Yep, I believe they're discontinuing all their Gels by the end of 2018!

In favor of new products like the recently introduced beef jerky and nut combo bar.

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Andrew Inkpen

As long as they don't discontinue their bars I'm happy. Most convenient nutrition on the bike by far.

disagree, mainly because i cannot eat those things. They just sit in my throat and don't move down. learned years ago to not get powerbar bars. even worse in winter when xc skiing and can't bite a piece off the damn things without using a blowtorch

Still the most convenient. What other bar on the market sticks to your top tube without danger of falling off regardless of road surface? ;)

NIce exit strategy. Just quit? (eye roll) Is there more to the story?

I love chocolate power bars. Like a giant tootsie roll. I've had the flu the last week and about 50% of my meals have just been a chocolate powerbar. The other flavors? Meh. But they're still better than clif bars.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

Um... why not just buy a Tootsie Roll? Probably cheaper.

Hello jstonbarger and All,

Awwwwwww .... PowerBars are part of triathlon history

What's next?

Kona race going to Bejing?

Maybe it will get spun off.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBar

With Mike McCollum, the PowerBar company was founded by Brian Maxwell, a Canadian athlete and entrepreneur and Maxwell's girlfriend, Jennifer Biddulph, a nutritionist and distance runner who later became his wife, in their kitchen. They used $55,000 in cash to launch the company in 1986 in Berkeley, California. This was the first "energy bar" for use during competition by endurance athletes, such as ultra marathoners, and cyclists.[1] They eventually acquired a headquarters building in downtown Berkeley.

The company eventually reached $150 million in sales before being purchased by Nestlé in 2000 for $375 million.[1] In February 2007, PowerBar moved its headquarters from Berkeley, California to the Nestlé headquarters in Glendale, California. With the move came the hiring of an entirely new marketing team.[citation needed]

On February 3, 2014, Post Holdings announced it had reached an agreement to acquire PowerBar, Musashi and related worldwide assets from Nestlé.[2]

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Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster

well that sucks. I preferred their gels over others because of the higher amount of Sodium.

No way -- the Clif nut butter-filled bars are like buttah!

I like that the PowerBar gels have a thinner consistency than other gels - a lot easier to go down and very easy to mix into flasks. I guess I'll be stocking up!

I agree on the top tube thing that someone else mentioned. Stick half a bar on there to start the bike in longer races. :)

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Blog: http://262toboylstonstreet.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/NateThomasTri
Coaching: https://bybtricoaching.com/ - accepting athletes for 2023

I thought their bars actually were really nice, the PE bars, as they were really the only bar that does not melt, and is absorbed super fast IME. You are supposed to keep them in your back pocket while riding... It softens them up ;)

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I loved their berry blast or fruit smoothie bars but they are nowhere to be found anymore. I figured something was up.

I love the gels though because they're so easy to consume. I usually alternate between BOOM! gels and Powerbar... good for Boom I guess...

Huh! I got some discount code by email and went to their website to buy some gels last week. As others have mentioned, the consistency of their gels is pretty loose compared to others and I preferred that for racing. But there were only like four flavors and none of the ones I was interested in. At the time I thought, well, some flavors temporarily out of stock. Maybe not temporary...

What, so do PowerBar make any general consumer items, or are they just winding the whole brand down? Seems like an odd decision to me...

I like the Ride bars and the gels, but those Energize bars that they have at Ironman events in Europe are just total garbage.

I think they're streamlining their products to match the needs of the "On the Go" fitness consumers, such as protein shakes and other products that are found in grocery stores and 7-eleven.

From what I remember, they are locked into a contract until 2019 with NYRR (especially NYC Marathon) to supply their races with Gels. So they may have produced enough gels to supply those events and sell some on the side. But again, I could be wrong. I haven't heard much yet from what direction they are taking things. I believe our stores only carry select flavors now, and those flavors are getting less and less.

I guess there are stranger places to get married...

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Some are born to move the world to live their fantasies...

https://triomultisport.com/
http://www.mjolnircycles.com/

From the sounds of it they're not winding the brand down but are shifting their focus to more of the Whole Foods all natural bar crowd and away from sport nutrition products (aka gels, gel blasts and bars that stick to top tubes).

