Misfit Foods Rebrands as Phil’s Finest in Quest to Move Beyond Juice Heritage

Blended meat brand Misfit Foods has a new name: Phil’s Finest.

The new branding and packaging overhaul is designed to help the company move beyond its roots in the juice category and also solve a trademark issue, according to founder and CEO Phil Wong.

“After the response we saw in the market and from [being on] Shark Tank, it was clear that the time had come to re-imagine the brand,” Wong said. “Phil’s Finest gives us a lot more breathing room and space to grow into.”

Part of the impetus for the rebrand, Wong acknowledged, was in response to a trademark dispute with Misfits Market which reached a settlement in 2020, the terms of which are confidential. However, he said the rebrand was also needed in order to move beyond the company’s roots as a beverage brand and reflect its changing point of differentiation.

At its founding by Wong and Ann Yang in 2014, Misfit Foods was a beverage company focused on reducing food waste by making juices from “ugly” fruits and vegetables. In 2019 Yang shifted to an advisory role, and Wong subsequently re-centered and relaunched the brand around a new product: sausages blended with fruits and vegetables, designed to help consumers lower their meat consumption.

By the time ground beef blends launched in 2020, Misfits’ original messaging around food waste was further pushed to the wayside, Wong said. The decision to shed its old name, and association with “misfit” produce, he added, will allow the company to communicate more effectively with shoppers. While upcycling will always be a goal, Wong noted, it was simply too hard to educate consumers about reducing their food waste as well as the benefits of consuming blended meat products.

“When we first pivoted toward meats and veggies, we wanted to focus our messaging and our supply chain on that blended idea. You could imagine that consumers [could] get confused if we were messaging two concepts that are relatively new to the grocery store shelf,” Wong said. “There’s a stronger and stronger association of the term ‘misfit’ with upcycling, which is really intuitive, but not aligned with our vehicle for impact.”

The rebrand, which was created by design firm Gander, accompanies product assortment changes. Phil’s Finest is dropping its curry carrot and chicken sausages, sweet potato and chicken sausages, and gold squash and chicken sausages to focus on its top selling SKUs. Meanwhile, the brand has also added a new maple apple sausage in order to offer a sweeter profile for breakfast.

Phil’s Finest is sold in Imperfect Foods, Misfits Market, FreshDirect, Good Eggs, and Whole Foods Market stores in the Mid-Atlantic region. Wong acknowledged that switching brand names can be a tricky process with retailers and distributors, but said the brand will have a little extra help in the form of the Food Foundry, having recently been accepted into the accelerator run by food “innovation hub” Relish Works, Gordon Food Service and technology incubator 1871.

While the company has previously prioritized operations, R&D and supply chain, Wong said that marketing will be a core focus for Phil’s Finest over the coming year, in order to continue to build awareness on the heels of the brand’s Shark Tank appearance last year.

“Most Americans are omnivores, so a lot of people find our concept intuitive,” Wong said. “Obviously, the plant-based space is a couple years ahead of blended – the amount of money that has gone into education in plant-based is frankly incredible… Meat is an absolutely enormous industry, so why shouldn’t there be room for players in blended, plant-based, and legacy?”