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Wearable patches: How Barrière is trying to disrupt the supplement industry

www.cnbc.com · May 6, 2026 · 11:00

The supplement industry has seen booming demand over the past few years as consumers increasingly focus on health and wellness.

Along with that, wearable patches have become more mainstream, with brands like The What Supp Co and The Good Patch marketing products that they say deliver the same results as oral vitamins without having to swallow pills.

One company, Barrière, says it's bringing something new to the table. It currently has an offering of patches that offer consumers help on everything ranging from sleep to energy boosts to immune support.

CEO and co-founder Cleo Davis-Urman told CNBC exclusively that the company is projecting to double its 2025 revenue to reach $10 million in 2026, with a current valuation of $19 million. Davis-Urman also told CNBC that Barrière is also launching into 1,700 Walmart stores with its two newest offerings, including a motion sickness patch and what the company said is the first-ever lactose intolerance patch on the market.

Barrière has grown from having a presence in just over 600 stores in the second quarter of 2025 to being available in more than 6,000 stores in the second quarter of 2026, according to the company. Its products are sold in major retailers including Target, Ulta and Urban Outfitters.

Yet even as wearable patches become more available, the market remains largely unregulated by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States.

Barrière's products are not FDA-approved. The agency oversees supplements according to the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, which classifies the products as food rather than as drugs and largely allows the marketing to be left up to the companies.

Davis-Urman said Barrière chose to manufacture its products in the U.K., where the FDA-equivalent agency upholds the "strictest regulations possible."

"Transparency is key, education is key and, in some ways, being made in the U.K. does signal to a discerning wellness customer that there are more measures put into place to protect their health and wellness," Davis-Urman said.

The CEO said she founded the company after her doctor recommended that she start wearing patches to address serious vitamin deficiencies because her oral supplements were not working — but she soon realized the patches her doctor prescribed were bulky, medical and uncomfortable.

"People know that they need supplements. They have good intentions about starting a routine, but the drop-off is so significant," Davis-Urman said. "So we're trying to solve the biological and tackle those efficacy and absorption issues, but we're also trying to make it more fun and enjoyable and convenient and comfortable, so that people are actually sticking to their routines."

The transdermal stickers, created with ultrasmall vitamin particles, use body heat to deliver ingredients directly into the bloodstream, working for up to 12 hours at a time, Davis-Urman said.

Barrière's stickers retail in the range of roughly $13 to $18 for monthly packs. In 2025, it saw wholesale monthly dollar volume jump over 3,000%, according to the company.

The supplement market is a highly saturated, $60 billion market with more than 100,000 products, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The vitamins and supplement segment is expected to grow 11% by 2027, according to data from consulting firm AlixPartners.

The vitamin category as a whole saw dollar sales jump from roughly $14 billion in 2021 to over $17 billion in 2025, according to Chicago-based market research firm Circana. Between 2024 and 2025, unit sales of vitamins increased nearly 5%.

That expansion comes alongside an overall growing interest in health and wellness, driven by younger generations. Supplement company Thorne has said Generation Z is one of its biggest customers as the population focuses not just on preventative care, but also on restorative care.

That's largely because the generation is attracted to the marketing and convenience of supplements, and by extension, patches, according to Mahtab Jafari, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of California, Irvine.

"I always say that marketing is usually way ahead of science, so marketing is a key factor," Jafari told CNBC. "And when it comes to patches, when you see or hear that you can just wear your vitamins, you don't even need to take it, … it's a convenience issue."

Still, Davis-Urman said Barrière's key audience spans ages 25 to 65, seeing demand and interest across multiple generations, which she said initially surprised her because she expected Gen Z to be its biggest customer.

Barrière's distinguishing factor is its marketing, according to Davis-Urman, who has a background in fashion.

She said she wanted to create a product that was simple, stylish and easy to wear for people who are looking to get extra vitamin support. Each pack is customized based on the type of vitamin, with designs like flowers or jewels.

In a way, Davis-Urman said Barrière's customers become part of its own sales strategy because the patches spark conversations just by being visible, reaching consumers that the company may not have otherwise targeted.

"It doesn't sort of disappear in the sea of sameness like so many of the clinical science lab solutions in the supplement space," she said.

The market has traditionally seen patches to help with nicotine addiction and hormone control, but Davis-Urman said her stickers take it one step further with their style and ingredients.

Barrière's first-to-market lactose intolerance patch is launching in Walmart and promises the same results as Lactaid products. Consumers can decide to use it on the go, Davis-Urman said, and it has added effects like reducing bloating and discomfort.

Davis-Urman said the Walmart partnership came about through a cold email. She said she reached out because the store has the largest and fastest growing digestive health aisle in the country, which meant it would be an appealing place to debut Barrière's lactose intolerance patch.

It's a different strategy than its products that are sold in Target, Davis-Urman said, where the customer is more focused on skincare and beauty.

"Things that we know are working for that customer, that that customer is looking for, is how we differentiate so that we're not oversaturating and we're not diluting our brand," she said. "Finding the right partner for the right product is really critical."

Barrière's motion sickness patch, while not the first on the market, is also part of the Walmart launch.

The new patches are riding on the coattails of the success of its other products, Davis-Urman said. The company has gathered positive feedback from its customers, some of whom have said Barrière is the first vitamin routine they've been able to stick to and see results from.

Still, she added that "all bodies are different" and Barrière emphasizes that education is key.

"The goal is to have this product be the category definer and to not just disrupt the vitamin aisle, but also the medicine cabinet," Davis-Urman said.