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There’s a new CBD company in the mix, with some legendary founding partners.
Meet Champions + Legends CBD brand for athletes, with founding partners who embody the name: Thor Björnsson, who played The Mountain in HBO’s Game of Thrones and currently holds the world deadlift record and is the winner of multiple Strongest Man competitions. Plus two-time Super Bowl champion former NFL linebacker James Harrison, who happens to be a five-time Pro Bowl selection who won the Super Bowl twice while playing with the Pittsburg Steelers. The two men laud CBD for recovery and for pain relief.
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“As I get older, the recovery process is just as important as pushing weights and Champions + Legends products help me take my fitness to even higher levels,” Harrison says in a press release. The retired NFL linebacker and two-time Super Bowl Champion says CBD helps him, “stay in the gym longer and more often.”
Thor Björnsson, the first man to win the Arnold Strongman Classic, Europe’s Strongest Man and World’s Strongest Man in the same year, swears by CBD in his workout regimen. “Integrating products that are geared towards rest and recovery is vital for preventing injuries and allowing me to stay in the gym and continuously push myself to maximum capacity,” says Thor.
The line offers a range of topicals, tinctures, soft gels, and even an oral spray said to work in fast-release. The products are categorized into three different formulas depending on what the consumer needs: Prepare which consists of pre-workout products, Perform mid-workout products, and Recover post-workout products. The company’s hemp-derived CBD is lab-tested a total of “six times from the point of harvesting of the hemp plant through to final testing before they are supplied to customers.”
Champions + Legends
Champions + Legends is CEO and founder Sonny Mottahed’s second start-up in the nascent cannabis industry. Mottahed told Green Entrepreneur that he came to the benefits of CBD after his own injury, related to powerlifting.
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“I injured my back doing a heavy deadlift exercise and like most people, my next stop was my doctor who forwarded me to a specialist for x-rays and also prescribed me with some pain killers,” Mottahed says. “I realized within two days that prescription painkillers absolutely did not agree with my body and I did not like the way that they made me feel.” He stopped using them and tried over-the-counter medications like ibuprofen and acetaminophen to try to manage the pain and inflammation, but then came to realize “all of these drugs are simply not healthy or sustainable solutions for prolonged periods of use.”
A visit to Colorado was the first seed in the business plan for what grew into Champions + Legends. “After the Colorado trip, I started doing some extensive research on the market for CBD, the rules, regulations, different types of CBD, and the health and wellness properties of hemp-derived CBD,” says Mottahed.
“The lightbulb moment came when I was reading a CBD report and noticed very clearly that all of the health and wellness properties of CBD are directly aligned with what athletes need in their training routine.”
-Sonny Mottahed, CEO and Founder of Champions + Legends
“Athletes have definitely been underserved until now, says Mottahed. “Like most new, young industries the initial products offered by companies to customers always focus on what can appeal to the most number of people possible. We call these generalist products. Once the market grows, develops, and matures, there is a need for specialized products to service the specific needs and requirements of the specific segments of the consumer base.”
Mottahed believes there are enough athletes in the CBD consumer marketplace today who need alternatives to pain medication. “It really begins like any other new market; supply and demand. There is now enough CBD adoption creating demand and Champions + Legends is providing new supply to our very focused athlete market.”
Sonny Mottahed, Founder & CEO of Champions + Legends.
The product line is available on the company’s website now, and the company plans a strategic rollout of in-store partnerships, such as “specialty retailers, gyms, and health/wellness locations,” says Mottahed. “C+L products are not for everyone, nor will they be sold everywhere. You will never find our products in a convenience store, gas station, or bodega.”
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Who is the Champions + Legends ideal consumer? “The short answer is all athletes,” says Mottahed. “The more complete answer lies in our definition of an athlete who we see as anyone with a body that is still living an active lifestyle. Our athlete partners are some of the most elite athletes in the world and yes, elite athletes are a focus for C+L but so are amateur athletes, all the way through each and every person that is training hard 3, 5, or 7 days per week to be the best version of themselves regardless of their chosen sports or training preferences.”
