The Hershey Company and Shaquille O’Neal announced on March 31, 2026 the debut of Shaq-A-Licious SLAMS, a new gummy candy format launching as the official gummy of the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year. The product is available nationwide at retail and online at Shaqalicious.com, timed to Final Four Weekend in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Shaq-A-Licious SLAMS are available in watermelon, strawberry, and orange flavors, featuring crunchy-coated gummy balls paired with a chewy sour mango hoop. According to Hershey’s announcement, the format is designed for consumers to dunk the crunchy gummy balls into the sour mango hoop, mimicking the action of basketball. The Hershey Company generates over $11.2 billion in annual revenues and employs more than 20,000 people worldwide.
The Product: Multi-Texture Candy with a Sports Mechanic Built In
Shaq-A-Licious SLAMS is not a standard gummy line extension. The format builds an interactive eating ritual directly into the product design. The sour mango hoop functions as both a flavor component and a physical prop, and the dunking mechanic gives the product a social and participatory quality that standard gummy bags do not have.
According to Hershey’s announcement, the existing Shaq-A-Licious lineup already includes XL Gummies in Original, Sour, and Sneaker Shapes. SLAMS represents a new sub-format built specifically around the Final Four occasion, adding a product tied to a live sports moment rather than a general confectionery season.
Shaquille O’Neal stated in the announcement:
“SLAMS is about having fun. I want fans to stack it, slam it and snack it with me while we watch the future of basketball battle it out on the court.”
Final Four Activations: Truck, Tailgate, and Live Podcast
Hershey and O’Neal are supporting the SLAMS launch with a series of physical activations during Final Four Weekend in Indianapolis:
On April 2, the Shaq-A-Licious truck will visit the Walmart Supercenter in Greenwood, Indiana, in partnership with Operation Homefront, a national nonprofit supporting military families. Reese’s NABC College All-Star athletes will shop alongside pre-selected military families with a $500 shopping spree provided by The Hershey Company.
From April 3 through April 6, the Shaq-A-Licious SLAMS truck will operate at the NCAA Tip-Off Tailgate on Georgia Street, offering free gummy samples, giveaways, and an interactive candy activation open to the public.
On April 6, Shaquille O’Neal will record a live episode of his podcast Big Pod at the Final Four, connecting the candy brand to his existing media platform in front of a live audience at college basketball’s biggest event.
Shaq’s Food and Beverage Portfolio: A Commercial Ecosystem
This launch does not exist in isolation. Shaquille O’Neal has built a food and beverage portfolio that is now one of the more commercially comprehensive athlete-to-brand conversion stories in the industry.
His restaurant brand Big Chicken, which Source86 has covered in its expansion into both Penn State and Honduras, currently has more than 350 locations in development worldwide with 40-plus locations open across traditional and non-traditional restaurant settings. His DJ enterprise, Shaq’s Fun House and Bass All-Stars Festival, operates as a separate brand extension. The Shaquille O’Neal Foundation addresses underserved youth education. And his candy partnership with Hershey, one of the largest confectionery companies in the world with over $11.2 billion in annual revenues, places the Shaq-A-Licious brand inside Hershey’s national retail and promotional infrastructure.
The Big Pod podcast integration at Final Four creates a media moment that generates content and social coverage for the candy brand without additional marketing spend. For Hershey, the podcast association extends the SLAMS campaign beyond the Final Four weekend into ongoing digital reach through O’Neal’s existing audience.
Why It Matters for Confectionery Manufacturers and Sports Marketing Suppliers
Multi-texture gummy innovation is a growing R&D priority across the confectionery category. The crunchy-coated gummy ball format in Shaq-A-Licious SLAMS requires a layered production process: a standard gummy center with a separate crunchy shell application, packaged alongside a distinctly different chewy sour component in the same bag. This is a more technically complex production challenge than a single-texture gummy line. For co-manufacturers and confectionery ingredient suppliers developing multi-texture candy formats, Hershey’s willingness to bring this format to national retail through a celebrity collaboration validates the commercial viability of the category.
