Billionaire Mike Repole on NOBULL; College Coaches Making Millions Powering Big Wins

Summary

---

Podcast Summary

Podcast: Bloomberg Business of Sports
Episode: Billionaire Mike Repole on NOBULL; College Coaches Making Millions Powering Big Wins
Date: January 23, 2026
Hosts: Michael Barr, Vanessa Perdomo
Feature Guests: Janet Lauren (Bloomberg Higher Ed Reporter), Mike Repole (Entrepreneur, NOBULL Owner)

---

Episode Overview

This episode dissects the evolving economics of college sports—especially football—examining how increased revenue demands and player compensation drive new business models, sponsorship deals, and experimental partnerships with private equity. It then shifts to billionaire entrepreneur Mike Repole, who shares his path from Vitaminwater to BodyArmor and now NOBULL, detailing his philosophy on team-building, entrepreneurship, and the creation of an athletic lifestyle brand alongside icons like Tom Brady.

---

College Football’s Big Money Evolution

Indiana's Rise, Sponsorships & Massive Payouts

with guest Janet Lauren, Bloomberg Higher Education Reporter (01:16–12:26)

Key Discussion Points

• Indiana’s Football Miracle:
  Indiana University, historically unsuccessful in football, unexpectedly wins the national championship after a century of futility.

  • "The Indiana Hoosiers are the kings of college football." —Mike Repole, (01:37)
  • Head coach Signetti’s bold play-calls, earning him nearly $12 million/year, were instrumental.

• Impact of Big-Spending Donors and New Revenue Streams:
  Indiana secured a $50 million, 20-year sponsorship deal from Merchants Bank, including naming rights for their stadium.

  • "He’s filled the stadium, which means there's more revenue from the stadium, more revenue from concessions, more revenue from sponsorship. So he sort of paid for himself." —Janet Lauren, (04:18)
  • Colleges are now hunting for revenue: logos on fields (new as of 2024), selling alcohol (a first for some schools like Nebraska and Michigan), and booking stadium concerts (Zach Bryan at Michigan’s Big House, Coldplay at Stanford).

• NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) and Changing Cost Structures:
  Major schools are approaching the $20.5 million cap on athlete compensation.

  • "Colleges are paying players to the tune of $20.5 million a year—it's going to go up 4%." —Janet Lauren, (02:58)
  • Increased costs mean aggressive strategies for new income and expense cuts.

• Professionalization of College Sports Facilities:
  Colleges are modeling their financial approaches after pro teams, maximizing every stadium event opportunity to subsidize athletic department expenses.

  • "This is the model for professional sports...all the new NFL owners...want domed roofs—not for the games, but for the concerts." —Vanessa Perdomo, (07:08)

• Transfer Portals and Agent Negotiations:
  The transfer portal enables quick team makeovers but can also destabilize rosters.

  • "You could never construct a team like that if you didn't have...the transfer portal...that will also destroy teams." —Janet Lauren, (10:12)
  • Athletic departments now hire “general managers” (e.g., Andrew Luck at Stanford) for complex negotiations.

Memorable Quotes and Moments

• "They were charging up to $30,000 for a seat [at the championship], and then they were charging $9,000 to park the car. Gee whiz." —Michael Barr, (09:40)
• "We're in really uncharted territory." —Janet Lauren, (10:11)

Private Equity’s Role (11:09–12:26)

• Private equity is eyeing college sports, but exit strategies remain unclear.
  • "They want to make a profit, and it's not really clear how that happens with college athletics." —Janet Lauren, (11:29)

---

Mike Repole: Building Billion-Dollar Brands, the NOBULL Vision, and the Athlete Mindset

Main Interview: (13:18–38:59)

Repole’s Entrepreneurial Journey

• Vitaminwater & BodyArmor Success:
  Repole co-founded Vitaminwater (sold to Coca Cola for $4B) and BodyArmor ($5.6B), emphasizing the power of building great teams.

  • "It's all about people and brand...the right chemistry and you could build the biggest brands that you ever dreamed about." —Mike Repole, (14:21)

• The Grind and Humble Beginnings:
  Repole credits relentless effort, not innate intelligence, for his rise from a working-class family in Queens.

  • "I'm not smarter than anybody, but if I'm working 20 hour days, 7 days a week, and you're working eight, I'm gonna beat you." —Mike Repole, (16:58)

Rescuing and Reinventing NOBULL

• Turning Around a Trendy Brand:
  Repole and partners Tom Brady, Marcus Wilson, and Michael Schaeffer saved NOBULL after it lost its early momentum in the pandemic.

  • "Anytime you start a business, the first three to five years are the survival years...they lost the momentum and then we came in." —Mike Repole, (18:16)

• Expanding Beyond CrossFit:
  Aim is to transform NOBULL from a CrossFit niche to a “360-degree wellness brand” for all athletic mindsets—not just elite athletes.

