01 / Amazon
The Opportunity
In the early 2000s, Amazon was expanding beyond books and traditional consumer products into new categories, including health, wellness, and sports nutrition.
For brands in the sports nutrition industry, the opportunity was enormous. But e-commerce was still relatively new, and getting an entire product category established on a major online marketplace required more than simply listing products.
It required industry relationships, product knowledge, distribution capabilities, and access to established brands.
02 / Amazon
The Approach
Mitch Gould collaborated with Muscle Foods, one of the leading distributors in the sports nutrition industry at the time, to help develop Amazon’s sports nutrition category.
Working together, Gould and Muscle Foods helped introduce major sports nutrition brands and products to Amazon, giving the emerging category the breadth of products it needed while providing established nutrition brands access to a rapidly growing new retail channel.
“The brands we placed on Amazon back then were pioneers,” Gould said. “We helped create the sports nutrition category from scratch.”
03 / Amazon
The Result
What began as an emerging e-commerce category became part of a fundamental change in how consumers discover and purchase sports nutrition and wellness products.
For Gould, the experience also provided an important lesson: even strong brands can struggle to enter major retail channels when they lack the relationships, infrastructure, logistics, compliance expertise, and sales support necessary to navigate the market.
That insight would eventually help shape Nutritional Products International and Gould’s Evolution of Distribution platform.
04 / Amazon
From One Retail Opportunity to a Market-Entry Model
Gould’s retail experience spans decades, but his work with Amazon and Muscle Foods illustrates the philosophy that continues to guide NPI today: connect innovative brands with the right retail opportunities while simplifying the infrastructure required to get there.
NPI’s Evolution of Distribution brings sales, logistics, regulatory compliance, and marketing together under one operation, giving domestic and international brands a more efficient path into the U.S. marketplace.
The technology has changed dramatically since Amazon began building its sports nutrition business.
The challenge for brands remains remarkably similar: getting the right product into the right retail channel at the right time.
That is the business Mitch Gould has spent his career building.
Background: NPI’s August 2025 announcement. This account describes Mitch Gould’s earlier work with Muscle Foods; it is not an Amazon endorsement of NPI.
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