Baylor University strength coaches have started serving athletes post-workout smoothies as part of an agreement with frozen yogurt chain Red Mango, which is hoping the partnership helps it make inroads in college towns.

Baylor athletics officials and Dan Kim, the U.S. founder of Red Mango, which began in South Korea in 2002, said the idea of partnership came from university strength coaches who visited a Red Mango shop in College Station.

Baylor has reached an agreement with Red Mango to serve its athletes post-workout smoothies.

“We’re trying to get our athletes to eat better stuff and you have the taste profile and the nutritional health profile we want,” was the message delivered to Kim, he recalled.

Under the arrangement with Baylor, Red Mango provides the training and conditioning staff at the school with ingredients and smoothie recipes. The staff would then provide it to the athletes.

Kim said it’s a type of agreement he would like to form with other Division I athletics departments.

Strength coaches

“The birth of the deal came out of a relationship the (strength) coaches had with the product,” said Doug MacNamee, who handles marketing and corporate sponsorships for Baylor athletics.

MacNamee characterized the deal as a trade agreement and said no money was exchanged.

Red Mango is a fast-growing brand in the U.S.’s booming healthy frozen yogurt market.

The company’s offerings are known for their tart, tangy flavor, and contain live and active cultures more typical of non-frozen yogurts sold at supermarkets.

Company executives hail the cultures, which they refer to as probiotics, for their salutary benefits.

“It’s just essentially a snack for our athletes,” MacNamee said.

Red Mango is not seeking to have the company logo on scoreboards or in visible spots on campus.

“We’re not looking for that kind of exposure,” Kim said. “We’re in talks with strength coaches directly, and it’s that relationship and demand for the product that we treasure.

“I don’t know where this is going to end up,” he said. “But I love the fact that their athletes love it. It’s new and it’s novel, and I think it’s going to set a standard.”

Kim said the sports partnership concept was one way to get men to eat healthy frozen yogurt and smoothies, which has traditionally had more of an appeal to female customers.

Kim said former University of Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne was a Red Mango investor and the legendary figure’s endorsement has boosted the brand in Nebraska.

“With as many female customers as we have there you get a lot of football players, too,” Kim said. “It validated to guys that frozen yogurt is really a food we can eat.”

Beyond the partnership, a publicist for Red Mango said the company plans to open a store in Waco. The company did not say where in the city or when a store would open.

Red Mango, which started U.S. operations in 2007, has 115 stores in 25 states.

mshapiro@wacotrib.com

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