Ciara’s daughter Sienna wouldn’t touch protein. Butter noodles, hold the chicken. Rice, no meat. Every meal was the same negotiation, and every night the answer was no. That frustration is why Frosh protein juice exists.
The Grammy-winning singer and her husband, NFL quarterback Russell Wilson, tried the usual parental workarounds. They hid protein in smoothies. They bargained. Nothing stuck. Then Ciara met Chris Koch, the founder and CEO of VO/D, a venture studio that builds celebrity-backed consumer brands. Koch had been tracking an ingredient called clear whey protein isolate for two years. It dissolves into liquid without the chalky taste or thick texture that makes most protein drinks undrinkable for adults, let alone kids. His pitch was simple: put it in juice. The product didn’t exist 18 months ago. Now it sits on shelves in 1,650 Target stores.
Frosh is the first protein-enhanced juice made specifically for children, co-founded by Ciara, Russell Wilson, the LaBrant family (29.6 million TikTok followers between them), and Koch’s venture studio VO/D. The brand sold out its entire direct-to-consumer launch in under 24 hours, moving 5,000 cases in a single day, and rolled into 1,650 Target stores in June 2026.
The numbers are attention-grabbing. The playbook behind them is what founders should actually study.
Last updated: June 2026
Quick answers
What is Frosh protein juice?
Frosh is the first protein-enhanced juice box made for kids, containing 5 grams of clear whey protein isolate, 7 grams of sugar, B vitamins, and immune support nutrients. It comes in three flavors: Mighty Apple, Tropic Blast, and Power Punch. It’s available at 1,650 Target stores and through the brand’s DTC site.
Who owns Frosh?
Frosh was co-founded by singer Ciara Wilson, NFL quarterback Russell Wilson, the LaBrant family (Cole and Savannah LaBrant), and Chris Koch’s venture studio VO/D. Koch is the operational lead and CEO, while Ciara and the LaBrants handle the brand’s marketing reach through their combined 100+ million social media followers.
What is Frosh protein juice?
Frosh is a kids’ juice box with 5 grams of protein hidden inside. The product uses clear whey protein isolate, an ingredient that dissolves into fruit juice without changing the taste or texture. Kids drink what looks and tastes like a normal juice box. Parents get a functional upgrade over the sugar water that dominates the juice aisle.
Each 6.68-ounce box contains 7 grams of total sugar (3 grams from sugar cane), B vitamins, and immune support nutrients. The juice is free from gluten, soy, tree nuts, peanuts, eggs, fish, shellfish, and sesame. It does contain milk because of the whey protein.
The three launch flavors lean into what kids already reach for: Fruit Punch (a nod to legacy brands like Capri Sun and Hawaiian Punch), Apple (consistently one of the top-selling kids’ juice flavors in the U.S.), and Orange Pineapple. Jack LoParco, CMO and partner at VO/D, told FoodNavigator-USA that Fruit Punch is “nostalgic” by design, while Apple remains “a safe bet for parents.”
That sugar count puts Frosh in the same range as Honest Kids (8 grams per 6-ounce box) and Good2Grow organic juice (3 grams), according to FoodNavigator-USA’s analysis. The difference: neither of those competitors includes protein.
Who founded Frosh?
Four parties co-own the brand, and each one fills a different gap in the cap table.
Ciara Wilson brings a personal audience of over 40 million followers across Instagram and TikTok. She’s a Grammy-winning artist who has built a business portfolio that includes a stake in Ten To One rum, the R&C fragrance line with Russell Wilson, a modeling contract with IMG, and endorsement deals with Revlon, Adidas, and Verizon. Her estimated net worth sits around $20 million. For Frosh, she’s the face, the story, and the parental credibility. As she told Entrepreneur’s Jason Feifer, “Sign me up” was her response to Koch’s pitch.
Russell Wilson adds a second layer of celebrity reach and an existing portfolio of venture bets through his company West2East Empire. His net worth is estimated between $165 million and $185 million, built on NFL contracts and investments in companies like VICIS (football helmets) and ownership in the Seattle Sounders FC. He provides the sports-parent angle that resonates at youth sporting events, one of Frosh’s primary consumption occasions.
The LaBrant family (Cole and Savannah LaBrant) run one of YouTube’s biggest family channels with 12.8 million subscribers and 4.6 billion total views. Savannah alone has 29.6 million TikTok followers. In Frosh’s marketing mix, they’re the “relatable mom and dad” counterweight to the celebrity co-founders. A single sponsored Instagram post from either LaBrant can fetch between $50,000 and $100,000.
