Poppi Founders Launch Jetty to Challenge Gatorade in Hydration Market

The couple who shook up the soda industry is back — this time targeting sports drinks.

Allison and Stephen Ellsworth, the founders behind the popular soda brand Poppi, are launching a new hydration brand called Jetty. Starting Monday, Jetty drinks and electrolyte mix packets will appear at Whole Foods and online at Target and Amazon.

This puts them in direct competition with PepsiCo — the same company that bought Poppi for $1.95 billion in 2025. PepsiCo owns Gatorade, which controls about 60% of the U.S. sports drink market (meaning 6 out of every 10 sports drinks sold).

What makes Jetty different? Traditional sports drinks like Gatorade are aimed at athletes who sweat heavily. Jetty is designed for everyday people who just want to stay hydrated without the extra sugar. The idea came after Allison started a GLP-1 medication (weight-loss drugs like Ozempic), which can reduce thirst — making hydration harder.

The hydration market is booming:

• Sales of hydration and electrolyte products jumped 20% to $2.6 billion over the past year.
• New products in this category rose 41% in two years.
• Electrolyte powders alone are a $1 billion category on Amazon.

Meanwhile, old-school sports drinks are fading. Sports drink unit sales fell 9.1% from 2022 to 2026, and Coca-Cola had to write down (officially reduce the recorded value of) its BodyArmor brand by over $1.7 billion.

How Jetty compares to Gatorade (per serving):

• Jetty: 100mg sodium, 310mg potassium, 100mg magnesium, 6g sugar
• Gatorade: 270mg sodium, 80mg potassium, 34g sugar

Jetty will launch with five flavors and comes in both bottles and powder packets. It also adds B vitamins and fiber, with no artificial sweeteners or dyes.

The bottom line: The Ellsworths are betting that younger shoppers want healthier, trendier hydration options. But they face heavy competition from PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Unilever's Liquid I.V., and others fighting for "share of throat" (an industry term for beverage market share).

This is an AI-generated summary. Read the original article at: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/08/poppi-founders-jetty-hydration-gatorade.html