CHUBBUCK — It started for CEO Troy Bell in 2018 as a hobby, but that hobby has grown into one of the fastest-growing supplement lines across the United States.
“Our mission is to help athletes in their pursuit of winning, and we know that supplementation, along with a good nutrition plan, is vital in helping people win,” Bell said.
Bell, who also owns a CrossFit gym called Kulak CrossFit with his wife Jamie, got the idea for BlackLabel from the people of that gym.
“We wanted to do it more or less for our members and see if we could make it, make a business out of it,” Bell said. “We really started hitting it hard after Covid, around 2021-2022. That’s when we started creating more products and more flavors, different things like that.”
Jamie and his son Jayden Bell have been part of the journey, both working with Troy to help build their line to what it is today.
BlackLabel Supplements is a Chubbuck-based sports performance and supplement company that set out to create an all-in-one pre-workout, which led to its pilot product, Pre-Hustle.
BlackLabel Supplements displays its full product lineup at an outdoor event. The Chubbuck-based company has expanded from a single pre-workout product to a complete NSF-certified supplement line serving more than 4,000 athletes nationwide.
Photo courtesy of BlackLabel Supplements
Since then the company has grown into a full supplement line equipped with highly researched, tested and NSF-certified products designed to help athletes train, recover and reach their athletic peaks. Some of its best-selling products include Post Hustle whey protein, Pure Hydrate electrolyte fuel and Creatine Monohydrate, all built with athletes in mind.
In the supplement business, standing out means holding yourself to a higher standard, and for Bell that meant getting NSF certified to make products safer for athletes.
“The biggest challenge in the supplement industry, number one, is consumers are not very educated. Supplements are not regulated by the FDA,” Bell said. “A lot of times what you’re buying may not actually be what’s in the bottle, or the ingredient label may not be accurate.”
For Bell, becoming NSF certified was a major step forward.
“Most recent study shows that 70% of all the protein purchased in America has bacteria, lead, or metal in it,” he said. “So we decided to go the NSF certified for sport route and get all of our products certified, so that we could assure people that they were quality products.”
That opened the door for the small supplement company to break onto the market, landing some of the best college and professional sports teams as customers, including the 27-time World Series-winning New York Yankees.
“I remember when we got our first major league baseball team ordering. The New York Yankees ordered from us,” Bell said. “In the first order they got from us, they sent us a check. They’re the only major league baseball team that pays by check still. So I’ve got a check from Steinbrenner Field framed in my office.”
“The New York Yankees have a lot of history, and to know that they have ordered from us and trust our products, that meant a lot, because they do their research,” Bell said.
Besides the Yankees, BlackLabel has supplied products to NFL team the Green Bay Packers and six MLB teams including the Yankees. The company has also done extensive college work, focusing on Idaho State University and Boise State University along with between nine and 10 other programs.
“Two or three years ago we did our first university deal with Idaho State University,” Bell said. “Where we provided $250,000 a year in supplements to ISU athletics, and that was a big deal to my wife Jamie, because we care about the university.”
Since then BlackLabel has become the official supplement partner of Idaho State, providing all the nutrition for the athletic department.
Beyond team deals, BlackLabel also invests heavily in individual athletes, with 250 NIL athletes and 4,000 total athletes in their ambassador program, including one of the world’s top CrossFitters, Colton Mertens.
With all that success, Bell has his eyes set on continued growth.
“We are on Amazon, we are direct to consumer, we are on TikTok, but we are looking to grow our wholesale program,” he said. “Now we have quite a few gyms and supplement shops that carry our stuff, but we’re looking to get into some bigger retailers. We just got into a couple stores here in the Idaho area, and our focus now is expanding to more teams, universities, and expanding our wholesale program.”
From a simple hobby to one of the premier supplement lines in the country, BlackLabel has given athletes a trusted source for performance products while providing opportunities for collegiate and professional teams across the country.
“Our mission is to help athletes in their pursuit of winning, and we know that supplementation, along with a good nutrition plan, is vital in helping people win,” Bell said. “It’s a highly competitive industry, and it’s very difficult to differentiate yourself from the larger competitors in the United States, but it’s been a great ride.”
All products are available at blacklabelsupplements.com.