Vegan Burger Brand Everything Legendary Aims to “Be Bold” As It Debuts In Retail

With the support of entrepreneur Mark Cuban, plant-based burger brand Everything Legendary is “going to be bold” in order to take a bite out of the increasingly crowded meat alternative category, according to CEO and co-founder Duane “Myko” Cheers. This month, the brand is making its retail debut, seeking to grab consumers’ attention with what it believes is a more approachable vegan meat product featuring vibrant packaging and a consumer-friendly ingredient label.

The brand is launching its 2-packs of burgers for $8.99 at 500 Mid-Atlantic grocery stores, including Safeway, Giant, Acme and Stop & Shop from North Carolina to Massachusetts, with additional launches to follow this spring and summer.

Cheers is no stranger to the vegan lifestyle, growing up vegan after his mother cut out meat, dairy, and other animal products over 30 years ago following a Lupus diagnosis. After seeing firsthand what it was like to shop and cook with limited food options, Cheers said he was driven to create his own plant-based burger after his mother complained about the lack of taste in most burger alternatives on the market.

“There’s nothing new about being a vegan, and my mom always said, ‘This book has been on the shelf forever, people are just now starting to actually read it’,” he said. “We’re an African American educated group of people, and the health issues and the disparities that have been going on in the community have been something that’s been very big,” he said. “So now we have the opportunity to give people who eat all types of food a healthy option.”

Cheers, a former motivational speaker, partnered with friends and co-founders Danita Clayor and chef Jumoke Jackson to develop the burger, focused on making a “flavorful” product created in a kitchen, rather than a lab, with ingredients that consumers could pronounce, he said. When they launched their pea and hemp protein-based burgers in 2019, they first turned to popups, selling the burgers everywhere from community centers to barber shops. While the brand was seeing positive traction, their February appearance on an episode of “Shark Tank,” helped kickstart the company’s development.

They scored a deal with Cuban, who invested $300,000 for a 22% stake in the company. Cuban, a vegetarian himself, had previously invested in plant-based CPG brands such as Snacklins and Veggie Mama. It was the first outside funding the brand had raised.

The appearance immediately brought more eyes to the brand, with Cheers saying Everything Legendary sold $250,000 worth of burgers in the 24 hours following the episode’s airing. But it was more than just marketing — Cheers said the brand’s lack of funding had been holding them back from being able to compete with other meat alternative brands on the market. Now, he said, the company has capital to support retail launches as well as expand its production capacity.

“When we were trying to get funding, people didn’t believe [in us] and if they did believe, they wanted to take too much,” he said. “We didn’t have that full runway that our competitors had. Now, we’re finally given the same level playing field because we have the financial backing.”

In the increasingly crowded plant-based meat category, Cheers said Everything Legendary stands out from more established brands for both its flavor and packaging. To achieve great taste, Everything Legendary’s ingredient list might be longer than other brands but most of these ingredients are recognizable, common spices, such as basil, or fruits, such as mango, found in home kitchens. Complementing the product inside, its “bold” and “energetic” black and neon green packaging is also more visually enticing than the other “blue collar” and “corporate” meat alternatives brands in the cold case, Cheers said. There’s a distinct personality to the brand, he added.

“The top people in this space right now did a phenomenal job with how they opened the door like they did,” he said. “You cannot take that away from what Beyond and Impossible do. I think that what we’re doing is making this even more eye-catching to the everyday consumer.”

As a Black-owned brand, Cheers said it’s important to reach the African American community with its products, but he said that ultimately Everything Legendary products are “for everyone” and it hopes to reach a wide swath of consumers from different generations and ethnicities.

While it looks to make plant-based meat more enticing and accessible, Cheers noted that the brand’s products are still priced at a premium, to avoid “racing to the bottom” with unsustainable prices. Packs of eight burgers sold for $64.99 on the brand’s website. At retailers, the suggested retail price will be $8.99 per 2-pack of burgers, Cheers said. Looking ahead, the brand has several products in its innovation pipeline, next launching plant-based burgers infused with vegan cheese, followed by plant-based sausages. The company also has a partnership with U.S. Foods. and aims to establish a foodservice presence this year.

“This is the American dream, people who graduated from HBCUs, who stay focused on their path, in the middle of a pandemic,” he said. “Right now the work is 1,000 times more difficult because now you have to stay laser focused. There’s no elevator to success, you have to take every single step.”