Most Heroes Go Unnoticed. This Arizona Popcorn Brand Put Them on the Bag — and Built a Factory to Reach More of Them.

Kettle Heroes completes an automated Chandler manufacturing plant, increasing packaging capacity fifteenfold, as it expands into Whole Foods Market stores across Texas

CHANDLER, Ariz. — September 14, 2026 — While much of the snack aisle races to add protein, fiber, and function to its labels, Kettle Heroes is making the opposite bet: that Americans are tired of being sold a magic pill and would rather eat something real that actually tastes good — and that the people who most deserve it are the ones nobody notices.

The Arizona-based premium kettle-cooked popcorn brand today announced that it has completed the first phase of an automated manufacturing facility in Chandler, Arizona — increasing packaging capacity from 5 bags per minute to 75 — and has begun shipping into Whole Foods Market stores across Texas.

Together, the moves mark the company's transition from regional artisan producer to scaled self-manufacturer and fund a larger ambition: establishing kettle-cooked popcorn as a distinct segment of the popped popcorn category, the way kettle-cooked chips carved out their own space in the chip aisle.

The case against air-popped

The overwhelming majority of popcorn on shelf today is air-popped — a fast, inexpensive process that yields a light, brittle, hollow kernel with little flavor of its own. Kettle Heroes argues the category has spent years compensating for that shortcoming with seasoning and marketing rather than fixing the popcorn itself.

Kettle Heroes cooks its popcorn in a kettle in small batches. The result is a denser, crunchier kernel that carries seasoning the way a kettle-cooked potato chip does — closer in character to a real snack than a puffed one. Its two best-selling items, Aged White Cheddar and Hatch Green Chile Cheddar, are savory kettle-cooked popcorn, not sweet kettle corn.

"Most popcorn is air-popped because it's cheap and fast, not because it's good," said Rudi Sinykin, CEO and Co-Founder of Kettle Heroes. "You can taste the shortcut. A kettle and real oil cost more and take longer, and that is the entire difference."

The ingredient panel is the argument. Aged White Cheddar is popcorn, expeller-pressed high-oleic sunflower oil, organic cheddar cheese seasoning, and sea salt — Non-GMO Project Verified, certified gluten-free, peanut and tree nut free, with no artificial flavors.

"We're being sold the idea that the right enhanced snack is a magic pill," Sinykin said. "It isn't. Stay active, live in moderation, and then go ahead and enjoy something real. The heroes on our bags have earned a small pleasure that doesn't come with a lecture."

An American patchwork

America is held together by a patchwork of people who put service ahead of themselves and are rarely thanked for it. Kettle Heroes was founded in 2013 on the premise now printed on the back of every bag: most heroes go unnoticed. The veteran. The healthcare worker. The teacher. The first responder. The parent. The people who show up quietly, faithfully, for all of us.

Through Kettle Heroes Honors, the company's program with the Pat Tillman Foundation, every bag carries the photo and story of one real person, and the bags are variably printed, so the hero changes from bag to bag. Shoppers never know which one they'll find.  Kettle Heroes features almost thirty different heroes now.

The range is the message. One bag carries Matthew Randle, J.D., a Tucson native who served as a combat medic in the U.S. Army and was part of the team responsible for repatriating the remains of American soldiers listed as missing in action, and who practices law today. Another carries Katelyn Newton, DNP, a pediatric oncology nurse and the spouse of an explosive ordnance disposal technician, who has drawn on her own experience of long separations and constant worry to support other military families. Another carries Jameson Lopez, Ph.D., a member of the Kwat'san (Quechan) Tribe from Fort Yuma who led a tank platoon through more than 300 combat missions in Operation New Dawn and is now a professor at the University of Arizona working to expand access to higher education for Indigenous students. All three are Tillman Scholars. None of them are famous.

The company's argument is that these stories are worth more than the bag real estate they occupy — that the next generation learns what service looks like by encountering real examples of it. A portion of every sale funds Pat Tillman Foundation academic scholarships, and starting this Fall, shoppers can nominate someone from their own community to appear on a future bag at KettleHeroes.com/Nominate.

"Pick up three of our bags and you might get a combat medic, a pediatric oncology nurse, and a tribal member who commands a tank platoon and then goes on to teach at a university," Sinykin said. "That's the country. Not one of them is famous, and every one of them put somebody else first. If a kid reads one of those stories on the back of a popcorn bag and thinks, I could be that — that's the entire reason we're in business."

Where it started

Kettle Heroes began in 2013 with a kettle, a food truck, and a debt the founders felt they owed. Their grandfathers served in the U.S. Army during World War II — among them Major Gordon Sinykin, who served on General Douglas MacArthur's staff and stood in the front row aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945 as the Japanese surrender ended the war. Their father, Captain Daniel Sinykin, served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Korea during the Vietnam era. Neither generation said much about any of it.

