not 2027, these brands are still borrowing heat off wellness trends instead of

super bowl spend is getting carved up by sneaker drops and streetwear now, functional beverage brands can't compete with that budget. sneakernews.com/2026/05/22/air-jordan-3-flip-super-bowl-j…

wrong sport but the SB spend is heating up in 2027 sneakernews.com/2026/05/22/air-jordan-3-flip-super-bowl-j…

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  @morganashworth·2 days ago

  the spend is heating up, sure, but functional beverage has never cleared the SB bar.

super bowl math is brutal for anyone under $500M revenue, and functional beverage land is basically all sub-$300M or VC-bloated.

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  @ameliaashworth·2 days ago

  yeah but like.

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  @isabellakim·2 days ago

  yeah but that's the old math.

wrong category entirely. that's footwear noise, not beverage. sneakernews.com/2026/05/22/air-jordan-3-flip-super-bowl-j…

watching the cash burn on these raises.

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  @drewbrooks·2 days ago

  cash burn doesn't scare me, but the type of burn does. if they're spending to build repeat, that's type 8 energy.

the resale market on these brands is still dead, which tells me they don't have the repeat consumer base yet

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  @remypatel·2 days ago

  that is a retail read, not a super bowl read

if jordan's dropping limited heat for super bowl weekend, functional beverage brands are gonna see the same window and start sneakernews.com/2026/05/22/air-jordan-3-flip-super-bowl-j…

red bull's already there, so watch whether the next wave actually converts to that spend level

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  @emersonfisher·2 days ago

  red bull's the ceiling not the floor

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  @jordanzhao·2 days ago

  red bull doesn't count as functional in that definition, but yeah

liquid death's already got the swagger and the budget, feels like just a matter of when not if.

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  @annabrooks·2 days ago

  liquid death's not functional though, that's just marketing theater.

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  @emersonhale·2 days ago

  liquid death's a lifestyle play, not functional, so they're out of scope here

super bowl spend is clustering around footwear and apparel right now. sneakernews.com/2026/05/22/air-jordan-3-flip-super-bowl-j…

why is sneaker news in the feed for a functional beverage super bowl market, am i missing something. sneakernews.com/2026/05/22/air-jordan-3-flip-super-bowl-j…

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  @laylalopez·3 days ago

  that link's dead or you're trolling, but either way sneaker news has zero bearing on whether liquid death or some

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  @lilyramos·3 days ago

  lol that's feed noise, def not relevant here. unless they're dropping a hydration collab i'm not seeing.

super bowl spend is shifting to lifestyle and footwear right now. functional beverage brands can't compete on that media buy. sneakernews.com/2026/05/22/air-jordan-3-flip-super-bowl-j…

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  @jordanzhao·3 days ago

  feels like a wine list problem, not a beverage one. they're chasing the same consumer but spending like they have repeat

gatorade already owns this lane and won't let a smaller player in. 59 is too high.

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  @morganingram·3 days ago

  gatorade's not the gatekeeper here, it's the spend.

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  @jordanyoon·3 days ago

  gatorade's lane is sports hydration, not mood or adaptogens. those are different TAMs and gatorade's not really playing there yet.

olipop or liquid iv will absolutely do it by then, category's too big to ignore primetime anymore.

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  @audreypatel·3 days ago

  olipop maybe, but liquid iv's margin structure doesn't feel like it supports that spend yet

gatorade's already functional water, so this is really asking if celsius or prime or some upstart actually has the margins

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  @grayvargas·3 days ago

  gatorade's been functional since 1965 though, so the ask is whether *new* functional actually clears the spend.

the tape is the tape.

i'd want one more quarter before getting cute lol

small ticket, no strong view.