Athletic Brewing has quickly become one of the biggest names in the fast-growing non-alcoholic beverage market, offering beers that closely mimic the taste of their alcohol-containing counterparts
Nearly one decade ago, Bill Shufelt and John Walker set out to change the way people experience and enjoy non-alcoholic beer.
Since founding Athletic Brewing in 2017, Shufelt and Walker have successfully done just that, reinvigorating the historically stale NA-beer space with a relentless focus on closely mimicking the taste profile of alcohol-containing brews.
In 2024, Athletic Brewing raised $50 million to expand production capacity amid high demand.
Today, the brand’s award-winning NA beers and mocktail cans can be found in a rapidly growing list of thousands of restaurants and bars across the U.S., along with many sports stadiums and music venues. Across the pond, Athletic Brewing struck a landmark partnership with Arsenal FC to make its products available at the English soccer club’s matches.
It’s good timing, too, as drinking rates reach historic lows in the U.S. amid broader wellness shifts among Gen Z and Millennials.
Shufelt sat down with Athletech News to discuss why he and Walker decided to create Athletic Brewing, how the brand has been able to create NA beers that taste like their alcohol-containing counterparts and what’s next amid continued expansion.
The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Athletech News: Can you tell us about your background before starting Athletic Brewing, and why you decided to co-found the company?
Bill Shufelt: I was in finance, a career I never thought I’d leave. I was generally living a healthy, active, high-performance lifestyle. But I was going out to a lot of work dinners and other social events, and drinking most nights of the week at those events. I realized that alcohol was the ceiling on a lot of my life goals — my productivity, sleep, health, performance, work output and family. I stopped drinking while training for my first ultra-marathon, and it was the biggest life hack I’d ever discovered.
I realized the (beverage industry) was entirely missing the 50% of adults who barely drink at all. So I set out to fill that void: beer that fits in the modern, healthy-adult lifestyle. That’s how I got to quitting my job and thinking about Athletic Brewing.
But it’s very much a two-co-founder story. Our other co-founder, John, is an incredibly talented brewmaster. We both care enormously about the quality side of it, and we knew that if non-alcoholic beer was going to be completely reimagined, it’d have to be reinvented from the ground up, too. I give total credit to John on that — he’s probably the most talented person to ever focus their attention on non-alcoholic beer.
ATN: There were other NA beer options on the market before Athletic Brewing, but few had become popular. What was the key to breaking into the mainstream with Athletic Brewing?
BS: Most important was our relentless focus on quality. Our intention was to deliver a great, award-winning beer taste without any sacrifice from the full-alcohol experience. We really took the time to get that right, and that’s shown up in 185 global taste awards since. We’ve given out thousands and thousands of samples — people take those samples with such skepticism, but I’ve seen the magic as their eyes start to go wide and enthusiasm appears.
Historically, non-alcoholic beer was born out of prohibition. It was boring lagers, with no product development and no marketing behind them. We took the time to reinvent both of those things. Even though the non-alcoholic category has grown 10x and is the most exciting space in beer right now, there have been a lot of brands that’ve failed who haven’t done the quality work and investment. Over 150 brands have entered the non-alcoholic, craft-beer category, and Athletic still has a 52% share.
ATN: You recently partnered with Arsenal FC to make Athletic Brewing part of the matchday experience. Are sports a big part of your strategy moving forward?
BS: A lot of our partnerships have been responsive to consumer and community inbound. Fans of the Premier League really wanted Athletic at games. Arsenal is one of the premier global sports teams, with tens of millions of U.S. fans, too. We both have big goals around the segment. In the first season, we more than doubled the non-alcoholic beer sales from the existing offer. So it’s been a great partnership so far.
Outside of that, we have a number of premier triathlon partnerships with Ironman and Supertri. Athletic is the beer of elite endurance, and you can find us at finish lines of anything from 5k to ultra-marathons, hundreds of sports venues in the U.S. and 100-plus music venues in the U.S. Basically, anywhere people are having fun celebrating but don’t want to be impaired by alcohol, Athletic belongs in those moments.
ATN: Is Athletic exploring partnerships with any U.S.-based sports teams?
BS: Absolutely. We’re in at least five to 10 NFL and MLB stadiums. We also have partnerships with MLS and NWSL teams.
ATN: What are your goals for continued brick-and-mortar expansion in 2026?
BS: One of our number one complaints is still that people can’t find Athletic. Athletic is the number one-share brand in the category — we’re almost 20% of non alcoholic beer sales in the country — but we’re the fourth or fifth best-distributed brand at about half the distribution of a number of mainstream brands. So there’s a mismatch between what’s on the shelf and what people really want, and we’re trying to get closer to that.
Once we get to have the conversation (with retailers), we always win out. But we’re in a very scaled industry where people have very scaled supply chains and distribution networks. So we’re just building brick by brick. We’ve been building our U.S. manufacturing since 2018. We’ve invested over $130 million into building our four breweries, and we have breweries in Connecticut and San Diego. We’re one of the only companies investing in that full infrastructure and brewing our own beer — every one of our 300-plus team members is full-time.
ATN: Drinking rates are at historic lows in the U.S., especially among younger consumers like Gen Z. How confident are you that low drinking rates will continue, and how helpful is this for Athletic Brewing?
BS: There was a poll finding that 49% of Americans were trying to drink less alcohol last year, which increased almost 10 points in the past few years. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you talk about 10% of legal, drinking-age adults, that’s a huge shift in a very short amount of time.
But we’re not prohibitionists; we just want to give people options. Ten years ago, it was impossible to go out, be social and be moderate. We’re trying to give people access to great beer that they can drink while not sacrificing on any of their life or fitness goals.
ATN: Looking ahead, what are your key short and long-term goals for Athletic Brewing?
BS: In the short term, we’re just having a lot of fun, sharing great beer with people and new communities, and trying to welcome new people in. That’s everything from new restaurant partners to new sports partners, and new innovation coming this year,
In a multiyear, or even multidecade construct, we care a lot about legacy. John and I spent a lot of time thinking about that. We want to see a world in which our kids turn 21 and open up a menu, and there’s no stigma or sacrifice between choosing non-alcoholic drinks. We’re also a certified B Corp, and we have one of the biggest environmental grants in CPG, probably in all of beverage. Our “True for the Trails” program is $2 million every year, helping hundreds of outdoor organizations.
But to put more numbers behind it, non-alcoholic beer has gone from zero to 2% of beer since we started, and I think that’ll be the toughest 2% we ever have to get. A lot of our retailers have passed five or 10% of all beer now. I could definitely see a world in which non-alcoholic beer is 10 to 20% of all beer.
