Thursday Serena Williams launched her recovery brand Will Perform with five topical products across 4 categories including Will Relieve, Will Cool, Will Rest and Will Soothe, meant to offer pain relief and each day muscle support.

“You actually are only nearly as good as you get better,” Williams said — a message her coaches often told her throughout her champion tennis profession, when recovery often took up more time than tennis matches.

Nonetheless, Williams didn’t connect with a lot of the normal recovery-focused brands available on the market, as they weren’t modern, and she or he struggled to seek out products with enjoyable scents and textures.

“I remember being on the French Open and using a product and pondering, ‘I’m too young to be using this product.’ Literally, that was considered one of my thoughts. And I used to be like, ‘OK, there needs to be something higher,’” Williams said. “The category felt solely focused on in the event you’re injured or older…which, after all, are real needs. But there’s a much greater opportunity. So, I desired to create something that I could’ve seen myself and really anyone benefiting from.”

This recent brand, Will Perform, has been several years within the making. To launch the brand, she partnered with industry veterans Eric Ryan, a serial entrepreneur who cofounded Welly, Method and Olly, and Hank Mercier, longtime consumer packaged-goods executive. Williams and Ryan had a preexisting relationship, as Williams’s enterprise capital firm Serena Ventures invested in ingestible wellness brand Olly. Ryan noted their business partnership was successful from the start because Williams’ daughter Olympia loved Olly’s gummies and Welly’s bandages.

For Ryan, Will Perform is driven by Williams’ incredible presence on and off the court — he referenced her agility in combining “beast mode” with “grace and beauty.” “Serena is clearly a giant a part of how we predict in regards to the vision of this,” Ryan said. “Her ethos is absolutely bringing together this grit in art.” With the intention to do that, they brought together the medical side of recovery and the design-forward side of fitness to create an aesthetically pleasing, efficacious product lineup.

Williams tested out the products pre-launch throughout the last 12 months of her skilled tennis profession, providing feedback to enhance the formulas. 

“I used to be surprised at how much it benefited me. I stayed away from a variety of these products for thus long because I just felt like they didn’t really speak to me,” Williams said. With scent and texture top of mind, she “was really enthusiastic about developing something that was just more light and more usable in on a regular basis life.”

While Williams tested the products as a professional, she wants the brand to appeal to a broader community and speak to consumers across the board.

“I actually desired to see something that I actually could have used available on the market, but that would… help all people of all energetic lifestyles,” she said. “Obviously recovery is super necessary in my life and my skilled performance, but it surely’s also super necessary for everybody. I feel like everyone can practice and have advantages from that,” she said. And although she isn’t currently playing professionally, Williams noted she still relies on these recovery products each day, joking that she uses them more now than she did during her profession. 

While the brand’s impetus is on recovery, Williams is aiming to broaden and proceed the conversation across the importance of self care. 

“It’s OK to care for yourself,” she said. “The self-care conversation is on everyone’s minds and never only that, it ought to be… We should be our greatest physically so we could be our greatest in our lives.” 

With each recovery and self care on the brand’s core, Will Perform’s five introductory stock keeping units include Will Relieve Pain Relief Roll-On, $12.99, Will Relieve Pain Relief Spray, $12.99, Will Cool Cooling Pain Relief Roll-On, $12.99, Will Soothe Day by day Muscle Soothing Lotion, $15.99, and Will Rest Nightly Muscle Recovery Lotion, $12.99. They’re all meant to offer pain relief and each day muscle support for an overall healthier lifestyle. The Will Relieve skus employ lidocaine meant to offer pain relief; Will Cool Cooling Pain Relief Roll-On uses menthol and camphor, which give a cooling sensation; Will Soothe Day by day Muscle Soothing Lotion combines ceramides and magnesium designed for moisture and rest; and the Will Rest Nightly Muscle Recovery Lotion includes epsom salts, lavender and geranium to advertise recovery and sleep.

“We’re disrupting the category and reframing recovery in two ways with Will Perform: we’re elevating the present pain relief assortment and creating recent recovery-focused products that are supposed to be integrated into on a regular basis routines. With Will Perform, you’re in a position to ritualize recovery. And, importantly, be proactive about it; it shouldn’t be reserved for while you’re in pain or while you’re older. We’re reshaping the conversation and inspiring athletes and anyone living an energetic lifestyle to proactively embrace performance care,” said Mercier, chief executive officer and cofounder of Will Perform.

The brand, which is anticipated to amass $3 million in sales its first 12 months based on industry sources, is now available on WillPerform.com and can launch in-store and online at Goal on Dec. 18 with plans to expand into other retailers soon. 

As Will Perform launches, Williams said there’s more to come back from the brand, because the team plans for product expansion. “This isn’t the top,” Williams said. “We see lots more opportunity inside the recovery space and are excited to bring recent innovation to the market.”

Will Relieve Pain Relief Roll-On, $12.99

Will Relieve Pain Relief Spray, $12.99

Will Cool Cooling Pain Relief Roll-On, $12.99

Will Soothe Day by day Muscle Soothing Lotion, $15.99

Will Rest Nightly Muscle Recovery Lotion, $12.99