Yesly Water Enters Protein RTD at 500 Sprouts Doors

The Launch

Yesly Water is stepping into the protein beverage aisle with Sparkling Protein Water, a 12 oz. ready-to-drink can delivering 20 grams of protein from whey and collagen, zero sugar, and 100 calories. The product debuted exclusively at approximately 500 Sprouts Farmers Market locations nationwide in November 2026, with Amazon and TikTok Shop distribution scheduled to follow in January 2027. Five SKUs cover the initial lineup: Kiwi Strawberry, Watermelon, Pomegranate Acai Blueberry, Berries & Cream, and Shirley Temple.

For operators and buyers tracking the functional beverage shelf, the move is worth noting. Protein RTD has been one of the fastest-growing sub-segments in natural and specialty retail, driven by consumers who want functional payoff without the dairy-forward density of a traditional shake. Yesly's clear, sparkling format targets the same daypart as energy drinks and enhanced waters — a positioning gap that established protein shake brands have largely left open.

Retail and Channel Strategy

Choosing Sprouts as the exclusive launch partner is a deliberate brand-building decision, not a volume play. Sprouts skews toward health-conscious, ingredient-aware shoppers who are already comfortable spending a premium on functional formats. For Yesly, it functions as a controlled proof-of-concept: roughly 500 doors is enough scale to generate meaningful velocity data without flooding conventional grocery before the brand story is established. The Amazon and TikTok Shop expansion in early 2027 suggests the team plans to use retail sell-through metrics to fuel digital media spend — a sequencing playbook familiar in natural beverage launches.

The athlete partnership layer reinforces the channel choice. NCAA champion and 2:04 marathoner Charles Hicks and elite American marathoner Emma Bates are both credible within the endurance and performance community that Sprouts over-indexes for. Scott Miller, Co-Founder and CEO of Yesly, noted the partners will appear across digital and social channels, retail initiatives, and brand activations through 2027 — meaning the influencer spend is integrated with the retail program rather than running parallel to it.

What Operators Should Watch

For foodservice operators, hotel F&B buyers, and gym or club channel buyers evaluating RTD protein options, Yesly's format addresses a real friction point: protein beverages that look and feel like a refreshment rather than a supplement. That positions the SKU for grab-and-go coolers, spa amenity programs, and club or resort retail — channels where the milky shake format consistently underperforms because of temperature sensitivity and visual cues that feel clinical rather than refreshing.

The whey-and-collagen protein blend also speaks to a broader functional beverage trend in which collagen has moved from beauty supplements into mainstream performance nutrition positioning. Buyers evaluating this space should ask vendors for cold-chain specs, minimum order quantities at regional DCs, and whether TikTok Shop velocity data will be shared with wholesale partners as the brand scales into 2027.

Yesly's founders — Ken Uptain and Scott Miller, both alumni of Essentia Water — bring category credibility that matters during buyer conversations. Category managers who passed on Essentia early have institutional memory of that miss, and brands with similar pedigrees tend to get faster initial meetings at retail and foodservice distributors alike.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.