In 2018, Kris Fade launched Fade Fit with a product he believed in and a market he understood. What he didn't have was the commercial infrastructure to turn a strong concept into a scalable business, no distributor relationships, no retail footprint, no clear path into the channels that matter.

That's not unusual for an early-stage brand. What's unusual is finding a partner who can actually fix it.

The challenge

Fade Fit wasn't lacking ambition or product quality. It was lacking everything that turns a concept into a commercially viable brand: distribution strategy, retail execution, channel development, and the operational muscle to move fast across multiple markets simultaneously.

Without that, growth would have been slow, expensive, and largely guesswork.

‍The partnership

In 2019, Fade Fit began working with Imagine as their strategic and commercial partner across the UAE and wider Middle East. Rather than taking on a single function, Imagine embedded across the business, covering distributor appointment, retail and channel expansion, new product development, packaging, and go-to-market strategy.

Every channel, every market, every new product line — built together.

The results

The distribution footprint grew from 10 to over 3,500 points of sale. Fade Fit entered gyms, cinemas, convenience retail, and e-commerce. The brand expanded across multiple GCC markets and grew from a single range to over 20 SKUs, each developed end-to-end with Imagine, from recipe creation through to shelf.

The business has compounded at 58% CAGR since the partnership began.

"Those numbers don't happen without someone who can think at the strategic level and then actually execute. That combination is harder to find than people think."

What matters most to a founder is that Imagine operates at both ends. In a region this competitive, that's the difference between a brand that moves and one that stalls.

Fade Fit is now a leading lifestyle brand in the regional protein snacking category. That didn't happen by accident.