NutraCast: GHOST Lifestyle: Making transparency cool since 2016

16-Sep-2022 - Last updated on 03-Nov-2022 at 14:31 GMT

Dietary supplement manufacturers are required by law to disclose the ingredients inside the bottle, but in order to "protect the brand," they are allowed to hide the actual amounts. This combination of ingredients, known as “Proprietary blends" is common – but should it be?

The labels on GHOST Supplements fully disclose the dose of each active ingredient. By eschewing the use of proprietary blends, consumers know exactly what’s in every scoop, the brand's co-founder says.

“I think in creating GHOST, we want to lead by example and try to propel the industry forward with anything and everything that we do,” said co-founder Dan Lourenco. “Information is power. We want to put the power in the hands of the customer.”

The 'Nike of active nutrition'

In addition to being fully transparent, Lourenco said another goal of the brand is to be what he calls the ‘Nike of active nutrition.’

“I've been very inspired by Nike over the years, how Nike has all these different categories. All these different sports—football, baseball, running, basketball, soccer, you name it and they're all tethered to this common brand, ideal this premium, promise and Primus and community, that is Nike. Why can't that exist in sports nutrition and active nutrition? If you kind of zoom out and look at our category, you have a lot of great protein brands, you have pre-workout brands, you have brands like greens or only Esports, but why not somebody to do all of those things where the common denominator is the brand, the community, the innovation and this commitment to transparency?”

Flavor collaborations

One thing that GHOST is well known for is its flavor collabs with popular brands like Sour Patch Kids, Warheads, Swedish Fish, Bubblicious, Oreo, Chips Ahoy and more. Since GHOST’s partnerships, many others have adopted their own flavor team ups, including brands outside of the sports nutrition category.

“When we first started launching these flavor collabs, we had no idea the trend that we're about to set—that was never the goal. We're big sneaker guys. I've always loved the community but also the collaborative nature of that. So if you go to the grocery store even like 10-20 years ago, everything is licensed. You got Girl Scout cookie cereal, you got Oreo ice cream, like that's licensing, that's collaboration. Why it took a little brand like GHOST to come along in 2016 and humbly and proudly launch the very first authentic flavor collab in our category, I have no idea, I thought it was obvious, but look, it's been a huge point of differentiation for us. It's been the most humbling and probably most fun part of my adventure so far with GHOST and being able to work with these brands that I grew up with that we've loved our whole lives,” said Lourenco.

Transparency reimagined

Lourenco said that while full transparency wasn’t popular when GHOST first launched, it is much more common now.

“With respect to label transparency. There's definitely been brands doing that far before GHOST was ever even a thought. However, I don't know if they packaged that transparency or delivered transparency in a way that was palatable to the mainstream consumer. So maybe we helped make it cool.”

To hear more on the GHOST lifestyle and what Lourenco thinks about full-disclosure labels being mandated, listen to the NutraCast.

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