After years spent competing in the top levels of cycling, Bryan Smith and Matt Johnson began to notice a hole in the market of athlete nutrition. It was the same story for many athletes—they would come home hungry after a workout, only to find a bare refrigerator and empty cupboards. The duo wanted to ensure athletes always had a healthy snack on hand to help refuel, and so The Feed was born.

“Basically, we wanted to create a service that let people always have the perfect ride food on hand. Nutrition is becoming increasingly important when it comes to exercise, and we really believe if you can fuel your body better, you will see great gains,” said Becca Schepps, head of marketing and content at The Feed. While promoting to cyclists was the beginning theme, it caters to all endurance athletes.

The business is set up as a monthly delivery service of a box containing a variety of snacks for athletes, with brands such as CLIF Bar, Honey Stinger, Enduro, and Health Warrior included. Together, Smith and Johnson work for Slipstream Sports, which manages and runs the Garmin-Sharp Pro Cycling Team. They used their own experience as well as the insight provided to them by other athletes while determining how to make the delivery service as helpful as it could be. The list of products offered by The Feed seems almost endless, giving users the opportunity to buy the Starter Box for $20.01, the Pro Box for $34.82, or build their own.

“We set the company up as a monthly delivery of absolutely 100 percent customizable boxes of nutrition so that people would never have to choose between eating a stale bar (and breaking their front teeth in the process) or bonking,” Schepps continued. “By giving monthly deliveries, the products are always fresh, and they are always what you want and need.”

It’s the feature of customizing boxes that sets the company apart from those that are similar.

“With our competitors it seems that you choose the size of the package you want, and then you get a variety of stuff, none of which you have personally selected,” Schepps said. “At The Feed, we do not do this at all. From our experience with professional athletes, we know that stomachs all have different needs, during different races, different intensities, different times of year, and we want to make sure that every customer gets exactly the perfect nutrition to support them in whatever phase of training [or] life they are in.”

Box of nutritional food for athletes from The Feed.

After receiving their first box, each customer is contacted by a personal nutrition coach from The Feed. The company’s entire staff is comprised of athletes, so these coaches have a good idea of athlete goals and can better understand the needs of each person. Customers tell us their training plans, goals, tastes, and preferences and we help educate them about how to use different nutrition during training, and make suggestions on products to try, she continued.

Another factor that makes The Feed unique is that no other similar retailer carries as many brands of nutritional food. While there are plenty of big brands to choose from when a user customizes a box, the company includes smaller companies as well, such as Pointway Performance Giddy Up Bars, which was developed by an elite cycling coach from New England.

“There is also no other retailer that lets you choose to buy one single item of one single flavor in existence,” Schepps said. “Usually you’d have to buy a whole case of bars or gels, so then you’d have 12 of the same flavor—often only to get sick of it. We let you choose individual items, piece by piece, so you get exactly what you need and always look forward to fueling your workouts and life.”

As for the response to The Feed, she said athletes seem thrilled. “The most common response I’ve gotten from elite and professional athletes when they hear about us is shock. So many of them are used to only eating those big brands of foods, and they didn’t even know that sport nutrition could taste so good,” Schepps said. “They also had no idea that so many brands existed.  When we began reaching out to teams to sponsor, athletes were drooling over the idea that they could finally choose the exact food, hydration and recovery they needed, rather than having to be tied down to one brand that may or may not work with their stomach.”

Going further than simply providing all of the best nutrition for athletes, Schepps said a lot of attention is placed on giving advice to athletes about when they should eat each type of food. “We really take a strong focus on educating the consumer, because you can have all the proper fuel in the world, but if you do not use them correctly, they won’t work,” she said.

What was in my first box from The Feed?

• Honey Stinger Organic Energy Chews (Pomegranate Passion)
• Honey Stinger Energy Gel (Gold)
• Enduro Bites (Dark Chocolate Espresso)
• Health Warrior Chia Bar (Dark Chocolate Cherry)
• CLIF Shot Bloks Energy Chews (Mountian Berry)
• Bobo’s Oat Bar (Lemon Poppyseed)
• Skoop A-Game (Sweetgreens)
• Skratch Labs Exercise Hydration Mix (Lemons & Limes)
• Nuun Electrolyte Enhanced Drink Tabs (Lemon Tea)
• Vega Protein Smoothis (Viva Vanilla)
• Justin’s Maple Almond Butter
• Purely Elizabeth Granola (Cranberry Pecan)
• ProBar Meal (Wholeberry Blast)
• ProBar Fuel (Strawberry)
• Bonk Breaker (Peanut Butter & Banana)
• Rip van Wafels (Traditional Amsterdam Wafel)
• Giddy-Up Bar (Cherry)

Note: The cost of my box was estimated at around $45, so a starter box would not include as many products. With the customized boxes, users can choose whatever snacks they want.