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Mission Athletecare to debut in Canada at Shoppers Drug Mart

Mission Athletecare is premiering one of its sports performance products at Shoppers Drug Mart as it ramps up for a Canadian market entry this fall.

TORONTO — Mission Athletecare is premiering one of its sports performance products at Shoppers Drug Mart as it ramps up for a Canadian market entry this fall.

The company said Monday that starting next week, its EnduraCool Instant Cooling Towel will be available at select Shoppers Drug Mart and Foot Locker across Canada. Helping Mission introduce the product to Canadians will be basketball star Steve Nash and mixed martial arts champion Georges St-Pierre.

The EnduraCool Instant Cooling Towel, which Mission described as "a revolution in fabric technology," is designed to provide fast, long-lasting cooling effects to enhance performance and prevent overheating for athletes at all levels of play. The product will retail for $17.99 (Canadian).

According to Mission, the EnduraCool technology delivers sustained cooling effects rapidly in a soft, breathable fabric that instantly cools without feeling heavy and wet. When dry, the fabric acts as a superabsorbent cloth, but when it’s wet and snapped in the air, the technology activates, cooling the fabric to nearly 59 degrees in just a few minutes. The cooling effects last for hours and are easily reactivated by simply rewetting the towel, the company said. The fabric also has an Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF) of 50 to provide sun protection when covering the skin.

"This is game-changing technology. I can’t tell you how many times I had to look for wet towels and ice to keep my body temperature down during workouts. EnduraCool allows me to keep cool with little effort," St-Pierre said in a statement.

Also launching in Canada at select Foot Locker stores are Mission Court Grip ($17.99) — co-created with NBA stars Nash, Dwyane Wade and Dwight Howard to enhance a player’s traction on the basketball court — and Power Grip ($12.99), which has a proprietary "liquid chalk" technology to help prevent sweaty hands from getting in the way of performance.

"We’ve been overwhelmed by the response and the success of the Mission line of products after its launch in the United States and have always envisioned bringing these ground-breaking products to Canadian athletes at our first opportunity," stated Josh Shaw, founder and president of Mission Athletecare. "Both Steve and Georges have played an important role in the development of these products, and now they will be instrumental in helping share these new technologies with their fellow Canadian athletes."

Mission bills itself as the first and only line of athlete-engineered products to help improve performance and safety in competition. The company is led by such prominent athletes as Serena Williams, Steve Nash, David Wright, Georges St-Pierre and Mia Hamm, among others. In the United States, it’s products are sold in nearly 10,000 stores, including Dick’s Sporting Goods, Foot Locker, Hibbett Sports and CVS/pharmacy.

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