America's largest dedicated non-alcoholic brewer, Athletic Brewing Company, has signed multi-year athlete-owner agreements with New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott — adding two of the NFL's most commercially visible players to a growing roster that deepens the brand's hold on sports-adjacent retail and on-premise channels.
Both players receive equity stakes in the Milford, Conn.-based brewer and will appear in Athletic's new "Athletic Fits" campaign, launching across social media. The creative uses a misdirection premise — borrowing from football's own playbook — to position Athletic's NA portfolio as the center of attention at tailgates and cookouts, with Maye and Prescott playing foils to their own fame.
Scale Behind the Signing
The athlete-owner structure is a deliberate brand-building tool for Athletic, which already counts a deep bench of professional athletes as equity partners. The commercial logic is straightforward: Athletic holds more than 50% market share in the NA craft beer segment per NielsenIQ data through the 52 weeks ending August 8, 2026, outselling the next 100 NA craft brands combined and leading its nearest competitor by 44 share points. Its SKUs are available at over 75,000 retail locations nationwide, and the brand is present in more than 200 sports and entertainment venues. With nearly 50 NA beer SKUs in active production, Athletic operates dedicated breweries in Connecticut and California — a dual-coast manufacturing footprint that supports cold-chain logistics for both off-premise grocery and club accounts and on-premise venue partners across professional football, soccer, baseball, lacrosse, hockey, and college athletics.
Prescott cited Athletic's commitment to domestic manufacturing and long-term thinking as factors in his decision. "As I've become more involved in business, I've become increasingly intentional about the opportunities I pursue and the people I choose to work with," he said. Maye, for his part, framed the agreement as an entry point into entrepreneurship. "Athletic's growth story and challenger mindset immediately stood out to me," he said. "Becoming an athlete-owner gives me an opportunity to learn from that journey and begin building my own understanding of business and entrepreneurship."
Route-to-Market Implications
For distributors and wholesalers moving Athletic's volume through the three-tier system, the Maye and Prescott signings carry practical weight. High-profile athlete endorsements in the NA segment reliably lift depletions at off-premise retail — particularly in grocery, convenience, and club channels where planogram space for NA beer is still contested. Athletic's position as the category's dominant supplier gives its distributor partners a defensible story when negotiating end-cap placement and incremental shelf sets heading into the NFL regular season.
The brand's venue footprint — already embedded in professional sports facilities — also stands to benefit. On-premise buyers at stadium and arena accounts increasingly treat NA beer as a must-stock category rather than an afterthought, and athlete-driven brand recognition accelerates that conversation at the point of purchase.
Co-Founder and CEO Bill Shufelt described the signings as consistent with the company's long-term competitive posture. "Drake and Dak are elite competitors, natural-born leaders, and thoughtful businessmen who understand what it takes to pursue ambitious goals," Shufelt said. "We're thrilled to welcome them as athlete-owners and look forward to building something special together in the years to come."
Launched commercially in 2018, Athletic has earned more than 200 taste awards and ranks as a top-15 U.S. brewing company by volume according to the Brewers Association's 2025 Annual Craft Brewing Industry Production Report. The company donates up to $2 million annually to outdoor conservation through its Two For The Trails program and holds Certified B Corporation status. For more on the non-alcoholic beer category's retail momentum, or how sports venue partnerships are reshaping on-premise beverage programs, see related coverage at Beverage B2B.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