  • "NOBULL wants to be that 360 brand for you... it’s not just about the gym...it’s about the mentality piece, whether it’s meditation, whether it’s sleep..." —Mike Repole, (22:03)

• Launching Nutrition Products:
  Repole is spearheading NOBULL Nutrition, pitching an integrated approach to fitness: mental, emotional, and physical wellness.

  • "Nike doesn’t have protein, Adidas doesn’t have electrolytes...NOBULL wants to be this brand that talks to you in a way, like that coach that motivated you..." —Mike Repole, (23:00)

Notable Quotes

• "You talk the talk, you better walk the walk." —Mike Repole, (29:16)
• "Our job... is to inspire people who aspire to be better, but not just at one thing." —Mike Repole, (22:03)
• "NOBULL is going to be that tough love brand. We want to be real, we want to be genuine, we want to be authentic." —Mike Repole, (24:01)
• "Tom [Brady] always wanted to make his teammates better...When I got to know Tom, we really connected on how do we... make his TB12 method through NOBULL." —Mike Repole, (31:18)

Building Iconic Partnerships

• Collaborations with Athlete Icons:
  Repole sought out passion and mentality fit—not just fame—with partners like Kobe Bryant and Tom Brady.

  • "Athletes are no different than other people who are passionate... it's more about being really not only connected, but having the same mind frame..." —Mike Repole, (29:16)

• Motivation and Self-Discipline:
  Repole’s “formula” for any kind of success:

  • "Work 18 hour days, 7 days a week for 25 years. I guarantee you'll be successful." —Mike Repole, (30:59)

• Vision for NOBULL:
  Repole lays out a decades-long plan for NOBULL to grow from footwear and apparel to media, beauty, and holistic wellness.

  • "This is two years out, five years out, 10 years out, 20 years out about building this, this NOBULL wellness brand..." —Mike Repole, (33:09)

Giving Back: The St. John’s Story

• Repole’s Deep Connection to St. John’s University:
  Huge gifts for NIL, helping bring historic wins and packed crowds back to Madison Square Garden.
  • "To me, what the ability to give back to St. John's with how much they've impacted and influenced my life..." —Mike Repole, (35:15)
  • Vivid memories of the 1980s St. John’s heyday shape his philanthropy and mentorship.

Memorable Stories

• Repole joking about Rick Pitino taunting him into early gym sessions:
  • "He sends a message, ‘It's 6 a.m. and he’s videotaping himself at the gym. He goes, ‘Where are you? I'm waiting for you.’" —Mike Repole, (36:36)

---

Notable Quotes — All with Timestamps

• "Colleges are paying players to the tune of $20.5 million a year—it's going to go up 4%."
  —Janet Lauren (02:58)

• "We're in really unchartered territory."
  —Janet Lauren (10:11)

• "The whole goal of NOBULL is to target someone who just said what you said...NOBULL wants to be that 360 brand for you."
  —Mike Repole (22:03)

• "You talk the talk, you better walk the walk."
  —Mike Repole (29:16)

• "Work 18 hour days, 7 days a week for 25 years. I guarantee you'll be successful."
  —Mike Repole (30:59)

• "Tom always wanted to make his teammates better... we connected on how do we make his TB12 method through NOBULL."
  —Mike Repole (31:18)

---

Timestamps for Major Segments

• College Football & Indiana’s Turnaround w/ Janet Lauren: 01:16–12:26
• Mike Repole on Building Brands: 13:18–21:12
• NOBULL’s Expansion and Mentality: 21:12–25:15
• Repole on Partnerships & Tom Brady: 28:55–34:24
• Giving Back to St. John’s: 34:46–38:59

---

Episode Takeaways

• College sports are rapidly professionalizing, not only in attitude and compensation, but also with commercial strategies like field sponsorship, alcohol sales, and stadium concerts.
• NIL and new NCAA policies are creating intense new economic pressures, with private equity circling but still uncommitted.
• Mike Repole’s approach to business is fiercely team-oriented, focused on relentless personal discipline, and inspired by a desire to build not just commercial, but lifestyle brands—an ethos reinforced by partnerships with Kobe Bryant and Tom Brady.
• NOBULL is positioned to challenge legacy athletic brands by presenting a more holistic, tough-love, 360-degree approach to the athlete and businessperson mindset.

---

Transcript

[Announcer]

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. This is the business of sports.

[Mike Ripoli]

Sports are the greatest unscripted show on earth. The next generation of players really grew up with tech and believe in tech.

[Janet Lauren]

Your face is your ticket. Your face is your wallet. Your face is your access to a club.

[Mike Ripoli]

These are such iconic and important buildings for businesses, for fans. Covid was one of the best things that ever happened to golf.

[Michael Barr]

The NFL is a bulletproof business.

[Janet Lauren]

Racing is unique because there is absolutely no reason why we can't compete with the guys.

[Mike Ripoli]

Come on, is pro pickleball real?

[Michael Barr]

Are people really going to tune into this? If you're playing Moneyball with a huge.

[Janet Lauren]

Bag of money, you're going to be really, really good.

