NC Courage Announce Partnership with Virtue® Hair Care
Virtue® logo will be featured on right sleeve of Courage home and away jerseys through 2023
Cary, NC (April 22, 2022) – The North Carolina Courage, two-time champions of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), have partnered with global biotech hair care brand, Virtue®, the club announced today. The Raleigh-based hair care company signs on as the new Courage jersey sleeve sponsor through the 2023 season.
This partnership represents Virtue’s continued mission to challenge the boundaries of beauty through technology, performance, collaboration, and women’s empowerment.
“We are thrilled to partner with a female-founded, locally-based, global brand that recognizes our strong, accomplished athletes as beauty and fashion role models,” Club President Francie Gottsegen said. “Together, Virtue and the NC Courage will elevate each other’s brands by showcasing these world-class athletes and investing in women’s sports.”
Virtue, founded in 2017 by CEO Melisse Shaban, is a prestige hair care company based in Raleigh, NC, that manufactures and markets technology-based hair care products. Named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2022by Fast Company, Virtue was developed as a result of the scientific discovery by a group of scientists in Winston-Salem, NC, seeking to heal severely wounded military soldiers. Their breakthrough, a human-identical keratin protein called Alpha Keratin 60ku®, was also found to repair damaged hair and is featured in every Virtue product.
“At Virtue we’re extremely proud of our local NC Courage team and delighted to announce this partnership,” Shaban said. “At our core, Virtue is a health and wellness brand that celebrates the power of our clinically proven, human-identical protein to give you your best hair humanly possible. These young women athletes of the NC Courage are also fantastic examples of what’s humanly possible and symbols of power and beauty for the future.”
Shaban, recently named to Forbes 50 over 50, has developed Virtue into an internationally recognized brand, sold in over 30 countries and featured in Vogue, US Weekly, Women’s Health, O, The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, E! News, and more.
“I am so excited that the Courage has announced this partnership with a company that’s very close to my heart,” Courage midfielder Denise O’Sullivan said. “The relationship that I have formed with Melisse and her family has had a huge impact on my life. Melisse first introduced me to the amazing Virtue products a few years ago and I have noticed a dramatic change in the quality of my hair since using them. The company is a huge advocate for women’s sports and this investment shows that. It will make me incredibly proud to wear the Virtue brand on our sleeves every game day and represent them with pride.”
In just five years post-launch, Virtue has won more than 60 editorial and industry awards and enlisted acclaimed actress and entrepreneur Jennifer Garner as a brand partner. Garner is also an investor of Angel City, the NWSL team based in Los Angeles, CA.
To learn more about Virtue, its technology, and products, visit its website here.
The Courage round out their Challenge Cup group stage play at home tomorrow, April 23 against the Washington Spirit. The match kicks-off at 1p.m. ET and will air live on CBS Sports Network. Tickets to the match can be found here.
For the full 2022 Regular Season Courage schedule, click here.
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ABOUT VIRTUE LABS®
Virtue Labs® manufactures and markets innovative, technology-based solutions for the health of hair that provide visible, transformational results. Its proprietary, patented hero ingredient, Alpha Keratin 60ku®, is keratin in its purest, native form – whole, unbroken and fully functional. It is the only fully functional, human-identical keratin protein on the market today, and it is found in each of the company’s Virtue® haircare products. Virtue Labs® is based in Raleigh, NC, with a technology manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem, NC. For more information please visit: www.virtuelabs.com.