Chris Koch and VO/D provide the operational backbone. Koch built VO/D as a venture studio that pairs celebrities with consumer product opportunities. His previous project, 1Up Candy, hit $10 million in revenue within 10 months. Koch identified the clear whey protein isolate opportunity, built the formulation, managed the supply chain, and engineered the DTC-to-retail pipeline. He’s the operator. Everyone else is distribution.
The white space nobody else saw
The juice aisle looks saturated. Walk into any Target or Walmart and you’ll count dozens of kids’ juice brands. Every startup founder would look at that shelf and conclude there’s no room.
Koch saw it differently. The entire better-for-you kids’ juice category had focused on one variable: removing sugar. Honest Kids reduced sugar. Good2Grow went organic. Creators pushed their own beverage brands. But nobody had added a functional ingredient kids actually needed.
The functional nutrition gap in kids’ beverages is real. According to a GlobeNewsWire report, the kids’ food and beverage market is projected to reach $154 billion by 2032. FoodNavigator-USA reported that 43% of kids’ beverage SKUs launched at U.S. retail in early 2024 carried at least one health claim (immune, cognitive, or digestive), up from 28% two years earlier. Protein, specifically, was “having a real moment” across adult categories but hadn’t crossed into kids’ juice.
Products like Orgain Kids offered protein for children, but only in shake form. Shakes don’t go in lunchboxes. They don’t show up at birthday parties. They aren’t what a six-year-old reaches for after soccer practice. Koch’s insight was that the delivery vehicle mattered as much as the ingredient. Kids won’t compromise on taste. Parents won’t compromise on convenience.
How Frosh sold out in 24 hours
Frosh moved 5,000 cases through its DTC website in under 24 hours. That’s not a vanity metric. That number became the proof point that unlocked retail.
The sellout happened in May 2026, timed to coincide with a coordinated social media push from all four co-founder parties. Ciara posted to her 40+ million followers. The LaBrants activated their TikTok and YouTube audiences. Koch’s VO/D network pushed through hundreds of smaller influencer-mom accounts simultaneously.
The strategy borrows from a playbook that’s worked before. MrBeast’s Feastables sold one million chocolate bars in its first 72 hours for over $10 million, then grew from $33 million in 2022 to $250 million in 2024 revenue. PRIME Hydration, the Logan Paul and KSI venture, generates $70-100 million annually through DTC alone, with site traffic spikes reaching 2.5 million visits during new flavor drops.
What all three share: they use the DTC sellout as a negotiating tool. When you walk into Target’s buying office with a sold-out launch and 100 million social media followers behind the brand, the conversation is different than a cold pitch.
Target was already looking to refresh its kids’ juice aisle. LoParco described the existing selection as “a little bit old” with limited recent innovation. Target’s broader strategy in 2026 has been to prioritize better-for-you products, and Frosh landed at the right moment.
The 4-part playbook founders can steal
Frosh’s launch isn’t just a celebrity brand story. It’s a repeatable framework that any CPG founder can study, even without famous co-founders.
1. Find the functional gap, not the category gap
The juice aisle isn’t empty. It’s full of brands competing on the same axis: less sugar. Koch didn’t try to make a better low-sugar juice. He asked a different question: what ingredient do parents want that no juice brand delivers? The answer was protein. Founders looking at “crowded” markets should ask what functional need remains unmet, not whether the shelf has room for another brand.
2. Engineer the cap table as a distribution channel
Frosh’s four co-founder groups aren’t investors. They’re distribution channels with equity on the line. Ciara brings celebrity reach. The LaBrants bring family-audience credibility. Russell Wilson brings the sports-parent segment. Koch brings operational execution. Each party’s incentive is to promote the brand because their equity depends on it. For founders without celebrity partners, the principle still applies: choose co-founders and early investors who bring distribution, not just capital.
3. Use DTC scarcity to manufacture retail demand
The sold-out DTC launch wasn’t an accident. It was a proof-of-concept designed to generate a specific data point: “We sold 5,000 cases in 24 hours.” That metric became the opening line of the Target retail pitch. Founder mode means controlling the narrative. A DTC sellout, even at small scale, creates urgency that a spreadsheet projection can’t.
4. Map consumption occasions before marketing channels
Before deciding where to advertise, Koch and Ciara mapped the specific moments when a parent would hand a child a Frosh box: the lunchbox, the birthday party, the post-practice car ride. Koch calls the lunchbox “the killer use case” because the protein option parents pack often comes back uneaten, but a juice box doesn’t. Marketing followed the occasions. Celebrity beverage brands that skip this step end up with awareness but no purchase habit.