Tillman was an Arizona Cardinals safety who watched the September 11 attacks unfold on a television at the team's Tempe facility. Months later he walked away from a three-year, $3.6 million contract to enlist as an Army Ranger, and refused to speak publicly about the decision. He and his brother Kevin took the oath of enlistment at a recruiting station in Chandler, Arizona — the city where Kettle Heroes' new plant now runs. Tillman was killed in Afghanistan in April 2004 at the age of 27.

This month marks 25 years since the attacks that prompted that choice.

"My grandfather stood on the deck of the Missouri the day the Second World War ended, and he hardly ever brought it up. My dad ran signals in Korea and never made anything of it," Sinykin said. "Pat Tillman gave up celebrity to become anonymous and wouldn't even explain himself to reporters. That's the thread. Twenty-five years on, the risk isn't that the country forgets the day. It's that we forget the ordinary people who quietly decided to serve because of it and then never said a word about it. Those are the people we put on the bag."

"I started at ASU in 1996, the fall Pat's defense shut out Nebraska and that team went to the Rose Bowl," added Aaron Sinykin, Co-Founder. "Undersized linebacker, barely 200 pounds, hit like a truck. Nobody on that campus would have guessed he'd walk away from an NFL contract, and when he did, he refused to explain himself to anybody. That stayed with a lot of us who were on that campus. When my brother and I started this company, we weren't building a popcorn brand and bolting a cause onto it. We started with the people we admired and worked backward."

The company is now run by all three Sinykin brothers. Josh Sinykin, the youngest, joined in 2026 as IT Director and co-owner, building the systems that connect the Chandler plant to the company's distributors and retail partners.

Building the capacity to back it

Kettle Heroes has completed its relocation from Tempe into a purpose-built production facility in West Chandler, representing a capital investment of approximately $2.1 million.

The new automated bagging line increases packaging throughput from 5 bags per minute to 75 — a fifteenfold gain — while delivering the weight accuracy and seal integrity national retail programs require.

The facility is GFCO gluten-free certified at 10 ppm or less and operates as a dedicated gluten-free plant. A second phase, already engineered and scheduled, will add substantial popping capacity and inline inspection, raising kettle-cooking capacity to match the new packaging line.

"For twelve years we've made every decision around one question: can we control the quality ourselves?" Sinykin said. "We started in 2013 with a kettle in a food truck at farmers markets and Cardinals’ football games. Today we own a modern, automated plant in our own backyard. We’re not just a brand.  We actually make our own products and that control is what provides a great experience for our customers."

Into Texas

Kettle Heroes is now shipping into Whole Foods Market stores throughout Texas, supported by UNFI's Lancaster, Texas distribution center — an expansion of the brand's existing Whole Foods presence.

The move follows sustained velocity performance in the natural channel. Independent Nielsen analysis places Kettle Heroes 64 to 78 percent above the median for comparable brands at its distribution tier — evidence, the company argues, that its growth has been limited by shelf access rather than consumer demand.

"This brand has always sold well wherever people could actually find it," Sinykin said. "The plant is how we make sure they can find it in a lot more places."

Availability

Kettle Heroes is available in approximately 1,000 retail doors across 45 states, including Whole Foods Market, Bristol Farms, Erewhon, Metropolitan Market, and Central Markets, and online at kettleheroes.com. Core flavors include Aged White Cheddar, Hatch Green Chile Cheddar, Original Sweet & Salty Kettle Corn, and Spicy Dill Pickle, in 3 oz, 4 oz, and 5 oz bags at a suggested retail price of $5.99.

About Kettle Heroes

Founded in 2013 in Tempe, Arizona by brothers Rudi and Aaron Sinykin as a food truck at Arizona farmers markets and Cardinals games and today run by three brothers, Kettle Heroes is a premium kettle-cooked popcorn brand built on real ingredients, small-batch craft, and the belief that most heroes go unnoticed. Through Kettle Heroes Honors, its partnership with the Pat Tillman Foundation, every variably printed bag features an everyday hero, and a portion of every sale funds Tillman Scholar academic scholarships. The company self-manufactures at its GFCO-certified, dedicated gluten-free facility in Chandler, Arizona.

For more information, visit kettleheroes.com.

Media Assets

High-resolution images available on request:

• Photograph of the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri, September 2, 1945, with Major Gordon Sinykin identified (U.S. military photograph)
• Interior images of the Chandler manufacturing facility and automated packaging line
• Product photography, all core flavors
• Portraits of the three brothers: Rudi, Aaron, and Josh Sinykin and their father, Daniel Sinykin-deceased
• Bag panels featuring Tillman Scholars Matthew Randle, Katelyn Newton, and Jameson Lopez

Media Contact

Julia Sinykin

Public Relations Director, Kettle Heroes

(508) 981-7316

kettleheroes.com