[Announcer]

Bloomberg business of Sports From Bloomberg Radio.

[Michael Barr]

This is the Bloomberg business of sports where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Michael Barr.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

And I'm Vanessa Perdomo. Damien Sassower is out this week.

[Michael Barr]

Coming up today we speak with billionaire entrepreneur, co founder of Vitamin Water and now owner of no Bul Mike Rapoli.

[Mike Ripoli]

Noble wants to be that 360 brand for you. For today's athlete, you know, the emotional part, the mental part, the physical part, it's not just about the gym, it's not just about running.

[Michael Barr]

And that's straight ahead on the Bloomberg Business of sports. But first we spoke with Bloomberg's own higher education reporter Janet Lauren about the big ending of the college football season and how Indiana was able to spin their way into a national championship. A century of futility is forgotten.

[Mike Ripoli]

The Indiana Hoosiers are the kings of college football.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

There was really a full full season there for Indiana. Jana joins us to tell us now how they really made it happen.

[Michael Barr]

Janet, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. And you wrote a great article about the Indiana Hoosiers and the Miami Hurricanes and their college football national championship game. With Indiana just taking it to the house undefeated, that is something special for any organization.

[Janet Lauren]

It was very exciting to watch. And I grew up in Chicago, so I'm very familiar with the Big Ten in Indiana. And it was, it was a really exciting game. And in that fourth quarter you could see why Signetti was paid almost to $12 million a year with his very gutsy call to land a Mendoza an amazing touchdown.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

Yeah, I think, you know, one of the interesting things that to see there is obviously the journey that Indiana's been on and how they've been able to change the athletic department. In your story, one of the things you had quoted was from one of the donors, it Said for the coach, with what he's done, I don't know if you could pay him enough. Tell me about, you know, what they've been able to do and how they've been able to change the program.

[Janet Lauren]

Great question. We had a great comment from Michael Petrie, who is chairman of a bank called Merchants bank based in Indiana. He's an Indiana alum, and the NCAA allowed logos on fields starting in 2024. Mike told me he was approached to put his bank's logo on the field, and this was before they had a winning season. And he said, look, I run a successful bank. I don't want it associated with a lo. So the answer is no. And as everybody knows, this year is very different because colleges are paying players to the tune of $20.5 million a year. It's going to go up 4%. Colleges are on the hunt for revenue. So a deal like a sponsorship for a logo on the field is really important for colleges like Indiana. So fast forward, you got a new coach. He did extremely well in his first year. And guess what? Merchants bank signed a deal for $50 million over 20 years, and that includes naming rights for the home field. So I reached out to Mr. Petrie to talk about his.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

The deal he actually ended up doing.

[Janet Lauren]

The deal he got. And as he said, you read his quote. With what he's done, I don't know if we could pay him enough. And he went on to say he's filled the stadium, which means there's more revenue from the stadium. There's more revenue from concessions, there's more revenue from sponsorship. So he sort of paid for himself. And, you know, Indiana brought a huge amount of excitement. In a story I did last year about other ways that colleges are looking, literally hunting for revenue, putting, selling things in their stadium. They're selling more alcohol. A couple of the schools, Nebraska this year, it was the first time that they have sold alcohol.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

So previously, schools didn't even have this part of their concession.

[Janet Lauren]

That is correct. It was more popular in the sec. But you've seen more schools selling alcohol. Michigan last year was their first year. Wisconsin, because again, they're trying to find ways to pay their players. And it's a big change. Colleges are, most of the big schools are paying up to the cap, which is 20.5 million this year, but it's going to increase next year by 4%.

[Michael Barr]

Talking with our very own Bloomberg's Janet Lauren, and you mentioned about nil and more. Colleges are going to have to pony up some money because this has taken off like wildfire. You wrote about also that sometimes, like a Zach Ryan concert where the University of Michigan Wolverines play at. You know, I love Michigan, so I'm just going to come out and say that. But do, but do the concerts and things like that at. Usually we think of it like at, you know, down at Madison Square Garden. Now they're playing at the University of Michigan College for the Wolverines. Is that another way they can bring in money?

[Janet Lauren]

Absolutely. Michigan's concert with Zach Bryan, it was the first time they'd ever had a concert in the big house and sold out. And it was the largest concert ever attended in the United States because they have a huge amount of seats, it was over 112,000 or something to that regard. And Stanford also for the first time had Coldplay. They'd never held a concert there. So universities are saying, look, you know, we need to find ways to get money. We have these massive stadiums and they sit empty except for, you know, eight times to, eight or ten times a year, we're gonna, we're gonna do more events there.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

This is the, this is the model for professional sports. I mean, every single professional sports owner, this is exactly what they want for their buildings, right? All the new NFL, all the NFL owners who are trying to build new stadiums and they want them to have domed roofs. And it's not because of, for the games, it's because of concerts and all of that. So is it just that now these college sports are going to have to follow the professional model of revenue and how professional sports really get revenue from, you know, for themselves?

