Hershey is expanding its Shaq-A-Licious gummy line to tap into the growing demand for multiple textures and gamified experiences.
The Pennsylvania-based company is launching Shaq-A-Licious Slams, which features chewy, sour mango rings and gummy balls coated in crunchy candies. The balls are available in watermelon, strawberry and orange flavors.
Consumers can play with the candy by dunking the basketball-shaped gummies into the mango rings. The flavor variety also allows shoppers opportunities to mix and match depending on their preferences.
“SLAMS is a game-changer for the Shaq-A-Licious brand and showcases our approach to candy innovation,” Vivek Mehrotra, senior brand manager for Shaq-A-Licious at Hershey, said in a statement. “Stacking crunchy gummy balls inside a sour mango ring creates a multi-textural bite unlike anything else in the gummy aisle.”
While Hershey is best known for its namesake chocolate bars, Kisses and Reese’s, it has been aggressively boosting its presence in the fast-growing gummies sector. Hershey partnered in 2024 with basketball star Shaquille O’Neal to roll out Shaq-A-Licious XL Gummies and also brought hard candy Jolly Rancher into the category.
Shaq-A-Licious Slams will appear on retail shelves this month. Hershey said O’Neal is “hands-on” with every Shaq-A-Licious product, including the flavors, taste, packaging and launch.
Gummies have proven attractive to a wide variety of ages, particularly millennials who grew up with gummy worms or bears as kids. Now adults, these individuals are feeling nostalgic and turning to treats for themselves or their kids that remind them of the past.
For Gen Z and other younger consumers, gummies are inviting because they are brightly colored and squishy, providing a food for them to play with and eat.
Demand for gummies spiked during COVID-19 as consumers snacked more at home. Since then, the popularity hasn’t let up. Gummies also have proven to be a valuable platform for snack companies to innovate, particularly with texture.
Nerds Gummy Clusters, which are gummy candies covered in Nerds, have become a standout hit for Ferrara, which is owned by a Ferrero-affiliated holding company. The innovation helped put overall brand sales to roughly $900 million in 2025, compared to just $50 million when Nerds was acquired from Nestlé in 2018.
Some food companies have prioritized making their brands playful in an effort to stand out in the $48 billion confectionery category.
Gum giant Bazooka Brands, for example, last year launched Juicy Drop Gummy Mystery Cube, a large gummy candy that consumers have to peel apart to discover the gelatinous land or sea creature embedded inside.
“There’s an entertainment factor,” Becky Silberfarb, vice president of marketing at Bazooka Brands, said in an interview last May. “You’re not just eating the candy.”
