This pouch could be the Zyn of caffeine

Fast Company

2 days ago

There's a new energy brand on the market, and it's betting that the next frontier in caffeine isn't coffee, soda, or any other drink, for that matter. It's the pouch.
Wip is a caffeine pouch, available in 100-milligram and 200-milligram strengths, that's designed to be popped between your lip and gum to provide a quick dose of what it describes as 'natural caffeine.' The pouches come in candy-like flavors, including mint, sour cherry, orange citrus, and strawberry kiwi, all packaged in a brightly colored, hockey-puck-size container.
If any of that sounds familiar, that's probably because, at least in form factor, it's pretty similar to the nicotine pouch brand Zyn, which exploded in popularity after gaining traction on TikTok, primarily among young users. Meanwhile, over the past few years, the caffeine market has also been buzzing with a similar demographic.
Energy drinks have gone mainstream, appearing on menus at Starbucks, Dunkin', and Dutch Bros. Older brands like Jolt Cola and Rockstar have gotten supercharged facelifts, while the newcomer Alani Nu notched more than a billion dollars in sales in just one year.
Wip is betting on the idea that if consumers are gravitating toward a pouch for their nicotine boost, it might be a major new unlock for the caffeine industry, too.
The idea for Wip was conceived by David Cynamon, a Canadian entrepreneur who is now the brand's chairman and a major stakeholder. According to Wip CEO Richard Mumby, Cynamon 'understood the ubiquity of pouches in other form factors, mainly in nicotine,' and recognized an opportunity to expand the consumer category into caffeine.
The brand debuted last summer under the name LF*GO! (alongside a marketing partnership with Mike Tyson), a move that Mumby describes as more of a market test than an official launch. 'In four months, they got really meaningful traction and realized they needed to bring in the right team to realize the full opportunity of creating an altogether new category for energy and caffeine,' he says.
Mumby stepped in as CEO last October. Given the inspiration that Wip is pulling from the nicotine industry, Mumby's previous experience makes sense for this new role: From 2014 to 2017, he served as CMO for Pax Labs, the umbrella company for Juul and Pax vapes.
In less than a year, Mumby's team at Wip worked to create an entirely fresh identity for the brand before it hit the market in early June. The new branding takes a page out of Red Bull's iconic playbook, positioning the product as a tool for athletes—and, like Zyn, also a cool accessory.
Is the pouch the new energy drink?
From an outside perspective, it's easy to see why consumers might choose a nicotine pouch over a cigarette: You can pop one on the go, it has no odor, and, more recently, has become a kind of status-signaling habit among its young male target audience.
It's less clear why one might abandon their daily cup of coffee in favor of a caffeine pouch. Mumby's pitch for creating this new consumption category comes down to what he calls 'the three Cs': confidence, convenience, and cost.
He argues that consumers want to have confidence in the quality of their caffeine (a need that Wip purports to meet by deriving its caffeine from green coffee beans); they want the convenience of a hands-free caffeine option; and they want a cheaper caffeine fix (a 15-pouch pack costs about $8, or about 60 cents per serving).
'For an emerging brand or category, sometimes you have to go to the periphery to find these unmet needs,' Mumby says. 'But in caffeine, they're really at the heart of the product.'
Branding the caffeine pouch
To get the public on board with this novel form of caffeine intake, Mumby says he had a few main goals with the new branding. First, he needed to clearly articulate what caffeine pouches actually are, and establish a brand name that consumers could easily remember. He also needed a high-energy look to compete in an already saturated category. In collaboration with the branding agency Studio George, his team checked the first box with 'Wip,' a name designed to be short, zingy, and catchy.
'You can't will consumers to do it, but I wouldn't be disappointed if I heard somebody walk into a bodega and say, 'Do you have any mint Wips,' or refer to having to 'Wip' their way through a workout,' Mumby says.
For the wordmark, Studio George opted for a forward-leaning, slanted bold font with jagged edges, meant to convey a sense of momentum. The packaging features flavor-signaling neon colors, metallic silver, and pops of energetic yellow, clearly evoking the world of sports branding.
Mumby imagines Wip as a product that could see mass adoption, but it's specifically marketed as a companion for athletes and others whose pastimes involve using their hands. Someone headed to the gym, for example, might prefer a Wip over the 'cumbersome' proposition of packing energy drinks in their bag, Mumby explains. 'Also, a cup of coffee on a construction site is hard to put down and not have dust get into it,' he says. 'If you work with both of your hands, you need dexterity. The form factor just lends itself to some obvious solutions.'
On first glance, Wip does look strikingly like a nicotine product, especially given its rounded packaging and hardcore aesthetic. Mumby says the brand's main strategy to ensure consumers don't get confused is to incorporate clear signals at the point of sale, including by labeling the pouches as 'clean caffeine' on display units. Currently, Wip is available online, on Amazon, at convenience stores in Florida and Arizona, and at some smaller athletic stores across the country.
I Wip my way through this article
Before writing this story, I gave Wip a try for the first time—specifically, the 100-milligram mint flavor. While I've never tried a Zyn, and therefore can't compare the two, this experience was akin to sucking on an abnormally sweet Altoid, or maybe a less-powerful Listerine strip. It wasn't unpleasant (and it did prevent the onset of a morning caffeine headache), but it also wasn't my personal favorite way to consume caffeine. Still, I could see how the form factor might be convenient as a pre-workout boost or a pick-me-up on the job.
My main concern with Wip, actually, is how easy it is to consume. One of the 200-milligram pouches is equivalent to about two cups of coffee. A standard 8.4-ounce Red Bull contains just 80 milligrams of caffeine. Pop two max-strength Wips, and you've just hit the maximum amount of caffeine that the Mayo Clinic defines as safe for the average adult, likely in significantly less time than it would require to chug five Red Bulls.
When asked about Wip's safety, Mumby says the brand's website and social media sets out clear guidelines on safe caffeine consumption, including the 400-milligram limit. It's worth noting, however, that there's no such information on the package itself. While I didn't experience any adverse effects from my 100-milligram Wip, I'm not sure I want to know what it might feel like to mindlessly have one too many. For now, I'm sticking with coffee.
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