Clear Supplements Launches ClearProteinX Stick Packs

Clear Supplements is a new direct-to-consumer brand that launched with exactly one product: ClearProteinX, a clear protein powder sold in boxes of single-serve stick packs. No tubs, no flavor wall, no starter bundle. The pitch is “protein you actually want to drink,” and the whole launch is built around that sentence.

This is part of our Launch Radar series on new DTC brands. These are operator notes, not reviews.

What ClearProteinX is

ClearProteinX is a clear protein drink mix. Each box holds 14 single-serve stick packs, and each pack mixes into water without turning thick or milky. The launch flavor is raspberry yuzu, described as crisp and refreshing with a light, naturally tart finish.

The label, as the brand presents it:

Per stick pack
Protein	15 g from grass-fed whey and bovine collagen peptides
Electrolytes	500 mg sodium, 200 mg potassium, 60 mg magnesium
Sugar	0 g
Calories	70
Excludes	Artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohols, artificial colors and flavors

It is gluten-free and needs no blender or shaker bottle. The launch price is a discount off the list price, which is typical for a first-product brand trying to buy its first cohort of reviews.

The smart part: selling the occasion, not the macro

Protein powder is one of the most crowded categories in DTC, and almost every brand competes on the same axis: grams of protein per scoop, price per serving, flavor count. Clear Supplements is not playing that game, and that is the most useful thing about the launch.

A thick, milky shake is a gym product. You drink it after a workout, from a shaker bottle, usually at home. A clear, lightly tart drink with an electrolyte blend is a desk product, a travel product, a 3pm product. It competes with a soda or a hydration mix, not with a tub of whey. That reframing pulls the product out of an aisle where it would be invisible and puts it in a slot where customers already pay a premium for stick packs and expect to buy them repeatedly.

The 15 gram protein number makes more sense in that light. It is not trying to be a meal replacement. It is trying to be the drink you reach for when you would otherwise reach for something with no protein at all.

Launching with one product and one flavor

It is tempting to launch a supplement brand with five flavors, two sizes, and a sampler pack. Clear Supplements launched with one SKU, and that discipline is worth copying.

Inventory risk stays small. One flavor means one production run, one forecast, and one set of reorder data. The brand learns what the real repeat rate is before committing cash to breadth.

The story stays clear. A single product page can carry the whole pitch. There is no navigation to explain, no “which one is right for me” quiz, no flavor paralysis.

Flavor two becomes a signal. When a second flavor launches, the split between the two will say a lot about who is actually buying and why. That is cheap research a five-flavor launch never gets.

What to watch

• Reorder at full price. Stick packs are a convenience format with a convenience price, and the intro offer is a meaningful discount. The question for every premium-format product is whether customers come back once the discount expires. A subscription with a modest saving and a skip option is the obvious next step, and the brand will want it in place before the first cohort runs out.
• The whey and collagen story. Blending whey with collagen peptides is a reasonable way to keep the drink clear and the calorie count low, but collagen is an incomplete protein, and educated buyers will ask about it. A short, honest explainer on the product page will do more for conversion than another lifestyle photo.
• Channel fit. A product like this belongs in the places its occasions happen: office snack programs, hotel and travel retail, gym front desks. Those are wholesale conversations, and they are worth starting early because they do not depend on paid social.

Bottom line

Clear Supplements is a good example of a launch that wins by changing the comparison set. Instead of being the fifteenth protein powder, ClearProteinX is the first thing in the hydration slot with real protein in it. The single-SKU launch keeps the story tight and the inventory risk low, and the next twelve months will be about proving that customers reorder at the list price.

• If your category competes on one number, find the occasion where that number is not the point.
• Launch with the fewest SKUs that can prove repeat purchase, then expand.
• Get subscriptions live before the first cohort’s box runs out, with the replenishment and win-back flows around them. A Klaviyo partner like Branva can stand those up in the first month if the team is still just the founders.