Illinois-based JiMMYBAR! Functional Protein is extending its functional snack platform into a new format, launching what it bills as the world's first Creatine + Protein Trail Mix — five ready-to-eat varieties each delivering 12g of protein and 5g of creatine monohydrate per serving. The product went live direct-to-consumer at jimmybars.com on October 14, with no retail channel announcement at launch.
For c-store buyers, the timing is worth watching. JiMMYBAR!'s existing bar line already sits in the sets at EG America, Chevron ExtraMile, and Wawa, putting the brand squarely in the forecourt-snack conversation. Trail mix is a natural fit for the grab-and-go snack bay, and a creatine-forward positioning could carve out shelf space at the intersection of sports nutrition and better-for-you impulse — a segment that has been gaining velocity in convenience as operators look beyond the traditional roller-grill and dispensed-beverage dayparts.
The Product Details
Co-founder Nettie Del Prete led formulation on all five SKUs, which follow the sweet-and-salty profile that moves in impulse snacking: Wild Strawberry Crunch with collagen, Chocolate Peanut Butter Blast, Blueberry Lemon Crumble with collagen, Fudge Brownie Bliss, and Orange Cream Swirl with collagen. Three of the five varieties layer in collagen as a secondary functional ingredient alongside the creatine monohydrate. The format is positioned as a no-powder, no-shaker delivery mechanism — a practical convenience argument for shoppers who won't mix a supplement drink on the forecourt.
The product debuted at the 2026 Mr. Olympia in Las Vegas, the same event where JiMMYBAR! introduced its Creatine + Protein Bar a year earlier. That bar launch has since moved into mass, club, and specialty retail — Target, Sam's Club, Costco, GNC LiveWell, H-E-B, and Hy-Vee among them — suggesting the brand has a demonstrated track record of migrating direct-to-consumer innovation into brick-and-mortar channels.
Channel Opportunity
Creatine as a mainstream snack ingredient is still early-stage, but the trajectory in functional food mirrors what happened with protein over the prior decade: specialty-first, then mass, then convenience. NACS data has consistently shown that health-and-wellness snack segments outperform center-store candy in higher-income trade areas, and single-store operators in gym-adjacent or suburban locations have reported stronger turns on sports-nutrition adjacencies. A trail mix format — already a proven impulse category — could accelerate that crossover faster than a bar alone.
Jim Simon, CEO and Co-Founder, framed the launch as category creation rather than trend-following. The company is offering an introductory buy-two-get-one-at-50%-off promotion through October 21 on both 10-count and 20-count packs at checkout, no code required — a structure more common to DTC than to the convenience channel's typical promotional mechanics.
Whether JiMMYBAR! brings the trail mix SKUs to its existing c-store retail partners is the question operators should be tracking. Given the brand's retail expansion pace — it added EG America and Chevron ExtraMile to its account list alongside club and grocery — a broader channel rollout for the trail mix format would follow the same playbook that worked for the bar line.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
