Jamaican Mango & Lime Strikes Sports Partnerships As Beauty’s Relationship With Athletes Grows

The latest brand to jump into the athletic partnership game, Jamaican Mango & Lime is sponsoring breakdancing organization USA Breakin’ and WNBA team Chicago Sky.

The 32-year-old Universal Beauty Products Inc.-owned textured haircare brand’s deal with USA Breakin’ comes as breakdancing is poised to make its debut on the global sports stage at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Two breakdancers, Sunny Choi and Victor Montalvo, have qualified for the breakdancing team the United States is sending to Paris. Choi was previously director of global creative operations at Estée Lauder.

Krystal McNear, director of marketing at Jamaican Mango & Lime says, “Everyone else was jumping on gymnastics and doing other things, so what was going to make us stand out from the rest?…We felt that USA Breakin’ was very unique, the synergies of both brands matched and also our vision of growing the brand, reaching new consumers and also supporting the community matched well.”

Rosalind Brumant, executive director for Jamaican Mango & Lime, adds that breakdancing’s history intertwined with the early days of hip-hop, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, is particularly relevant to textured hair. “To see the resurgence of breakdancing, it’s nostalgic in that way,” she says. “It’s nice supporting this new generation that’s now coming into that B-boy era.”

“Everyone else was jumping on gymnastics, so what was going to make us stand out from the rest?”

The brand will partner with USA Breakin’ members, including the nation’s top breakdancers, to create content showcasing their haircare routines and explaining the benefits of Jamaican Mango & Lime’s products. Most of its members have textured hair. Digital campaigns are in the pipeline for the partnership, which will last through the end of 2024. McNear says, “Our consumer wants to see a person trying on the product.”

Jamaican Mango & Lime, which is headquartered and manufactured in Chicago, is also becoming the official personal care partner of the WNBA team Chicago Sky. The WNBA is increasingly drawing brand deals as its prominence rises. The first five WNBA games that aired on ESPN networks this year have averaged 1.43 million viewers, up 181% from the first five games last season and 226% from last season’s average.

Chicago Sky player Angel Reese scored a deal with haircare brand Mielle Organics in 2023, when she was playing collegiate basketball for LSU. She’s been tapped by L’Oréal, too. Glossier and NYX Cosmetics have been involved in WNBA partnerships as well.

Jamaican Mango & Lime’s products are infused with Jamaican-inspired ingredients. Its bestselling products are Island Oil, No More Itch Gro Spray and Locking Gel. The brand started off as “curators and innovators of the loc and twist communities,” says McNear. Today, she continues, “Our consumers are style shifters, so whether it’s locs, twists, braids or curls, we curate innovative products that help our consumer to maintain their hair.”

In the fall, the brand is slated to receive its first refresh encompassing new packaging, branding, messaging and spokespeople. “We want to capitalize on the fact that we are the leaders in this space consistently year over year,” says Brumant. “We also see that locs, braids and twists are starting to make a comeback, and they’re more important now, so we got to make sure that we’re supporting that customer.”

Looking ahead, Jamaican Mango & Lime is intent on growing its global footprint, too. Currently, the brand is stocked in 25,000 doors at American retailers the likes of Target, CVS, Walmart and Walgreens. Abroad, it has a presence in European and African countries as well as Caribbean countries. McNear says, “The locs, the texture, the twist, the braid consumer is global, so we want to continue to expand that global footprint.”

Jamaican Mango & Lime may not be done pursuing sports partnerships. Brumant is dreaming up a possible football tie-in. She says, “I would love to have a football player talk about the use of Jamaican Mango & Lime because I can almost guarantee you that they use it.”