Newkee

Newkee is a German skincare and body-care brand co-founded by footballer Manuel Neuer and tennis player Angelique Kerber [9]. It started out with sunscreen and has since grown into a compact range of sun protection, face care, and hair and body products, which the company describes as vegan, fragrance-free and unisex. The brand, which writes its own name in lowercase as "newkee", is based in Marburg in the German state of Hesse, and its website is operated by Deutsche Kosmetikwerke AG [4].

The brand is active. Alongside its consumer business, it has moved into the corporate promotional-gifts market, a step that German trade magazines covered in 2025.

Neuer, goalkeeper for the German national football team, and Kerber, a German professional tennis player, had known each other for some years before going into business together. According to the trade magazine HAPTICA, the two were connected through their links to Adidas [7]. On 25 October 2022, the celebrity-news site Promiflash reported, citing a press release, that the pair had founded a cosmetics company that would bring out both sun protection and care products [9]. At that point neither the brand name nor the products had been made public.

The press release framed the venture around the founders' lives as athletes. Kerber was quoted as saying that, as top athletes, they knew what mattered in daily skin care, since they trained for many hours each week and showered several times a day. Neuer's contribution was a line about doing things properly from the very beginning, with a focus on the essentials, just as on a football pitch or a tennis court. A version of that sentence later became the opening motto of the brand's own "about us" page: "If we do something, we do it right from the start. Together as a team."

HAPTICA reports that the two athletes set up the company together with the person who now chairs its executive board. Neuer and Kerber remain the public face of the brand. The homepage carries the title "care essentials by Kerber und Neuer", and it includes a testimonial section headed "Skin Story by Angelique Kerber".

The first two products were sunscreens, both rated SPF 50+: the daily sunscreen 50+ for the body and the face sunscreen 50+ for the face. From there the range soon widened beyond sun care. By June 2025, a key account manager told HAPTICA that the line-up comprised 13 products, spanning sun protection, body and face care, and cleansing [7].

At that stage the sun range had grown to include creams for face and body, a spray and a lip balm with UV protection. Next to it sat a shampoo, shower gel, conditioner, body lotion and hand cream, as well as face care in the form of a day cream with sun protection, a night cream and a serum aimed at hydration and visible signs of ageing.

The second notable turn came in 2025, when Newkee pushed into business-to-business sales. According to HAPTICA, early collaborations in which the brand supplied the local Sparkasse and Volksbank banks had gone well, and this encouraged the company to build out its B2B side. Its first appearance at the PSI promotional-products trade fair in Düsseldorf, in January 2025, marked the formal start of that business line [8]. Further trade-fair appearances followed, including GWW events, Werbewelt in Munich and HAPTICA live in Bonn.

Gift boxes quickly became the most requested item among the brand's promotional products, head of sales Linus Freytag told HAPTICA. He added that the company saw potential in two or three further products for this market, sunscreen in particular. Werbeartikel Nachrichten, a trade title for the promotional-products industry, reported on the move in July 2025 under the headline "Newkee: Start-up mit Promifaktor" ("start-up with celebrity factor"), describing the business as a young company from Hesse.

The legal notice on the brand's website names Deutsche Kosmetikwerke AG, based in Marburg, as the provider behind Newkee [4]. The company is entered in the commercial register of the Marburg local court under the number HRB 7948 and is represented by the chair of its executive board, Luca Studenroth. It is the operating company of the brand rather than an outside owner that bought it.

In mid-2025, HAPTICA described the Marburg-based business as employing a team of 15 people.

Newkee presents itself as "a new standard in daily skin care", meaning care that works reliably, is kind to the skin and fits into an active routine. Its products are unisex and free of added fragrance, and the company says its formulas are vegan and developed and made in Germany.

The founders' sporting background shapes the brand's image but, by its own account, does not define who buys it. Freytag told HAPTICA that the products interest people who do a lot of sport, "but not only" them. He also said that many customers have sensitive skin or specific skin problems, and that positive feedback on the mild formulas confirmed the company's approach.

A partnership named on the brand's website is central to that pitch. The "about us" page says Newkee works with PAEDIPROTECT, which it calls Germany's leading manufacturer of children's care products, in order to carry the standards of children's skin care over to an adult range [2]. In the company's words, the result is vegan, fragrance-free and microplastic-free unisex care with maximum skin tolerance.

The mission statement opens with "Live more consciously. Act more mindfully." Newkee ties this to ecological and social responsibility, which it says it meets by using only essential, gentle and vegan ingredients, and by reducing the plastic in its tubes.

Sun protection remains the core of the range. The original daily sunscreen 50+ for the body is still sold, now joined by newer formats. A light sun fluid 50+ contains niacinamide, bakuchiol and glycerin, according to the brand, which pitches it at sensitive skin and skin prone to blemishes [1]. A transparent sun spray with SPF 50 is described by the company as quick to absorb, waterproof and sweat-resistant, and a lip balm with SPF 30 rounds off the sun line.

The face-care range includes a day cream with SPF 15, a night cream and a face serum that the company says contains hyaluronic acid and niacinamide. A "bright & balance" bundle pairs two serums, one of them made with 15% vitamin C. Hair and body care covers everyday basics such as shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, body lotion and hand cream. The brand also sells sets and bundles, some of them combined with merchandise; one pairs the sun fluid and the lip balm with a limited-edition cap.

Newkee's FAQ lists what its formulas leave out. According to the company, all of its products are vegan and fragrance-free and contain no parabens, colourants, preservatives or PEG/PPG emulsifiers, a group of ingredients that help oil and water mix [5]. The FAQ also states that the products have not been tested on animals and that they are non-comedogenic, meaning they do not clog pores.

Packaging is the brand's main environmental focus. Newkee says its tubes are about 50% thinner than usual, which it calculates saves up to 40% plastic compared with conventional care products [2]. Cap and tube are made from one identical single material, so the company describes the whole pack as 100% recyclable through ordinary household plastic-waste collection. It also describes its formulas as free of microplastics.

The company states that every product is made in Germany, with filling and packing carried out in Marburg [5].

HAPTICA reported in June 2025 that Newkee products were sold across the German-speaking region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, in the stores of large retail chains and online through the brand's own webshop, Amazon and other partners [7]. Staff also described less conventional outlets, such as the showers of local gyms and displays at the checkouts of small independent shops. As of June 2025, the company said it was planning a sunscreen vending machine at an outdoor swimming pool.

The webshop is available in German, English and Italian, with country settings for Germany, Austria, Italy and the Netherlands.

Newkee is active. In September 2026 its homepage was running a promotion on sets and bundles, and its website carried a 2026 copyright notice [1]. The brand also keeps accounts on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.