Entrepreneur
Key Takeaways
- Athletic Brewing became America’s #1 non-alcoholic beer by eliminating the stigma around non-alcoholic beer.
- The company created social proof by partnering with elite athletes like JJ Watt and Naomi Osaka and landing on 22% of Michelin-starred menus nationwide.
- It turned Dry January customers into year-round buyers by offering a guilt-free option that fits modern lifestyles.
Bill Shufelt loved beer. He loved sports bars, restaurants, and the ritual of cracking open a cold one with friends. But he didn’t love the way beer made him feel. The alcohol was having negative effects on his health and his productivity.
Shufelt stopped drinking in 2013, but he was frustrated by the lack of great-tasting non-alcoholic beer options available to him at the time. After years of research and business planning, in 2017, Shufelt co-founded Athletic Brewing Company with John Walker, and the pair set out to solve a problem that had plagued the beer industry for years: Develop a range of full-flavored non-alcoholic beers that people would actually be proud to drink.
For too long, non-alcoholic beer carried a stigma. Ordering one at a bar signaled you might be an alcoholic or in recovery. The category’s legacy brands didn’t help. They tasted terrible and came with an implicit declaration that you had a problem.
“I just wanted a delicious non-alcoholic beer that I’d be psyched to hold up with the label showing,” Shufelt says.
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Building a category leader
After developing a proprietary brewing process and experimenting with hundreds of trial batches, the duo launched their brews commercially in mid-2018. Simultaneously, they raised a $2.95 million angel round (led by Shufelt and his wife) that included over 66 angel investors and enabled them to build the first dedicated NA brewery and taproom in America.
“The vision started for me so authentically in my life that it really still energizes me every day,” Shufelt says.
Athletic Brewing sold just 875 barrels in its first year. In 2026, now ranked as America’s #1 non-alcoholic beer brand with 18.6% market share, the company expects to surpass 500,000 barrels. Athletic is not just a leader in the NA beer segment, it was also ranked as the 8th largest craft brewery and 18th largest overall brewing company in the country in 2024.
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How they got there
Athletic Brewing started with a simple premise: make non-alcoholic beer that actually tastes good. The company’s brewing team has won 185 taste awards. Two of its most popular brews—Run Wild IPA and Free Wave Hazy IPA—rank among the top 20 best-selling IPAs in America, competing directly with alcoholic beers.
But Shufelt’s real breakthrough was completely reframing what non-alcoholic beer could mean. Instead of hiding it, he made it aspirational.
The strategy was deliberate: attach the brand to elite athletes, Michelin-starred chefs, and earn prestigious awards for taste and quality. Celebrity investors and ambassadors include NFL star JJ Watt, cyclist Lance Armstrong, tennis champion Naomi Osaka, and chef David Chang. Today, Athletic appears on 22% of Michelin-starred menus nationwide.
It worked. The company built what Shufelt calls “a very well-armed amount of social proof” that gave people permission to drink non-alcoholic beer proudly.
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Beyond Dry January
Athletic’s January campaign drives massive customer acquisition, but those people also have the highest retention rates of the year.
“They realize they’re drinking almost entirely non-alcoholic beer because it fits in so many occasions in their life,” Shufelt says. “It feels like a guilty indulgence—delicious, super low calorie, not intoxicating, but still relaxing.”
And it’s not just the abstinence crowd. 80% of its customers still consume alcohol on some occasions, and the company sees another major spike the week after the Super Bowl, proving the appeal extends far beyond Dry January resolutions.
The strategy works because Shufelt isn’t asking people to declare they’re sober or make permanent commitments. He’s just giving them a healthier option that fits into their actual lives. “Athletic is beer for the modern adult,” he says.
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The long game
Shufelt’s ambition extends far beyond building America’s largest non-alcoholic brewing company. He’s trying to change what drinking means in American culture.
“I’m really trying to break down the post-prohibition stigmas that still exist,” he says. “We want to make sure people feel like they don’t have to declare that they’re sober or how much they drink or when they drink or when they don’t.”
His ultimate vision? “That by the time my kids turn 21, the word sober is just totally irrelevant.”
The market is moving in that direction. A record 53% of Americans now believe consuming one to two drinks per day is bad for one’s health, up 14 percentage points since 2023. Nearly half of Americans are trying to drink less alcohol in 2025. When Athletic launched in 2018, non-alcoholic beer accounted for just 0.3% of total beer sales. Today it’s over 3% at grocery stores—and has grown at a 30% CAGR since 2020.
Athletic now operates custom breweries in Connecticut and California with a combined capacity of over 1 million barrels. Its beers are available at more than 75,000 retail locations nationwide, and the company has expanded to the U.K., Canada, and parts of Europe.
Slowly but surely, Athletic is reframing the entire category from one month of abstinence to a life of moderation.
Key Takeaways
- Athletic Brewing became America’s #1 non-alcoholic beer by eliminating the stigma around non-alcoholic beer.
- The company created social proof by partnering with elite athletes like JJ Watt and Naomi Osaka and landing on 22% of Michelin-starred menus nationwide.
- It turned Dry January customers into year-round buyers by offering a guilt-free option that fits modern lifestyles.
Bill Shufelt loved beer. He loved sports bars, restaurants, and the ritual of cracking open a cold one with friends. But he didn’t love the way beer made him feel. The alcohol was having negative effects on his health and his productivity.
Shufelt stopped drinking in 2013, but he was frustrated by the lack of great-tasting non-alcoholic beer options available to him at the time. After years of research and business planning, in 2017, Shufelt co-founded Athletic Brewing Company with John Walker, and the pair set out to solve a problem that had plagued the beer industry for years: Develop a range of full-flavored non-alcoholic beers that people would actually be proud to drink.
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