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MetRx, the 25-year-old sports supplement brand once famously endorsed by Troy Aikman, Junior Seau and by Jamie Foxx's character Willie Beamen in "Any Given Sunday," has changed its logo, packaging and will begin a marketing push this week to coincide with the NFL draft. The new face of the brand? That would be Joey Bosa, a former Ohio State star certain to be a top-10 pick in the 2016 NFL draft Thursday night. "I've known about the brand growing up, with my dad owning a gym," Bosa said. "I've been using the products leading up to the draft and I'm proud to be a part of their future." Aside from the MetRx bar, which for its history made up more than half of the MetRx sales, the company is debuting new products, hoping to recapture the huge piece of the market it once owned. The newest efforts for the brand are a sports drink that flaunts low sugar content and a ready-to-drink protein shake that compares itself to having the benefits of chocolate milk with significantly less sugar. Later this year, the brand will unveil two different types of protein targeted for those seeking strength versus endurance. "We're tired of the underdog story and the idea that with a positive attitude and dreaming big, you can get to the top," said Brad Charron, senior vice president and general manager of the sports and active nutrition group for MetRx parent company. The marketing result is the anti-hero, an athlete who straps on the pads and gets to work. MetRx was first unveiled in 1991 and achieved great prominence throughout the next decade as the first real mover in the high protein meal-replacement bar market. It then lost its way and was sold three times in three years as part of larger acquisitions, the last of which to supplement manufacturer NBTY. That company was sold in 2010 to private equity firm the Carlyle Group, who owns it today along with the Balance Bar and Pure Protein brands.
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