A South Dakota-based Native American health food company has announced a new product aimed at the high performance athlete market.
The “Warrior Bar” is the first joint development in what’s expected to be a long-term partnership with Onnit Labs of Austin, Texas.
It’s been more than six years since the Tanka Bar was first introduced at the Black Hills Pow-Wow by Native American Natural Foods.
Since that time, the Pine Ridge Reservation success story has become an established business in the community of Kyle, employs 17 workers and has gained national recognition.
The company introduced its new “Warrior Bar” at the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California this week. The high-end health food product is the first joint venture between the Lakota company and Onnit Labs, founded by Aubrey Marcus…a lifelong multi-sport athlete.
Native American Natural Foods president Mark Tilsen says the 2 ounce/14 gram Warrior Bar is twice the size of the Tanka Bar with twice the nutrition.
“It’s a bar for persons seeking peak performance,” Tilsen explains. “And it’s really modeled for the athlete, the person who’s doing serious workouts. It can also be used as a meal replacement.”
Mark Tilsen admits that the Warrior Bar appeals to a smaller market than the Tanka Bar, but says if recent history is any indication, its success in the professional sports arena looks bright.
“You know, we were told by the nutritionist of the Seattle Seahawks that the only bar she allowed in the camp was the Tanks Bar,” Tilsen comments. “So…we’ve always believed that’s why Seattle won the Super Bowl.”
But in spite of such accolades and the Tanka Bar’s presence in 6000 retailers, Tilsen says he doesn’t feel the company has done as much for the Pine Ridge Reservation as he’d hoped.
“Our strategy has always been to develop the Tanka brand as a way of breaking the economic isolation of the reservation,” says Tilsen. “And partnerships like we’ve formed with Onnit are the key to us to be able to continue to expand the market and keep finding ways of breaking out of the economic isolation that Pine Ridge is in, and using a brand strategy to try to do that.’
Tilsen notes that future plans for Native American Natural Foods include making all employees part-owners of the company, in order to create a band of warriors to carry on the Tanka tradition for future generations.