Is Frosh protein juice healthy for kids?
The nutrition profile is competitive with the best options in the kids’ juice category. Five grams of protein per box from clear whey isolate, which is virtually lactose-free and provides a complete amino acid profile. Seven grams of sugar, with only 3 from added sugar cane. No artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. Free from the eight major allergens except milk.
The comparison matters. A standard Capri Sun pouch contains 13 grams of sugar and zero protein. A Juicy Juice box has 14 grams of sugar. Even Honest Kids, one of the cleaner options on shelf, has 8 grams of sugar per 6-ounce pouch with no protein.
The protein source is the key differentiator. Clear whey protein isolate is “basically broken down to its isolate form, so it’s easily mixed with fruity flavors,” LoParco told FoodNavigator-USA. It dissolves without changing taste or texture, which is why kids don’t reject it.
| Brand | Protein | Sugar | Format | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frosh | 5g (clear whey isolate) | 7g | Juice box (6.68 oz) | Lunchboxes, post-practice, picky eaters who need protein |
| Honest Kids | 0g | 8g | Juice pouch (6 oz) | Organic-first families, low-sugar basics |
| Good2Grow | 0g | 3g | Character-top bottle (6 oz) | Lowest sugar option, toddler-friendly packaging |
| Orgain Kids Shake | 8g (milk protein) | 11g | Shake bottle (8.25 oz) | Maximum protein, kids who accept shake texture |
FoodNavigator-USA noted that Frosh plans to expand into additional functional ingredients, including fiber, omegas, and greens. The company positions itself as building a “kids nutrition platform,” not just a juice brand.
Where to buy Frosh protein juice
Frosh is currently available in two places: all 1,650 Target stores nationwide and through the brand’s DTC website at drinkfrosh.com. At Target, the juice comes in 6-count packs (40.06 oz total) in Fruit Punch, Apple, and Orange Pineapple varieties.
The DTC channel experienced a brief stockout during the initial launch in May 2026 but has since restocked. Expansion beyond Target hasn’t been announced, but given the speed of the rollout, additional retail partners are likely on the roadmap. Feastables, for comparison, went from Target exclusivity to 30,000+ retail locations within two years.
What Frosh tells us about celebrity CPG in 2026
The celebrity CPG playbook has shifted. Five years ago, a famous name on a label was enough to get retail shelf space. That era is over.
Bloomberg reported in March 2025 that MrBeast makes more money from Feastables ($250 million revenue, $20 million profit in 2024) than from his YouTube channel ($246 million revenue, $80 million loss). The snack brand that started as a side project now subsidizes the media empire that created it. Feastables grew from $33 million in 2022 to $96 million in 2023 to $250 million in 2024, with a projected $520 million for 2025.
The pattern is consistent across celebrity-driven businesses: product quality has to come first. Koch said it directly to Entrepreneur: “As we all know, kids do not compromise with taste.” Ciara’s children were the first taste testers, and their feedback prompted several recipe revisions before launch.
LoParco emphasized to FoodNavigator-USA that “clout alone is not enough” in 2026’s celebrity brand landscape. What matters is “authenticity that connects with audiences.” The smaller influencer-mom creators in Frosh’s network are treated like partners, not paid advertisers. “We make them feel like they’re as big as the biggest affiliate,” he said.
The market tailwinds are real. The ready-to-drink protein beverage category hit $2.11 billion in 2026 and is forecast to reach $3.06 billion by 2031, according to Mordor Intelligence. That’s a 7.7% compound annual growth rate driven almost entirely by health-conscious millennials buying for themselves and their kids. Frosh is betting it can ride that wave by owning the kids’ subcategory before anyone else gets there.
The brand also benefits from timing. Target’s 2026 reset prioritized functional kids’ products after seeing the category’s 43% health-claim rate in new launches. Frosh walked into a buyer that was actively searching for what it was selling. That’s not luck. That’s Koch reading retail signals two years before the shelf opened up.
Frosh’s real test starts now. A sold-out launch is a headline. Sustained retail velocity, repeat purchase rates, and aisle expansion over the next 12 months will determine whether it becomes a category leader or another celebrity brand that faded after the launch buzz.
The ingredients for longevity are there: a genuine product gap, an operator (Koch) with a track record of scaling CPG brands, celebrity founders with authentic connection to the problem, and a retail partner (Target) actively seeking the exact product category Frosh fills. Whether the execution holds is the only remaining question.
