New Jersey 5’s Run Back Kellogg’s Raisin Bran “Fibes” Partnership In NYC, Paving A New Blueprint For Major League Pickleball

MLP 2026 Regular Season Champions New Jersey rebrands once again as the Fibes. From L-R Millie Rane, Will Howells, Anna Leigh Waters, Federico Staksrud, Jorja Johnson, Sunny, and Noe Khlif.

If you missed out on getting your New Jersey “Fibes” merch in Grand Rapids, not to fear, the partnership was such a hit that the New Jersey 5’s and Kellogg’s Raisin Bran are bringing back the concept for this weekend’s Major League Pickleball playoff finals.

Click here for the official Press Release.

If you recall, the team partnered with the WK Kellogg Co back in July to feature Kellogg’s Raisin Bran and fiber nutritional awareness with a fun play on words with the New Jersey Five’s team name. As I learned this week from interviews with Ryan Harwood (co-owner and General Manager of the New Jersey 5’s) and with Doug VandeVelde (the Chief Growth officer for WK Kellogg Co), the collaboration was a huge hit and has put out blueprints for several revenue generation gambits that the rest of the league can try to emulate as MLP teams search for additional ways to drive revenue and increase sponsorships.

Says Harwood, “The first activation with Raisin Bran in Grand Rapids went so well that, in an unforeseen fashion, Kellogg was able to turn around and do another activation of the Fibes concept for the NYC event. It was already one of the best brand collaborations in MLP history, and now they’re running it back.”

Doug VandeVelde was in Grand Rapids and his experience with the fans in Michigan was a big part of the return of the Fibes. “Grand Rapids was one of the first times we’ve rolled out Sunny (the brand’s mascot) in real life. We were amazed by the fan reaction, most of whom wanted photos with him. He’s about optimism and energy, which matched the Grand Rapids pickleball community experience.”

Phase 2 of the Fibes campaign for fiber awareness? “Sunny is back, but this time we’re building a practice court onsite fully branded with the Raisin Bran cereal concept. People loved the merch; so we’re going a bigger and better job on the merch handouts and selling the jerseys. Whole idea is to keep the momentum going from earlier this summer.”

I asked how the Fives-Kellogg collaboration even came to be, and I got a surprising answer. And, like a lot of the ground breaking marketing campaigns in the sport, it involved Anna Leigh Waters. Says VandeVelde, “Kellogg works a ton with Vayner Media on our Fiber brands. We went to the Super Bowl with a new Kellogg’s Raisin Bran commercial and Vayner was hosting ALW. She approached Ryan & Gary [the co-owners of the 5’s] and said ‘Hey I love Raisin Bran.’ Well, we’re always looking for people who love what we do, so we got with Ryan and put together the idea. Pickleball is a fast sport, Anna Leigh is the top player, and New Jersey is the top MLP team, so everything made sense.”

The best product endorsers are the ones who actively love your product, because there’s nothing to sell.

I asked both parties about estimating the return on investment of such a collaboration, since you can’t just look at a spreadsheet of data to figure out if this is money well spent by the company. Harwood admitted, "Often times these sponsorship-type partnerships have hard ROI to prove out, especially in a niche sport like Pickleball where you can’t get easily quantifiable metrics from TV ratings. Luckily the Kellogg’s team saw it first hand [in Michigan] and were willing to invest."

VandeVelde had a bigger picture take on why they’re investing, above and beyond any direct and measurable ROI: "Pickleball is ascending. We love the multi generational appeal of the sport, and it matches the same multi-generational appeal of our brands. Boomers, Gen-Z, Millennials; everyone loves cereal, same with Pickleball. The sport doesn’t have a major TV deal or global awareness right now, but it could soon, Kellogg’s wanted to be on the ground floor while the sport is “underpriced.”

This is a salient observation; we know the demographics of Pickleball indeed span the population, with players on the same court who could be 15 or 75. A multi-generational brand makes a ton of sense for such a multi-generational sport.

The ROI conversation has another facet to consider: Social media. Says VandeVelde, “It’s obviously a big driver these days: what kind of engagement can we get on social media? With our mascot onsite, we created great content and got great engagement in Grand Rapids, as people played pickleball in an actual kitchen with the mascot.” A guy in a sun costume playing pickleball? Yeah that’s the kind of thing that can easily go viral.

An interesting wrinkle in this collaboration is one that any die-hard sports fan knows well: the drive for sports collectables and memorabilia. I myself have searched for what I believe is the most “wearable” MLP jersey as a general fan of the sport. Team-specific fans are already onboard, buying up jerseys and hats and other apparel to show their support. Thus, when teams come up with one-off sponsorships or unique names like this, the merchandise will be in demand.

Even for the modern sports world, MLP teams have rolled some pretty unique names over the years. We’ve seen team names such as the Pickle Ranchers, The Clean, the Jack Rabbits, The Bus, Cabo Vamos, the Valhalla Volleys, and my personal favorite, the Chimeras (* see below for more on these old-school names and what they’ve become in 2026). Team names have calmed down a bit since the early days, but we still have some rather unique names and thus some great opportunities for merchandise and jersey sales.

As one might expect, the Fibes jerseys were pretty hot commodities in Grand Rapids. VandeVelde, who was onsite in Michigan, was “inundated with people interested in the jersey.” As a result, the company is coming to NYC prepared. “People loved the merch, so we’re going a bigger and better job on the handouts and selling the jerseys.”

The lesson learned is simple: if you make a unique and in-demand jersey, fans are going to buy it. Harwood already knows this from their tweaking of the Five’s jerseys: “This is part of the reason we changed jerseys year after year. We want to be able to introduce retro jerseys and OG stuff to become collectables. Imagine if we start selling 2023 throwback jerseys today; the demand would be fantastic.”

(Note: if you’re not in NYC this weekend do not fret; You can purchase official Fibes gear at Kellogg’s store.)

MLP owners take note: brand partnerships, mascot engagement to drive fun social media clips and viral moments, and merchandise opportunities are all great ways to derive revenue sources. I’d imagine every team in the league is looking to find their own Sunny going forward.

(**Bonus points for you as MLP fans if you know what all the teams in the above paragraph are now called See below)

• Pickle Ranchers is now the Texas Ranchers.
• The Clean is now the Nashville Chefs, formerly the Frisco Pandas
• The Jack Rabbits became the Bay Area Breakers
• The Bus is now the Columbus Sliders, trading transportation for hamburgers.
• Cabo Vamos is now the St. Louis Shock
• Valhalla Volleys became the Orlando Squeeze
• The Chimeras unfortunately are now extinct, much like the animal itself. They merged with the Austin Pickleballers, then were bought out by the league in April 2024 and disbanded.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com