[Janet Lauren]

Absolutely, because they have a new cost structure where they're having to pay the players. And, you know, universities are, are having to find also ways to cut expenses. And, you know, the Trump administration has been a little unforgiving to higher ed this year. And, you know, they're doing belt tightening all around, you know, less in federal funding, lots of concerns in that regard for money. So, yep, college sports are really going, undergoing massive changes in so many different ways.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

When you talk to people in this space, Janet, I'm curious. You know, obviously the story forever was college coaches get paid a lot of money and the student athletes weren't necessarily getting paid. I mean, wink, wink, we all know they're getting something, but it's not hard.

[Janet Lauren]

Maybe something like that.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

It's not what they're getting paid now. So when you talk to people and you talk to athletic directors and people like that, and coaches are, how big of a struggle is this for them to wrap their minds around how they have to change their structure of how they do business, how they run their programs.

[Janet Lauren]

Well, it's completely different. You know, as you've seen, they're having to deal with agents, you know, lots of different money questions, raising revenue. Many schools have hired a new position. General manager. Like Andrew Luck is a GM at Stanford. His. Yeah, I see your face.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

Oh, I did not know that.

[Janet Lauren]

Former his alma mater. So schools are hiring new positions because, you know, being the ad, you're hiring a CEO for your team because you're having to make a lot of different financial decisions. It's not just looking at X's and O's anymore.

[Michael Barr]

See, you can have Boise State host the Blue Man Group now. Nothing, nobody gets. The joke is, come on, man.

[Mike Ripoli]

It's a blue field.

[Michael Barr]

It's blue man. Oh, my gosh. Anyway.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

Went over our heads.

[Michael Barr]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

Goodness.

[Michael Barr]

In other words, it wasn't funny. Anyway, I want to go back to the Indiana game because they were charging up to $30,000 for a seat, and then they were charging $9,000 to park the car. Gee whiz. Is like, I see why they. You can make a lot of money out of this for nil.

[Janet Lauren]

Yeah. And it's. It's. It's just a different. It's just a different ballgame. No pun intended, but I like that.

[Michael Barr]

That was good.

[Janet Lauren]

Yeah. Colleges are, you know, we're in really unchartered territory because the transfer portal, you know, look at how it changed Indiana's team. You could never. You could never construct a team like that if you didn't have something like the transfer portal and the ability to move players with a coach. And you know, that that will also, on the opposite end, you know, destroy teams. You know, when coaches move their. You know, they're taking their players with them. And then there's also. How do you negotiate salaries for the players when they're not even members of the school? You know, they haven't even enrolled in the school yet. And then you've got agents. So it's a really different ball game.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

One of the things that obviously they're trying to offset these costs with is private equity is trying to come into college sports in a big way. Tell us about the relationship between private equity and college and what really they're trying to get out of the college system.

[Janet Lauren]

Private equity firms. So there's been a lot of rumblings. The Big Ten was approached by several private equity firms. Didn't really pan out. The University of California Investments, which manages $200 billion of endowment and pension. They were interested in a deal ultimately that was put on hold. You've seen the Big 12 has a potential deal, University of Utah, that would close later. The interesting part about private equity is you need an exit. And how are you going to exit making money? I mean, I wrote about university endowments for a long time. I still do. So I'm very familiar with how private equity works in these firms. They want to make a profit and it's not really clear how that happens with college athletics. I wrote about another firm that we had at Power Players Elevate and you know, they basically do sort of a private credit private like a loan, they will be expected to be repaid. You know, certainly once they've put in, helped the schools or conferences get capital to make improvements that will get them bigger revenue streams and then the ability to pay that back.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

That was Bloomberg's own higher education finance reporter, Janet Lauren.

[Michael Barr]

Up next, we speak with entrepreneur Mike Ripoli about his latest venture, no Bull. That's straight ahead on the Bloomberg Business of Sports for my colleague Vanessa Perdomo. I'm Michael Barr. And don't forget to catch our podcast on all your podcast platforms and right here on Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around the world.

[Mike Ripoli]

Bloomberg Radio is on Amazon. Alexa. Get live business news 24 hours a day. Anywhere you have an Alexa device, just say Alexa play. Bloomberg Radio, this is Bloomberg Business of.

[Announcer]

Sports from Bloomberg Radio, this is the.

[Michael Barr]

Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Michael Barr.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

And I'm Vanessa Perdomo. Damian Sasser will be back next week.

[Michael Barr]

Joining us now is Bradley billionaire entrepreneur Mike Rapole. Mike started his business empire as co founder of Vitamin Water and later built and flipped another beverage, body armor, which he sold for a few billion dollars to Coca Cola. No big deal.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

And Michael, he's also teamed up with celebrities, superstar athletes throughout his entire career. His partner in body armor was none other than the late great Kobe Bryant. And now he's partnering with another legendary athlete, Tom Brady, on his latest venture, no Bull.

