Meat sticks get a makeover

Prime Future 310: Strategy, capital, and innovation in animal protein

I was waiting to turn out of the Whole Foods parking lot when I noticed a woman holding an “anything helps” sign.

I reached into the back seat, where a Costco-sized bag of Chomps was ready to be put to work for such a time as this, and grabbed a handful of meat sticks as I rolled down my window to offer them to her.

Assuming it was a perfunctory but polite question, I asked, “Would you like some meat sticks?”

She turned, “No thanks, I don’t eat meat.”

I rolled up the window before my I’m-in-shock laughter escaped, thinking, “What in the 2026 just happened here?”

But one homeless lady doth not a trend make — in fact, the trends around meat sticks are decisively on the rise, especially for the brand that first gave meat sticks a makeover: Chomps.

So how has this bootstrapped brand changed a category while growing to a $1 billion annual revenue paragon of animal protein, selling two million meat sticks per day, with no signs of slowing?

Let’s jump in.

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