Founders Brewing Sponsors Philadelphia 76ers From 700 Miles Away

Founders Brewing will sponsor the Philadelphia 76ers professional basketball team, according to a press release the Grand Rapids, Michigan, brewery sent Tuesday. It marks the brewery’s first professional sports sponsorship and one of the first times a craft or formerly craft brewery has sponsored a team outside its home market. Instead of plastering the 76ers home arena with advertising and merchandise, Founders will simply sell team-branded cases of its enormously popular, low-alcohol (session) All Day IPA at stores in Philly, South Jersey and Delaware and run weekly campaigns that invite fans to text-to-win similarly co-branded coolers, tailgate chairs, apparel and more.

“Getting the opportunity to partner with one of the most storied and successful NBA franchises is truly an honor for us at Founders,” said Sandy Anaokar, Founders’ vice president of marketing, in a statement. “The team, the city and its people have always stood for hard work and dedication, which perfectly aligns with our values and how we approach our craft.” 

Founders, the 15th largest brewery in the US, calls Philadelphia a “top-15 market” for its products and one that shows growth potential. The Sixers ranked first in the National Basketball Association (NBA) until early January, when Covid-19 protocols sent seven players to the sidelines. The team’s vice president of corporate partnerships suggests the new relationship provides a creative opportunity to cross-promote to each entity’s somewhat unique followers.

In a statement, Owen Morin said, “We pride ourselves on partnering with like-minded, passionate brands. All Day IPA is certainly a fan favorite, and it will be fantastic to see that synergy of our brands come to life.”

But a great many dedicated craft beer drinkers still furiously boycott former industry darling Founders—established by two friends in 1997 and now fully owned by Spanish mega-brewer Mahou San Miguel—over its arguably inept and insensitive response to a lawsuit filed in 2018 by a manager who accused the company of tolerating structural racism amongst employees. The brewery lost any remaining goodwill from skeptics when the diversity, equity and inclusion consultant it hired in the aftermath of the scandal quit because she felt brewery brass excluded her from decisions and cared more about winning the lawsuit than improving their corporate culture or making amends with the BIPOC community. The two parties settled the lawsuit under undisclosed terms.

Founders representatives did not respond to a question about its racial initiatives.

Though Grand Rapids is 67% white and 19% Black, Founders opened its first satellite location, before the lawsuit, in Detroit, which boasts the largest African-American population per capita of any American city. The brewery arrived with promises to employ locals and help revitalize and celebrate its new neighborhood. The employee who filed the discrimination lawsuit worked at this location. 

Founders declined to say whether it considered race when scouting for a sponsorship city and sport, but the optics are interesting: according to the 2020 census, Black residents comprise 44% of Philadelphia’s population; non-Hispanic white residents make up 36%. The Sixers practice across the Delaware River in Camden, New Jersey, whose non-Hispanic white population falls below 6%, as compared with its 41% composition of Black residents. 

The Morning Consult data analytics firm reports that at 27%-to-46%, the NBA has the highest ratio of Black-to-white fans of any major sports league. The National Football League, with the next-highest, has a 20%-to-57% breakdown. The Philadelphia 76ers’ fan base, for its part, is 29% Black and 47% white.

While it’s unlikely the average beer drinker at a ‘6ers game will know any of the history that plagues the brewery, an anti-Founders hashtag on Twitter remains active, and several vocal critics said earlier this month they were blocked from following the brewery on the social media site.

Chicago’s Goose Island Brewing, a former craft brewery bought by Anheuser-Busch InBev, brewed a session IPA called Fly-PA for the Philadelphia Eagles during the 2019 NFL season and sold it at the stadium and at its Philly brewpub, which it permanently closed in December.