[Michael Barr]

Mike Ripoli, beverage entrepreneur, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. Now you're the owner of no Bull, but before we get into that, I want to talk about how you started because you sold vitamin water to Coca Cola for $4 billion and body armor to Coca Cola for $5.6 billion. And you did it pretty much on your own, sir.

[Mike Ripoli]

That last part, Michael, you were on a roll. And that last part was absolutely false. I don't believe self made, you know, I believe in self made by others. But I was 28, 29 at vitamin water and I joined this guy Darius by golf and we created this, we had this little brand called Small water was about $100,000 and you know, it was 1998 and together we created this brand called Vitamin Order that came out in 2020. We had a 10 year run with 600amazing employees, amazing partners, amazing vendors. And you know, I didn't, I didn't know much about being in business or being an entrepreneur. And you know, I guess you learned on the way we went from two employees to 20 to 100 to 200 to 400 to 600. And that really got me started. And you know, the one thing I always stress, Michael and Vanessa is, you know, it's all about people and brand and really the people that you put on your team, the people you surround yourself with. You know, you hear so many cliches, hire people that you're smarter than, hire people with different skill sets. But in any business, man, you're only going to get better if you hire people with different skill sets, different personalities and that really can, you know, you get the right chemistry and you could build the biggest brands that you ever dreamed about. And it started with Vitamin Order and an incredible team. And, you know, 10 years went by like, like 10 long decades, to be honest with you.

[Michael Barr]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

Wow, that's interesting. Why do you, why do you say that? Like, what, what was this, what was the struggle? What was the grind when you were there doing Vitamin Water?

[Mike Ripoli]

You know, it's, you know, Vanessa, you know, it's. I was a first in everything. Like, you know, first time, you know, I was 28, managing, you know, two, three years into the job, managing people that were the age of my parents. You know, some were 50, 55 and some were college graduates and you know, for the first time really doing sales and marketing and then operations and then HR and then corporate strategy, you know, and you know, many of, you know, I'm a New York kid that grew up in Queens and you know, my dad was a waiter and my mom was a seamstress and. And by the time I was in third grade, I had more education than both of them and you know, went to St. John's and you know, I know Vanessa, probably academically I didn't do as good as you, but I had a 2:2 grade point average in St. John's which I know is probably better than Michael.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

But listen, I was an athlete.

[Mike Ripoli]

Okay, well, you know, I had this, I did my Classes with all the athletes. So all the St. John players were in my class and my textbook was Sports Illustrated. And you know, so when you say it's the grind, it's, you know, it's like anything in life. Like the first time you do it, the first time. And you know, I wasn't, you know, and I always tell people I'm not smarter than anybody, but you know, what if I'm working 20 hour days seven days a week and you're working eight hour days five days a week and you're taking a home day on Mondays and Fridays, I mean, I'm gonna beat you. And you being an athlete, you know, I mean, you know, I'm friends with, and I was friends with Kobe Bryant, I'm friends with Tom Brady. And you know, you know, the great ones just put that extra time in and that's what life's about. If, if you want something, you got to really go for it.

[Michael Barr]

Well, you're right about my grades because they spell D E, a D, which, which is what I was when I had to tell this to my mom and dad. When now is you're into the venture of Noble and you bought the majority stake. And I have to be honest, I wasn't even realizing it was a struggling business back then. I thought everybody was in the no bull. But you turned that all around.

[Mike Ripoli]

You know, Michael, it's a good question. We have two great co founders of this company. It was Marcus and Michael and Marcus Wilson and Michael Schaefer. And at the end, what was very special was I saw these guys as entrepreneurs. Like when I started out with Smart Water, pre Vitamin water, where you know you're getting started and anytime you start a business, really the first three to five years are the survival years. You don't know if you're going to make it to Friday. You don't know if you're going to make payroll. You know, a couple mistakes, you can go bankrupt. And what they did is they, Marcus and Michael both benefited from starting the brand. And the brand actually caught fire early and it grew so fast. And then Covid happened that, you know, you can lose the momentum of a brand in the first three to five years when it's getting started or the five plus years when it starts to have some growth. And they got into some growing pains. And I try to reach out to them when the brand was small in 2018 and 20 and they didn't need any help. And then I saw an opportunity in 22 and I really enjoyed them. And they're still Major partners with Tom and I and involved in the company, both in strategy and design. And, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's. They lost the momentum and then we came in and, you know, we kind of not only focused on fixing the, the back office, operations and finance and people, but also now working to make it more scalable. As we take Noble from a extreme sports crossfit brand in that community to really, you know, crossing the chasm into like, you know, into regular sports, athletic mind frames, mentality, and really just people who see, you know, you know, we're all athletes, we're all business athletes. I mean, there's a reason why you're talking about business and sport. You know, whether we're running appointment to appointment, whether we're going to, you know, pick up our kids and take them to, to, to places, whether we're trying to get our workout in the lifestyle we all lead is, is, is, you know, my sport is my life. And, and that's what we're trying to do with Noble, not just for elite athletes, not just for athletes, but really for people who really have that Noble mentality. The goal of Noble is to make people better, not only physically, but mentally and emotionally.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

