Protein might be the better-for-you ingredient getting the most attention, but it has more competition than ever. Fiber increasingly is a consumer want, with “fibermaxxing” ranking as one of the most talked-about health trends, but another rising in the ranks is creatine. JiMMYBAR recently jumped into the creatine game, with a line of products featuring the ingredient. To learn more, we connected with founder/CEO Jim Simon.

Jenni Spinner: Could you please tell us a bit about the history of JiMMYBAR, how the idea came up, how you got off the ground, how you’ve grown, and what makes the company and its products stand out?

Jim Simon: JiMMYBAR was launched as a fun side hustle. I had a good job in tech, and Nettie owned a restaurant, but we had wanted to do a family business for decades. We both wanted to launch a food business, but not a restaurant; it had to be a brand. Nettie is a chef and restaurateur, and I'm an entrepreneur and salesperson, so there was good division of labor. We settled on bars because most of what was available in 2014 was highly processed, high-sugar junk, and we wanted to make a healthy product that was good for the world. We took an atypical approach to fundraising by not taking institutional money, didn't go through typical sales channels like grocery stores, and are the innovation leaders with first-to-market products like the functional protein bar, immune bar, and creatine bar.

Spinner: Then, tell us about creatine. It's having a moment, but could you tell us about why it’s getting the attention of different consumers, and how food firms are taking notice? 

Simon: Creatine has been around for decades, but only in powder form and really only used by men. In the past 10 years, there have been hundreds of studies that creatine is not only good for building muscle but also good for brain health, energy, and focus, and women going through menopause 

Spinner: Then, tell us about your creatine protein bars, how you crafted these, put them to the test, and how you decided they were good enough for distribution.

Simon: I took creatine for years, dating back to the 1980s, but the problem with creatine is that it only comes in powder form, tastes bad, and isn't portable, so the problem we needed to solve was to put it in bar form and make it taste good, portable, and have it with 20 g of protein. It took over five food scientists,  369 different formulas, and a new machine with a patent-pending technology to make it work.

Spinner: What’s next for the brand, any other new products or lines in the works, additional retail partners, etc.?

Simon: Yes, we are launching six new non-bar items in creatine before the end of the year.  We are currently in every Costco in America, Sam's Club, GNC, Chevron Extra Mile, and Cumberland Farms, and will soon be in Aldi nationally, with international deals to be announced soon.

Spinner: What’s your favorite product in the portfolio? 

Simon: The strawberry creatine-collagen bar is my favorite because it's the best-tasting bar in America and has 5 g creatine, 20 g protein, and collagen.

Related: Mosh lands $13M in funding for brain-boosting bars