The Powerbar contract with Ironman Europe was last extended from 2015-2017. I heard it was not renewed for 2018 but do not know what company is replacing them.

NIce exit strategy. Just quit? (eye roll) Is there more to the story?


I don't know the full story, but in talking to my contacts on the brand side there has been a massive shift with the larger brands in the sports nutrition category.

With both PowerBar and CLIF, despite getting their start with endurance sports, and I know for PowerBar, specifically in triathlon many years ago ( a bit of a history for PB that I blogged about back in 2014 - http://stevefleck.blogspot.ca/...r-early-history.html ) the endurance sports market (runners, cyclists & triathletes) is now a SMALL market for them. I'm told less than 25% for both companies. 75% and growing rapidly for them, is the "healthy snack" category, where their main retail partners are large grocery store chains, and businesses such as WalMart and even Amazon! Small independent running, cycling and triathlon stores are now WAY down on their list of priorities.

To hear about cut-backs in SKU's is not really that surprising.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I can't say I'm disappointed to hear that and perhaps therein lies the problem for PowerBar. It'll be interesting to see who replaces them.

As to the sports vs healthy snack distinction, I wouldn't be surprised if the latter has effectively become the former, in that people partaking in sports are shifting their eating habits away from highly-processed foodstuffs to more natural alternatives.

While understand that independent run/bike shops may be way down their list of priorities, why do they need to phase it out? They don't need to reinvent their gels at all and I don't think it's a market that they need to invest a ton of marketing into, they're pretty established in the category. All they have to do is keep making the stuff......maybe give the packaging a new look every 5 years.

All they have to do is keep making the stuff.


Easy for us to say (and full disclosure I LOVED the PowerBar gel burst things. I called them the "crack-cocaine of sports nutrition"!!) - but when in a BIG corporation, Accounting is saying we are losing money on a product or service or practice of their business . . . guess what happens?? The bottom line becomes EVERYTHING!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Sometimes (often) it's not even about losing money. It's about margins. PB could very well be making a "profitable" margin on their endurance products BUT if they can double that margin by moving that money to another area, i.e. healthy snacks, it makes sense to do so from their perspective.

The only PowerBar PE bar remaining on the shelves at my local Kroger grocery store is the peanut butter flavor. I have two for lunch every day at work. I like the PowerBar PE bar because it has less saturated fat than the other similarly-priced energy bars on the shelves. The yellow and red PowerBar sticker will always be a fond reminder of my early multisport glory days.

Fleck wrote:

but when in a BIG corporation, Accounting is saying we are losing money on a product or service or practice of their business . . . guess what happens?? The bottom line becomes EVERYTHING!

Bottom line is always everything. They are running a business not a coop. And they have always been a part of a big business, up until 2016 owned by Nestle, which sold to Post. They are in the midst of a shift in business and perhaps selling branded nutrition items at bike shops no longer makes sense.

http://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/news_home/Business_News/2016/08/QA_Inside_the_transformation_o.aspx?ID=%7B05C64F93-6815-438C-B6C4-D349FF57C27D%7D&cck=1

If it is the electrolyte thing go EFS Liquid Shot, not in a convenient small pouch though, comes in flask or bottle.


EFS Liquid Shot is thinner than most also, but may be a little pricier, have not looked in awhile. Cannot remember what it was but something in PowerBar Gels did not agree with me, and once I tried EFS I stuck with it.

Well, I asked PB on their website about the gels: "I went to buy some gels and noticed that only four flavors are available. Will the other flavors be available soon?" The response: "At this point these are the only 4 flavors of gels that are currently in production."

The article from food business news linked above says it all. Lots of competition for a smallish market in foods for endurance sport vs everyday convenience nutrition with a protein/healthy focus.

Same story at our local Publix grocery store ... peanut butter flavor only. I started buying them online through Amazon Prime so I could get chocolate.

Yep. I haven't had a gel in years (I'm gonna say since 2011), and I make my own bars now. I do occasionally have bloks during a run.

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Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.

It is all true... Bye... Now who makes a non-thick gel?
Mark Johnson‎ to PowerBar
February 25 at 5:21pm ·

Rumor is that you're discontinuing PowerBar Gels and Blasts and such... I see a vary limited listing of the Gels, what you say PowerBar?

PowerBar Hi Mark, due to declining sales we are unfortunately discontinuing these products. However, they are still available on Amazon.com and our website.