I think that's really interesting. Mike, Repoly, we're talking to the owner of no Bull there. And I think what's interesting there that you brought up, Mike, is the, the mental aspect of it, along with the physical aspect. And now Noble is launching Noble Nutrition, which is now going to be a new leg of your new leg of the business, is that to go along with the mentality aspect of it, to get your mind right, body right in all the different ways. You know, tell us about that. Because I think with apparel and, you know, Fitness Apparel and CrossFit and you're saying all of that, which my brother, all. He uses Noble shoes, you know, that's, that's it. He's a big CrossFit guy. But when we're looking at apparel and then we're looking at supplements, they're not necessarily. They're both in the fitness industry, but not necessarily the exact same sort of part of the industry. Tell us about adding that and if it is into that whole ethos like you were talking about.

[Mike Ripoli]

Yeah, well, Vanessa, first of all, when you get a chance, send me your resume because you really get the brand already. I mean, you just repeated exactly. I mean, the whole goal of Noble is to target someone who just said what you said. You know what I know they're all part of Wellness, I know they're all part of fitness, but you know what? For nutrition, I get this. For apparel, I get this. And for sneakers, I get this. And Noble wants to be that 360 brand for you. For today's athlete, the emotional part, the mental part, the physical part, it's not just about the gym. It's not just about running, it's not just about walking. It's about the mentality piece, whether it's meditation, whether it's sleep, the emotional piece about just walking outdoors, nutrition being such a big part, whether it's protein, whether it's electrolytes, whether it's creatine. And Noble is for really that athlete that aspires to be better. Our job, you know, Tom Brady and I and the team at Noble, our job is to inspire people who aspire to be better, but not just at one thing, you know, because how many times, whether you're an athlete or in real life, you're dealing with adversity. How many times is something going on, you know, with a friend, a family member, a co worker, a teammate? And a lot of times, especially now, you know, Tom Brady and I were lucky that when we were 15 to 30, there was no social media. This distraction now, and hearing strangers or other people have an opinion of what you do and how you do it is very difficult. And what, you know, Nike doesn't have protein, Adidas doesn't have electrolytes. New Balance is not going to talk to you about walking and sleeping. You know, Noble wants to be this brand that talks to you in a way, like that coach that motivated you, whether you were in high school or college or that teacher. It's really like a life coach. And we're not here to preach. We're not here to prescribe what you need to do. We're here to be a description. Like, this is good for this. But at the end of the day, Michael and Vanessa, you all know, whether it's you two, people can influence you, people can impact you, people can motivate you, but you're the one that has to wake up every morning and you're the one that has to do the actions in order to make yourself better. And when it works, there are people that help you, but you put the work in. And when it doesn't work, you can look around, but at the end of the day, just get yourself a mirror and, and blame that person in the mirror. And, you know, Noble is going to be that tough love brand. You know, we want to be real, we want to be genuine. We want to be authentic.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

That was Mike Ripoli, entrepreneur and owner of no Bull. But man, Michael, I feel like I was listening to his motivational speech. His mentality for business is so good. I feel like we have to have him on a little longer.

[Michael Barr]

I wish we had this guy on when I was 25 years old. But of course we had suspension mics back then. But we've got more with no Bull.

[Mike Ripoli]

To me, what the ability to give back to St. John's with how much they've impacted influenced my life. And Madison square garden was packed, 19,200 going crazy. I felt like I was back in 1985.

[Michael Barr]

That's straight ahead on the Bloomberg Business of Sports for my colleague Vanessa Bernomo. I'm Michael Barr. And don't forget to catch our podcast on all your podcast platforms right here on the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around the world.

[Ad Council Narrator]

Imagine home. The smell of coffee. The sound of a lawnmower. The sun's warmth on your face. Free to be yourself, surrounded by love that helps you grow. This is a place to call home. That's an American dream we all deserve. But in 50% of US states, you could legally be denied housing if you are LGBTQ. Get the facts and hear real [e-mail] brought to you by Love has no Labels and the Ad Council.

[Lisa Mateo]

This is the Bloomberg Business of Entertainment Report brought to you by FisherInvestments.com from.

[Michael Barr]

Queen, Thunderbolts and Lightning, very, very frightening.

[Lisa Mateo]

To Bruce Springsteen, More artists are cashing in by selling their music catalogs. But new research shows more listeners in the US Prefer new songs. According to data from Luminate, new music dominated 2025, with songs from the past 15 years accounting for 76% of listening and 43% of on demand audio streams from tracks released in the last five years. Coming in at number one, we're the.

[Mike Ripoli]

Ordinary, you Got Me kissing the crowd.

[Lisa Mateo]

Alex Warren's 2025 hit Ordinary. But the pop music hit wasn't the top genre that went to hip hop once again, with rock growing its piece of the audio streaming pie the most. LISA mateo, Bloomberg RADIO.

