Posted by Smart Strips
on July 07, 2026
By Smart Strips · 7 July 2026, updated 2026-10
On 6 July 2026, Athletech News published "Are Supplement Strips the New Gummies?", a feature by Klaudia Balogh on oral dissolving strips with Smart Strips at its centre. The article quotes our founder and CEO, Elina Ivanova-Atanassov, and our Head of R&D, Dr. Tracy Gibbs, PhD, and names eight products from the range.
The coverage is editorial. Nothing was paid for it. You can read the full piece here: Are Supplement Strips the New Gummies? (Athletech News).
What is Athletech News?
Athletech News is a US business publication on fitness, wellness and health innovation. It describes its readership as more than 100,000 executives, investors and operators, and it runs annual innovation rankings and the Athletech Innovation Summit in New York. For a young category, that readership matters: these are the people who build, stock and fund the businesses where a new format either finds a place or does not.
What did Athletech News write about Smart Strips?
The feature describes Smart Strips as oral dissolving strips made on a fast-hydrating, pullulan-based matrix. Each strip dissolves on the tongue in 7 to 30 seconds, with no water and nothing to chew.
Much of the conversation with Elina turned to FIBO in Cologne, where Smart Strips made its European debut in April 2026. Describing how visitors at the stand reacted, she told the magazine: "The consistent pattern was initial skepticism, followed by immediate recognition once the strip was used." On how quickly people responded, she added that they noticed an effect within 10 to 15 minutes.
Dr. Gibbs spoke about the lining of the mouth as the route a strip works through, and about the development behind it: close to two years of work on stability and consistency before the strips reached their current form.
The article lists eight Smart Strips products by name: FCKN FIT for energy before training, REFUEL for after it, Z-z-Zen for falling asleep and staying asleep, FOCUS for concentration, ANXIETY for calm under pressure, IMMUNE and NMN as daily morning habits, and BEAUTÉ for a beauty routine that starts from within. It also mentions that peptides are in the Smart Strips development pipeline.
Are supplement strips the new gummies?
The headline asks the right question. Gummies showed that people will change a supplement habit when the format becomes easier to live with. A strip asks even less of the day: one sachet of 8 by 5 cm, no glass of water, a few seconds on the tongue.
There is also a reason beneath the convenience. Smart Strips was built on the idea of format over ingredients. When a strip dissolves on the tongue, part of the dose is absorbed through the lining of the mouth, and that part avoids first-pass metabolism in the liver; the rest is swallowed with saliva and follows the usual digestive route. Compared with a tablet, we describe the format as offering up to 95% bioavailability, up to 4x faster absorption, up to 30% higher effectiveness. The route is explained step by step on what oral dissolvable strips are, the film itself in how QuickRelease™ strips are made, and the evidence we work from on the Science page.
Does every ingredient suit a strip?
No, and the feature says so plainly. High-dose or structurally complex ingredients do not fit the format: a strip carries milligrams, so a goal that needs grams belongs in a capsule or a powder. We set out where each format works best in oral strips vs pills, capsules and gummies.
The article names a second hurdle, consumer education. Most people have never taken a supplement this way, and a strip is easier to understand once it is on the tongue than in a description. That is what Elina saw at FIBO, and it is why we keep publishing on the Smart Strips Science blog.
If the article has made you curious, the simplest next step is a single strip at the moment of the day it was made for. Explore the full range.
FAQ
What did Athletech News write about Smart Strips?
On 6 July 2026, Athletech News published "Are Supplement Strips the New Gummies?" by Klaudia Balogh. The feature describes Smart Strips oral dissolving strips on a pullulan-based matrix, quotes founder and CEO Elina Ivanova-Atanassov and Head of R&D Dr. Tracy Gibbs, PhD, and names eight products from the range.
Are supplement strips the new gummies?
They answer the same wish for an easier supplement, with less: no water, no chewing, a strip that dissolves on the tongue in 7 to 30 seconds. The format suits ingredients taken in milligrams, while high-dose ingredients still belong in capsules or powders.
Where can I read the Athletech News article?
On the Athletech News website, under the headline "Are Supplement Strips the New Gummies?". The link is in the list below.
Links
- Balogh K. Are Supplement Strips the New Gummies? Athletech News. 6 July 2026. athletechnews.com
- Smart Strips makes its European debut at FIBO. Smart Strips Events
- What are oral dissolvable strips. Smart Strips
- QuickRelease™: how an oral dissolvable strip is made. Smart Strips Science blog
- The science behind Smart Strips. Science page
