Why Momentous CEO Overhauled Its Best‑Selling Creatine Before Going National

Key Takeaways

• Momentous replaced Creapure—one of the industry’s most respected creatine sources—with its own 99.99%‑purity Signature Spec because owning the specification gives the company full control over quality and supply.
• The brand’s competitive edge stems from discipline rather than novelty: it strips out unnecessary ingredients, publishes every dose, pulls products when the science no longer supports them, and builds a team culture that enforces those standards as it scales.

For years, anyone who asked me about creatine received the same recommendation: stick to Creapure or Creavitalis and avoid everything else. I take creatine daily, and I’ve written about why it can be beneficial. Over my career, I’ve seen countless instances where the label on the container didn’t match the scoop inside.

When Jeff Byers, Momentous’ co‑founder and CEO, told me the company had moved away from Creapure, I wanted to understand why. “Creapure is amazing,” he said, quick to credit it for helping build Momentous. The shift came from what the company calls “The Momentous Standard”: continually raising the bar, even when you’re already at the top of the category. “We believed better can be done,” Byers explained, and that belief led to Signature Spec.

I helped launch Momentous more than five years ago and wrote about Byers last year when he pulled a product that was generating $500,000 a month because the underlying science no longer held up. He has a habit of making expensive, principled decisions—perhaps none bigger than this one, which coincides with the brand’s entry into Target.

Mass retail can erode premium brands. Margins tighten, formulas get diluted, and marketing often drowns out product. Momentous is attempting to scale without sacrificing those standards. I’ve watched from the inside, and the company’s approach warrants close attention.

Innovation Is About Quality and Sourcing

Creatine is one of the most studied supplements on the shelf, backed by more than 685 human clinical trials across ages, doses, and durations up to 14 years. Once the science is settled, most brands compete on format, flavor, and price—leading to creatine gummies that have been found lacking in potency. Independent testing showed three of five popular gummies failed, with one delivering less than 25% of the labeled creatine.

Jeff Byers took a different path. “Innovation is quality. Innovation is sourcing,” he told me.

His team identified a new manufacturer and drafted its own specification, resulting in Signature Spec Creatine. The product is made in a facility that meets a 99.99% purity standard, with strict limits on heavy metals. It is purified using reverse‑osmosis water filtration instead of the chemical washes common across the industry. The ingredient is also screened for PFAS and microplastics—contaminants not required by standard certifications. Every batch undergoes six stages of testing across four independent groups: Eurofins, Light Labs, NSF Certified for Sport, and SuppCo.

As someone who takes creatine daily, I care deeply about contaminant limits. Anything you ingest every day for years deserves a higher bar than a supplement you might use occasionally.

On the business side, Byers emphasized that owning the specification “created a robustness in our business that we hadn’t had.” Purchasing a branded ingredient means sharing control of quality and supply with a partner; owning the spec puts both fully in your hands. My advice to founders: if your product looks like a commodity on paper, examine the parts customers never see. Sourcing, testing, and process take years and real money to build—exactly what makes them hard to copy. Investors should be looking there, too.

Giving Each Retail Channel a Clear Role

Momentous landed on end caps in nearly 600 Target stores this summer, ahead of a full rollout to every Target location in October. This followed a prior entry into more than 600 The Vitamin Shoppe stores, aligning with Target’s own plan to grow its wellness assortment by 30% in 2026.

What struck me was how clearly Byers defines each retailer’s role. The Vitamin Shoppe carries 20 to 25 Momentous products and serves as the brand’s home base. “If Momentous had a retail location, it would be The Vitamin Shoppe,” he said. Target, on the other hand, stocks 12 products and is where new customers first discover the brand.

When I asked Byers if anything changed for Target, the answer was no. The creatine on an end cap comes from the same lots sold to professional and college teams, and everything remains domestically produced.

My advice to founders: before signing with a big‑box retailer, decide what that channel is for. In my work with wellness brands entering retail, the ones that struggle typically skipped this step and let the retailer decide their assortment. A discovery shelf should carry your most essential, easiest‑to‑understand products. A destination partner can carry the full story. If the margin only works when you water down the formula, the deal is wrong.

Simplicity as a Strategic Choice

When I asked which product might not survive the company’s next science review, Byers said none right now. He then talked about flavor: the team is moving to real flavors and fewer ingredients. The chocolate protein has been rebuilt with just cocoa, and they are leaning on raw ingredients like vanilla bean and cinnamon. The sleep formula was reformulated with magnesium threonate and now costs less.

New launches follow the same philosophy. Daily Hydration contains 100 mg of sodium and 50 mg of potassium per serving—balanced for work, travel, and light training. Most adults already exceed the 2,300 mg daily sodium limit, while fewer than 2 % get the recommended potassium. Many electrolyte mixes were built for marathons and then marketed for everyday use; Byers calls that overkill. Momentous reserves the heavier dose for Fuel, its drink designed for long, intense training sessions.

The brand also introduced a Pre‑Workout powder that lists every ingredient and dose—no proprietary blends, a rarity in the category. It pairs 150 mg of caffeine with 300 mg of L‑theanine, a combination studied for focus without jitteriness. It has become a go‑to for me.

Then there’s fiber, the category Byers is most excited about. “Fiber feels like where we were with creatine three or four years ago,” he said. Consumers are thinking about long‑term health, and he believes fiber is still in its early innings. I agree and would watch this space closely.

My advice to founders: adding ingredients is easy. Cutting them takes discipline. Every ingredient you remove is one less thing to source, explain, and defend.

Trust Is Earned Slowly

In January 2026, Momentous announced a multi‑year partnership with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Byers described a three‑year vetting process during which Arnold’s team examined suppliers, manufacturers, and the company’s track record, including the decision to pull Fadogia and keep reformulating. “This was not about money,” Byers told me. “He would have picked somebody else.”

I’ve spent much of my career building partnerships between brands and the people who represent them. The ones that last look like this. The diligence runs both ways, and the decision rests on years of behavior.

Standards Live in the Team

Fast growth is usually where culture breaks, and Byers learned that firsthand. After an earlier merger, he spent six to nine months rebuilding a company that had lost its way.

“Teams ultimately build those standards or kill those standards,” he said. Momentous now has more red tape than ever, and Byers sees his job as protecting the scrappiness that got it here. “Don’t underestimate the values that you put in place.”

Momentous could have continued using one of the world’s best creatine sources, and no one would have questioned it. Instead, Byers and his co‑founder, Erica Good, chose to raise their own bar, then placed that product in front of millions of Target shoppers. Target will test whether Momentous can hold its standards at scale. After five years of watching this team make the expensive call, I’m confident in their ability to succeed.

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