[Announcer]

Nearly home Isn't home where we all want to be? Reba here for realtor.com the Pro's number one most trusted app, finding a home is like dating. You're not just looking for a place to live, you're searching for the one. That's where realtor.com comes in. Like any good matchmaker, they know exactly where to look. With over 500,000 new real listings straight from the pros every month. You could find your perfect match today ranch style with the pool barndominium with an in Law Suite. Realtor.com's got em modern craftsman with a big yard and a treehouse out back. Realtor.com will have you saying yep, that's the one. No more swapping. It's time to start finding. Download the realtor.com app today cause you're nearly home. Make it real with realtor.com pro's number.

[Mike Ripoli]

One most trusted app based on August 2025 proprietary survey. Over 500,000 new listings every month based on average new for sale and rental listings. July 2024 to June 2025.

[Announcer]

This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.

[Michael Barr]

Thanks for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of Sports where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Michael Barr.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

And I'm Vanessa Brunomo. Damian Sassire will be back next week.

[Michael Barr]

Let's continue our conversation now with billionaire entrepreneur Mike Rapoli. He is now the owner of no Bull and oh, you may have heard of one of his partners winners. It's none other than seven times super bowl winner Tom Brady.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

Mike, everything you're saying about the mentality and everything like that is goes along with who you decide to partner with, right? Kobe has this mentality. Tom Brady has a specific mentality. Tell us more about how you partner with them, how you chose them for these specific projects and how they've working with athletes in that way has helped, you know, change these businesses.

[Mike Ripoli]

You know, one thing, you know, and, and listen, athletes are no different than other people who are passionate, whether it's about music or whether it's about family or whether it's about, you know, whatever it is, right? So I really love being around passionate people. You know, the one thing about me, guys, is like, when, when I'm really focused, nothing's gonna stop me. Nothing's gonna get in my way when I have no interest. I, I have to be brutally honest. I don't really care. I'm sorry. So for me, it's more about being really not only connected, connected, but having the same mind frame as people who when they really want to do something or willing to do whatever it takes. There's a lot of people, Michael and Vanessa, that tell you they want A, they tell you they want B, they tell you they want C, they tell you they want D. But they do X, Y and Z. They do the opposite of what they say. You know, I always say you talk the talk, you better walk the walk. So Noble's not here to make you feel guilty. Noble's here to say, if you tell us you want to do this, well, we want to be there to help you do it. We can't force you to do it. And by the way, if you don't want to do it, then, hey, no problem. Then maybe we're not the brand for you. For me, what you find out, Michael and Vanessa is people really, you know, people who achieve high things in their life. They were motivated by others, but they really were motivated by themselves. They were their toughest critic. They worked the hardest. People who said they wanted something. You know, when I, when I have entrepreneurs come to me, I tell them it's simple. Like, what do you. Mike, what are you talking about? It's easy work, 18 hour days, 7 days a week for 25 years. I guarantee you'll be successful.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

It's just that easy formula.

[Mike Ripoli]

But work on, work on your birthday, in your 50s, you know, that's simple. But at the end of the day, I do two things, guys. I either scare somebody away from wanting to be an entrepreneur, and that's not my intention, but if I did, I probably saved her or him five years of their life, a ton of money, and maybe a bunch of good relationships that they might have would have lost. But if I say that and they still want to put in the time, the energy and the work, I not only want to happy for them, I'm willing to invest with them on their vision if they're willing to put away. But that's true whether you want to be a better son, you want to be a better father, you want to be a better teammate, you want to be a better friend, you want to be a better colleague, you want to be a better person. We want to, you know, and Tom has been great at this. Like, Tom always wanted to make his teammates better. You know, Tom won seven Super Bowls for a reason. He won six at New England and one here. And when I got to know Tom, when he came down here in Tampa, you know, we talked about his retirement. He still had three years left. We talked about his kids and my daughter, we talked about the future and we really connected on how do we. And, you know, he had TB12 and he was talking about nutrition and he was talking about, you know, pliability and, and he was talking about avocado ice cream. And I made fun of him for that, by the way, just so you know.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

He didn't try it.

[Mike Ripoli]

No, no, I would never. Every time I eat, Tom's house. Vanessa, please don't tell him this, but I have to go stop and eat somewhere afterwards because I'm hungry. So, you know, I'm like, okay, this is the appetizer. Where's the main course? No, that was it. Thank you, Tom. I gotta stop somewhere, so. But the point is, Tom, you know, he's been doing this since he was 15, you know, 15 years old in high school and in Michigan. And now he's such a great partner because he's really understanding how to make his TB12 method through Noble. And, you know, the brands out there right now are Athleisure. That's not what we're looking to do. They're style brands, only their designer brands. And, you know, and listen, I don't want to say anything negative about Nike, but we all know that Nike's. Just look at the stock. The stock will tell you how negative it is. I mean, you know, I mean, who's wearing Nike today versus who wore Nike 10 years ago or 20 years ago? They've lost their way. You know, Adidas goes in and out every. Every couple years. You know, so, you know, I mean, I think there's a brand that is ready for this next generation. You know, when body armor came out versus Gatorade, you know, I used to say Gatorade didn't like this. This was my grandfather's sport drink. They kind of sent me a legal letter. I ripped it up, but don't tell them. And body armor was better, ingredients, natural, and for today's athletes. And I really think that Noble's. You know, listen, I'm. Noble's not to where I'm telling you right now, this is my vision. This is two years out, five years out, 10 years out, 20 years out about building this, this Noble wellness brand that will include footwear, that will include obviously apparel, nutrition, mentality, TV or media, platform, self care, beauty, you name it. There's so many things that we can go here, and really it's about helping become better versions of themselves and get better, not only physically, because that's external, mentally and emotionally.

