Innovation Lab Chew Launches First In-House Brand with Fastfood Sports Nutrition

Looking to meet demand for clean label sports nutrition products, Boston-based food innovation lab Chew announced this month the launch of its first in-house brand, Fastfood.

Sold online direct-to-consumer, Fastfood is a platform nutrition brand intended for high-performance athletes with product lines including Galacto-Gel gel packs ($40 per 12-pack), Galacto-Gummies ($46 per 12-pack) and Hydrator beverage mixes ($45 per 30-serving bulk pack). Each line uses clean label ingredients and is Informed Sport certified.

The launch of Fastfood represents a “full circle” return to CPG entrepreneurship for Chew founder and CEO Adam Melonas, who told NOSH today he was inspired by his own experience as a chef and a triathlete to create a healthier product made without the preservatives or emulsifiers common in the sports nutrition category. Melonas previously co-founded better-for-you candy brand UNREAL in 2010 prior to launching Chew, a Boston-based food innovation lab which works with corporate customers to develop and manufacture new products, in 2013.

According to Melonas, the decision to use Chew to launch its own brands came in 2020 when the onset of the pandemic led consumers to focus on pantry staples and Chew’s negotiations for new business partners dried up.

“Me being me, I went a little crazy trying to figure out what does the old world have that the new world won’t need, and what does the new world need that the present world didn’t have?” Melonas said. “But then, personally, I think the other question that most people either willingly had or unwillingly had was, ‘Which version of pandemic am I going to be?’ Am I going to drink a lot? Or am I going to find a physical activity and workout a lot?”

Melonas said he decided to launch Fastfood with gel and gummy lines as they are “the fastest, most efficient way to get in carbohydrates during any kind of activity,” but also wanted to provide a hydration solution for the runners and cyclists who would form the brand’s target consumer base.

Fastfood, he said, was developed in partnership with several pro athletes and the company intends to take a digital-centric marketing approach as it establishes the business. Melonas added that Fastfood will seek to “partner with brands and locations that really mirror a version of our mission values”. The brand will likely roll out to retail by next year with a focus on specialty stores such as cycling and outdoors retailers, he added.

The brand has also partnered with pro cycling team Human Powered Health, as well as triathlete Joe Skipper and other athletes to promote the products.

Fastfood arrives as more brands aim to fill a whitespace for clean label sports nutrition products. Last year, powder and supplements brand Ladder – which was co-founded by LeBron James and Arnold Schwarzenegger and initially marketed exclusively to pro athletes – launched in brick-and-mortar retail stores with Vitamin Shoppe.

As for Chew, Melonas said he hopes Fastfood will be the “first of many” in-house brands developed by the company, however the core focus will continue to be in working with partner companies to develop new products. Fastfood, he said, has been self-funded and new employees have been hired to focus on the brand full time, including a brand manager and a performance manager. However, he did not rule out someday seeking additional outside funding to support scaling.

“Frankly, this has been a long time coming,” he said. “It’s something that we have spent the last nine and a half years building, this methodology, and this ability to identify the insight. We’ve obviously got the firepower to bring that all the way through to fruition, fruition in this case being market-end manufacturing. And so in this case, this is definitely the first of many.”