How David Beckham Plans To Win The $152 Billion Supplements Business

At the ripe ol’ age of 49, David Beckham is a picture of health. Freakishly, really. For a guy who retired from professional soccer in 2013, Beckham looks like he could pull on an Inter Miami shirt and hit the pitch for the MLS club he cofounded in 2018, instead of sitting up in the owner’s suite.  

Beckham is also deeply involved in brand work, arguably as much as he ever was during his playing career. He managed to sneak a Stella Artois ad into his appearance on Hot Ones in August, and launched a new signature Adidas soccer boot in November. 

Now the man they call Goldenballs is taking his brand name to a new frontier—your daily health routine. Back in late November, global diagnostics and genetic testing company Prenetics announced a new partnership with Beckham on a new health and wellness brand called IM8. The new brand has two products: a daily supplements powder, and a supplement capsule for longevity. 

“I wanted to create something that is a one stop shop, one product that actually does it all,” Beckham tells Fast Company. “And I think that’s what we’ve created, and that’s exciting. I really hope that the personal touch and involvement that I bring to this, against the backdrop of all the latest scientific research by leading experts, really does set us apart.”

He’s conquered the worlds of sports, entertainment, business, and marketing fun products like whisky and fashion. But now, as an investor in Prenetics and cofounding partner in IM8, trying to win in the $187 billion global consumer health market may be his toughest matchup yet. 

The New Team

Prenetics has dual headquarters in Hong Kong and Charlotte, North Carolina, and has assembled an impressive roster of scientists for its IM8 advisory board. It includes former chief NASA scientist Dr. James Green, Mayo Clinic oncologist Dr. Dawn Mussallem, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Director of Microbiome Research Prof. Suzanne Devkota, and Dr. David Katz, the founding director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center.

In December, the company announced it was conducting research in partnership with the University of Oxford, aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Launched via SpaceX CRS-31, the mission aims to study accelerated aging and longevity by leveraging microgravity’s unique environment to accelerate aging processes at the cellular level. So far, its products have been tested through a a 12-week randomized clinical trial conducted by the San Francisco Research Institute, and NSF certified for sport, meaning it doesn’t contain any banned substances, heavy metals, or contaminants.

Beckham says that he applied the same strategy in making the decision to launch IM8 that he uses for all of his brand partnerships. “When evaluating brand or business opportunities, not much has changed over the years,” he says. “I always ask myself, and my team, ‘Can I work with these people? Can I see these people every day? And does this brand really feel natural and authentic to me?‘ If the answer is yes, then the opportunity is an easy business to go into. And when I decide that I want to be involved in something, that’s when I’m all in.”

When he met CEO Danny Yeung and the company’s clinical division head Professor, Dennis Lo, he knew he was in the right place for a venture in the supplement space.

“I was just inspired to get to work with them and the scientists that we have involved in this,” he says. “Because for me to do something like this, it has to be working with the best people doing groundbreaking work in various health sectors. That was important to me. And the ambition is trying to simplify the everyday wellness space.”

The Product

Taking his experiences and lessons from various nutrition and wellness experts over his football career, Beckham is keenly aware of how complex and crowded the wellness supplement market is. 

“Being a former athlete, caring about my health is something I’ve obviously taken very seriously over the years, and I think even more so now,” he says. “I’ve always taken some supplements, but I’m not the best at remembering to take them. And it’s actually a very confusing space, with so many different options and so many different products and information. I wanted to create something that really simplifies the process of what you put into your body. That was my briefing to Danny and Professor Lo: I want something that is a one stop shop, one product that actually does it all. And I think that’s what we’ve created.”

In late November, the company launched with two products, Daily Ultimate Essentials and Daily Ultimate Longevity. The first is an all-in-one powder made to replace 16 separate daily supplements. The latter is a daily single capsule made for cellular rejuvenation and healthy aging. The Beckham Stack is essentially the combo meal of both products for a monthly subscription of $129. Separately, the Daily Ultimate Essentials subscription is $79 per month, while Ultimate Longevity is $75. 

The Ultimate Essentials powder includes clinical doses of CoQ10 for heart health and MSM for joint & muscle support, a blend of pre-, pro-, and post-biotics to optimize gut health and nutrient absorption, as well as essential vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, superfoods, greens, and adaptogens, and flavored with acai and mixed berries. The Ultimate Longevity capsule contains ingredients designed to support NAD+ levels (a decline in which has been connected to age-related diseases) and patent-pending Cell Rejuvenation Technology 8 (CRT8), which is being tested in the space experimentation study.

Beckham knows that skepticism comes with any celebrity pitching products, particularly in health and wellness. But so far, he swears by IM8. “Over the past three or four months I’ve been taking it, I feel different,” he says. “Of course, people might say, ‘Well, you’re involved in this so you’re obviously going to say that.’ But what I can do is share my own personal journey with IM8, and the benefits that I am feeling and seeing personally.”

Crowded Market

The global supplements market is incredibly crowded. In 2023, the National Institutes of Health estimated it to be worth nearly $152 billion in 2021, and forecasted it could grow to $300 billion by 2028. 

Since 2021, one of the most successful brands in the space has been Athletic Greens, growing revenues from $160 million in 2021, to an estimated $600 million last year. The branding—and powder drink—of IM8 is distinctly red, in sharp contrast to AG1’s all green everything. 

Nutritional differences aside, this is poised to be a battle of the brands. Launched in 2010, and seemingly built on a constant drum of podcast advertising, Athletic Greens has a massive head start. But IM8—like Manchester United, Real Madrid, and now Inter Miami—have a not-so secret weapon. 

One of his lessons in working with brands for decades is that, first and foremost, the product needs to be good. And in the case of IM8, it needed to taste good. “If it’s a good product, if it has everything that you need, if it’s simple, and it’s a great taste, then telling the story is easy,” says Beckham. 

He also knows that there is a reason he has 88 million followers on Instagram, and can use that to IM8’s advantage. 

“The reason why I have the followers that I have is because they know that everything that I post, everything that I say is all me, I do it all myself,” he says. “From talking about brands to taking care of my chickens to creating my honey, all of these things are very authentic to me. So when I do bring out a product, they believe that I do take it, because I actually do.”