The sports occasion gummy is a proven demand driver that compounds annually. This is the second year Shaq-A-Licious has served as the official gummy of the NCAA Tournament. Sports occasion-specific candy formats generate concentrated retail velocity during tournament windows, creating predictable short-run procurement cycles for flavoring systems, confectionery coatings, and specialty packaging. For bulk citric acid and malic acid suppliers that power sour confectionery, the growing sports-tied gummy category represents a recurring seasonal demand signal.
Celebrity food brands succeed when the celebrity’s cultural presence is active, not legacy. Shaquille O’Neal is not coasting on basketball nostalgia. He is active as a television analyst on TNT’s Inside the NBA, an active podcast host, a global DJ, a restaurant operator with hundreds of locations in development, and a candy brand partner with Hershey. The SLAMS launch lands in a media environment where O’Neal generates daily content across sports, entertainment, and food. For private label candy manufacturers and co-packers evaluating celebrity partnership opportunities, the Shaq-A-Licious model illustrates what separates a durable celebrity food brand from a promotional licensing arrangement: the celebrity’s ongoing media presence drives continuous brand relevance rather than a single launch spike.
The Operation Homefront Walmart activation is a deliberate retail placement signal. The SLAMS truck visiting the Walmart Supercenter in Greenwood, Indiana, on April 2, combined with a military family shopping event sponsored by Hershey, accomplishes two things simultaneously. It creates earned media around a charitable activation, and it places the Shaq-A-Licious brand physically inside Walmart’s retail footprint during the highest-traffic sports weekend of the college basketball calendar. For confectionery brands and co-manufacturers evaluating mass retail distribution strategies, Hershey’s use of a cause-linked experiential event to anchor a Walmart placement is a precise and repeatable activation model.
FAQs
- What is Shaq-A-Licious SLAMS? A new gummy candy format from Shaquille O’Neal and The Hershey Company, featuring crunchy-coated gummy balls in watermelon, strawberry, and orange flavors paired with a chewy sour mango hoop, designed for fans to dunk the gummy balls into the hoop. Available nationwide at retail and at Shaqalicious.com.
- When did Shaq-A-Licious SLAMS launch? The product was announced on March 31, 2026, timed to Final Four Weekend in Indianapolis.
- What activations are planned for Final Four Weekend? A Shaq-A-Licious truck at the Walmart Supercenter in Greenwood, Indiana on April 2, a public activation at the NCAA Tip-Off Tailgate on Georgia Street from April 3 through April 6, and a live taping of Shaquille O’Neal’s Big Pod podcast on April 6.
- Who manufactures Shaq-A-Licious? The Hershey Company, which generates over $11.2 billion in annual revenues and distributes products in approximately 70 countries worldwide.
- What other Shaq-A-Licious products are available? The existing lineup includes XL Gummies in Original, Sour, and Sneaker Shapes alongside the new SLAMS format.
About Source86
The Shaq-A-Licious SLAMS launch illustrates the growing intersection of celebrity brands, sports occasion marketing, and multi-texture confectionery innovation, creating concentrated demand for crunchy confectionery coatings, sour acidulant systems, fruit flavor concentrates, and specialty packaging formats that support interactive gummy products at national retail scale. At Source86, we connect confectionery manufacturers, co-packers, and private label candy operators with trusted bulk and wholesale suppliers of citric acid, malic acid, natural fruit flavor systems, confectionery coatings, and specialty sugar inputs that power gummy production across celebrity brand, licensed, and private label confectionery programs.
Whether your production team is developing a new multi-texture gummy format, sourcing bulk sour confectionery inputs for a national sports occasion launch, or building a co-manufacturing partnership for a celebrity-branded candy line, Source86 is your bridge to the right manufacturing and supply chain partners. Contact Source86 today to start your sourcing search.
