Glen Powell's Smash Kitchen Enters $40B Snack Aisle With Kettle-Style Chips

Smash Kitchen is stepping out of the pantry and into one of grocery’s toughest battlegrounds.

The clean-label brand co-founded by Glen Powell has launched its first kettle-style potato chips nationwide at Walmart and Walmart.com.

This marks its official entry into the $40 billion salty snack category.

Known for organic condiments and cooking oils, Smash Kitchen is now targeting a high-frequency aisle dominated by legacy players and private labels.

The 6-ounce Non-GMO kettle chips retail for $3.47, undercutting many clean-label competitors.

The lineup includes Classic Sea Salt, American Style BBQ, Hot Honey BBQ, and Rosemary.

Notably, the Hot Honey BBQ flavor draws from one of the brand’s existing sweet-heat condiments and is described as Powell’s favorite.

Ultimately, the kettle chip venture is a sign of Smash Kitchen veering from specialty pantry products to everyday staples.

The brand first launched in April 2025 with organic ketchup, yellow mustard, mayonnaise, and barbecue sauces.

By October, it had expanded into cooking oils.

Chips now marks its first push into snacks, a category built on volume and repeat purchases.

Powell previously explained why he co-founded the company.

“Growing up around epic barbecue feasts at our family ranch in Texas, food was always an expression of love,” he said, according to RetailWire.

“Through fitness, I became more aware and educated on better-for-you foods — and I started to see just how many questionable ingredients were hiding in everyday pantry staples.

This made it clear for the "Anyone But You" star that he needed to make a clean condiment brand, one where there'd be "just great flavors that connect us to the moments we love."

This expansion also reflects a calculated use of celebrity marketing.

Powell is positioned as a co-founder with a personal story tied to product development and flavor inspiration.

Inside the Walmart Push

The chips are made with American-grown, non-GMO potatoes and cooked in small batches.

The company emphasizes straightforward ingredients and bold flavor.

This makes it consistent with the brand's all-natural ingredients, including cage-free eggs, vine-ripened California tomatoes, premium organic mustard seeds, and True Source-certified honey.

The chips sit below the $5 ceiling that Smash Kitchen has maintained across its product lines.

This pricing strategy matters inside Walmart, where shoppers often compare value across mainstream and better-for-you brands in seconds.

Placement in Walmart also gives Smash Kitchen immediate national visibility.

For a young brand, shelf space in the country’s largest retailer compresses the timeline between awareness and scale.

It also raises the stakes. Competing in the snack aisle requires velocity, not just positioning.

Walmart reported total revenue of $648.1 billion for fiscal year 2024, underscoring the scale and pressure of a nationwide retail rollout.

Smash Kitchen’s Snack Aisle Expansion

The brand offers a sharp example of how to extend into a new category without abandoning core brand positioning. Here, we learn that: 

• Entering Walmart nationwide from day one accelerates scale but demands pricing and positioning discipline.
• Moving a clean-label promise into high-frequency staples builds coherence across the portfolio and strengthens trust.
• Tying new flavors to a founder’s personal story deepens authenticity beyond surface-level endorsements.

Smash Kitchen is now asking shoppers to see its products as all-around pantry alternatives.

We'll have to look closely in the next few months to see whether shoppers treat Smash Kitchen as a serious pantry player.

Our Take: Can a Clean-Label Brand Win the Chip War?

Competition is heating.

Industry giants like PepsiCo recently launched a creator-led "Flavor Swap" limited-edition offering.

As legacy brands innovate their offerings, it may be harder for smaller brands like Smash Kitchen to find a footing in a retail behemoth like Walmart.

However, Smash Kitchen deserves praise for its ambition.

Snacks are ruthless. The aisle generally doesn't care about your origin story. It cares about crunch, price, and whether the bag makes it back into the cart next week.

But what separates Smash Kitchen is its bet on habit.

If you can move from condiments to chips without confusing the shopper, you're no longer a niche brand. You're building a system.

Plus, if the flavor hits and the $3.47 price feels fair, this could be a smart long-term play.

In other news, Walmart newcomer UPDATE recently entered more than 4,000 Walmart stores with Kim Kardashian as co-founder.

Expansion only works when positioning holds. These top agencies help brands enter new categories without diluting their core promise.