[Michael Barr]

We're talking with beverage entrepreneur Mike Rapoli, owner of no Bull, who teamed up with Tom Brady for the latest business venture. But I want to bring in. You are a huge benefactor for your alma mater, St. John's you give the schools huge amounts of money for n. Tell us about that.

[Mike Ripoli]

I wasn't even sure about that, Michael. Thanks. Wow.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

I didn't know not to just completely switch it up on there.

[Mike Ripoli]

Yeah, no. When I fly into the garden and big win versus Seton hall, by the way. We were down 15 in the second half. I sent a text to Rick when they were down 15. I had to delete it because I was mad at him. But. Back in one by five. But you know what, I'm a kid from Queens, right? I mean, you know, first generation. And I went to Holy Cross High School. And you know, when it was time to go to college, you know, it was the, it was the 80s when I was, you know, anywhere from 12 to 18. Chris Mullen and Walter Berry and Bill Wennington, you know, taking the train in with my childhood friends that I still go to the games with. Sitting in the blue seats of Madison Square Garden and seeing, you know, you know, Mullen versus Ewing, Mullen versus Pearl Washington, Mullen versus Ed Pinckney. You know, it was very, very special. So I went to St. John's graduated in 91, and St. John's made me feel, you know, it was Queens, it was New York, it was, you know, at one time they were bigger than the Knicks and the Nets in those years. Right? I mean, and, and I tried to help throughout the years. And you know, we, we have had a, you know, pretty 20, tough 20, 25 year run. And you know, when Father Shanley, who's the new president, and Bill Janicek, who's the chairman, and Ed Cole, who's the best, one of the best ads in the country and you know, Rick was coming on board. I had a conversation with Rick and you know, I listen Rick, you know, Rick, Rick is amazing. I mean, I'm inspired by Rick. You know, Rick motivates me. You know, when I get a 3am text from Rick Pitino on a big win, or, you know, the other day, I guess he teases me. He's 73 years old and he, and he sends a message. It's, hey, Mike, it's 6:00am and he's videotaping himself at the gym. He goes, where are you? I'm waiting for you. So he's taunting. I mean, he's taunting me that I'm not working out like him. And he's so fit. You know, he's the coaches that he coached with 30, 40 years ago I passed away or retired. And now he's going for his 900th win, guys. I mean, that's how long he started coaching before his son was born. And now he's coaching against his son in the Big East. So when you talk about noble mentality, you know, it's not about 15 and 25 or 35 Rick Patino at 73 has that, you know, he's got, you know, he, you know, you watch him on the sideline and he's coaching a game like he's playing and, but, but you know what I, to me, what the ability to give back to St. John's with how much they've impacted and influenced my life. And to give back, you know, last year when it started, it started to become a nice little cute St. John's Queen story. Then the momentum built and we started moving games to the Garden. And Madison Square garden was packed, 19,200 going crazy. I felt like I was back in 1985. But, you know, instead of sitting in the last row, I was sitting in the first row. So the seats were a little bit better. They were more expensive though, as you guys know now for me. But, but to have that feeling and, and watch people, you know, who like went to these games when they were 10 and now they're with their parents and they're 35 to 40 going to the games, winning the Big east regular season, winning the Big east tournament for the first time in 40 years, winning an NCAA tournament game for 25 years. You know, to me, like I did this for really, for St. John's and New York. I live in Florida now and I fly in for the games and I fly out and you know, there's something about Madison Square Garden and February 6th when we play UConn. That place is going to be nuts. And having those feelings that make me feel like that 15 year old kid that's up in the blue seats.

[Michael Barr]

Mike Repole, you are the owner of no Bull. Only thing that we were missing was a six pack where we could just sit down at the bar and talk for another hour. Mike, thank you sir for joining us on the Bloomberg Business of sports. You have dropped so much knowledge on us. We appreciate that.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

That was billionaire entrepreneur and owner of no Bull. Mike Ripoli.

[Michael Barr]

Thanks for joining us. What happened to the time for Vanessa Perdomo? I'm Michael Barr. Tune in again next week for the latest on the stories moving big money in the world of sports. You are listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio around the world.

[Vanessa Perdomo]

And don't forget to catch our podcast on all your podcast platforms.