Damn. That's unfortunate. I absolutely loved their flavors and thin consistency.

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Toro Performance

Agreed. I just try to stock up and can't find any. Most gels on the market are too thick. The powergel tangerine had some caffeine and low viscosity which was perfect for racing. I also loved that Powerbar Perform because it was cheap and had a lot of salt in it. Looks like I need to start searching for alternatives.

Just ran out of my last gel.

Had to by Cliff Razz gels. Those are a lot thicker and far less sodium.

If anyone finds a good alternative, let us know.

Also looking for a PowerBar Gel alternative that's similarly liquidy, with sodium / caffiene / blend of glucose-fructose. Any suggestions? Currently investigating Accel Gels (http://www.pacifichealthlabs.com/Accel-Gel-_p_14.html) and SIS Gels (https://www.scienceinsport.com/...is/all-products/gels)

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https://www.strava.com/athletes/nbrowne1

Accel Gels don't ship to Canada
SIS Gels cost $45 to ship to Canada

Purchased a box of BOOM as only $15 to ship to Canada...

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https://www.strava.com/athletes/nbrowne1

If you want caffeine in the gel 2nd Surge is decent.

If you do not want caffeine in the gel and you do not mind a flask instead of foil pouches I have found EFS Liquid Shot to be really good stuff.

2nd surge doesn't ship to Canada
EFS Liquid Shot doesn't look too great for carrying while running.

Any other suggestions?

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https://www.strava.com/athletes/nbrowne1

I bought some SIS gels. They are pretty fluid but have a Wei texture and a medicinal taste. I bought two boxes of six each and am not a fan. Bleh. Still looking...

Any other suggestions?


We received a few boxes of the Garneau gels (I know you would not think of them for nutrition), recently to test out. We took them to Cuba for a week of cycling there, and I used them every day for the 100K+ rides we did everyday for a week and they were great. Gels are gels - with all due respect if you look at the make-up of them, they all tend to be the same from brand to brand!

I did a long ride last year where I had a smorgasbord of gels in my pocket - Hammer, PowerBar, Gu, Clif, Garneau - one of each, and the ride went great! :-)

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

that is always the problem when a small enthusiast company gets gobbled up by large profit-seeking corporations.. not so much losing money, more a case of not making enough money.

Small outdoors companies all become women's clothing stores (Orvis, Early Winters now Sahalie, etc)
I guess all small sports nutrition companies become purveyors of snack foods..

Torq gels are very good, and very similar in both nutritional content and consistency to Powergels

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MS: Exercise Science
Your speed matters a lot, sometimes you need to be very fast, where sometimes you need to breakdown your speed.

Thanks, they seem pretty expensive but will try them out. A local running store has them in stock.

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https://www.strava.com/athletes/nbrowne1

PowerBar Gel Bursts things were great. I can't believed they're discontinued. They were a must on the really long stuff.

I just bought these on Amazon (They came from the UK) and they are the best thing ever!

They are practically liquid (Like that concentrate Gatorade big pouch you get on some goodie bags) so you don't need fluids to wash them down. I strongly recommend these!

https://www.amazon.com/...00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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Follow me on IG: @Commandersnake

when x-c ski-ing, i learned to keep power-bars very close to warm areas inside my clothing :-) nowadays, i just make date squares and use them. tastier, cheaper, plenty of calories and they stay edible in a jacket pocket.

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run well, run happy
george

Last weekends long run was fueled by Tailwibd being run as a gel. I used a gel flask. Wirked very well (maybe even better than a normal gel).

+1 on this. I pretty much only use gels on race day or really long training days, and even then I limit them to the run and the latter part of the bike. Haven't used a bar during training or racing in a long time.

Wife used EFS for long course racing. I think she just used to put it in my GU flask and carried it with her. She seemed to be quite happy with it

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Team Every Man Jack

Europe to the rescue! Apparently they haven't become HIIT workout, all natural protein bar obsessed Insta-whores yet and still train for endurance as a population...

PowerGel
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/...41g-x-24/rp-prod3871

PowerGel Hydro
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/...l-x-24/rp-prod112865

PowerGel Shots
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/...0g-x-16/rp-prod34847

Pricey but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Thanks!

You are my hero.