Chew on That
Chewing gum is chewing gum, right? Until you look up the actual definition: a sweetened and flavored insoluble plastic material used for chewing. Or: Chewing gum is some kind of flavored and sweetened rubber material for chewing.
Right on par with this generation’s healthy, natural and organic movement, one entrepreneur looked at her purple, unnatural gum after a clean lunch of pressed juice and a salad and thought, “Why would I put this in my body?”
Caron Proschan founded Simply Gum to fill the market gap for a good for you gum. After looking at the ingredients in regular chewing gum, Proschan realized these artificial sticks were made with a plastic base that the FDA classifies as “gum base” and are filled with other questionable substances like aspartame, BHT, Xylitol – poisonous to dogs – and other ingredients used in car tires and white glue.
TOP FLAVORS
Simply Gum is NOT made with artificial flavors, preservatives or synthetics. Instead, the chewing gum contains natural chicle base (which comes from the sap of a sapodilla tree and gives gum it’s elasticity), organic raw cane sugar juice (1 gram per piece), organic vegetable glycerin, organic rice flour, and natural flavors from essential oils. @SimplyGum is not only better for your body, it’s also biodegradable and better for the planet.
Flavors include mint, cinnamon, coffee, ginger, and more and come with handy dandy “post chew wraps” for easy disposal. At $2.99 for a pack of 15 pieces, the price isn’t that drastic. Simply Gum recently released a line of mints, also made with all natural and safe yet effective ingredients. Both products are reviewed as working strongly enough to alleviate bad breath.
Simply Gum's Growth
The journey to creating natural gum was not easy, as it was completely uncharted territory. Proschan took a year of recipe testing in her kitchen before setting out to find a USA manufacturing facility, with the help of 489 backers pledging $15,207 on Kickstarter. Simply Gum settled on one in Brooklyn to employ the community and give back. Proschan says learning how to run a plant was a huge learning curve, but it allowed her start up to be quick and nimble. In 2014, Simply Gum was officially born and has since grown to over 50 employees.
Simply Gum raised eyebrows with its unique approach to pairing with retailers: The company doesn’t look for a match based on similar products, but rather similar company missions. Simply Gum chooses retailers that also preach creating good in the world and therefore have a similar audience. Retailers are always looking for interesting product to curate for their customers.
Everything about Simply Gum is dedicated to living simply. Simple packaging, simple ingredients, simple lifestyle. Four years since launching, Simply Gum products are available in over 10,000 stores, are a top seller in gum on Amazon.com, and can be found in clothing retailers such as Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie. The company also takes customer feedback very seriously and is constantly monitoring improvements they can make based on online reviews.
Ready to stop chewing plastic?
Category: Business Spotlight
