Knotty Pretzels

In 2007, Knotty Pretzels co-founder Casey May and his family picked up from Dallas, Texas, and moved to Kennesaw, Georgia. As a new sophomore to a new state and community, he found himself sitting in Kennesaw Mountain High School’s business academy class next to a complete stranger. He had no idea that the young man next to him, Sean McSweeney, would quickly become his best friend and later business partner for the #1 selling local product at Whole Foods.

Sean McSweeney’s grandmother, affectionately referred to as “Mom Mom,” did what any good grandmother would do and made her grandbaby some pretzels that he would like. He wasn’t a fan of the chips and salsa that his Dad, uncles, and grandpa had while watching the Super Bowl. He wasn’t even a fan of the traditional pretzel offerings. Sean found the pretzels to be fine at first but they always left his mouth feeling dry and bland. Mom Mom got to work and put her expertise in Italian-style cooking to use and transformed the typical pretzel offering into the OG Italian pretzel. From there, a family favorite was born and then “Mom Mom’s Italian Pretzels” were ubiquitous in the McSweeney household.

At the time, the McSweeneys thought highly of Mom Mom’s delicacy, but never considered mass marketing it.

In the subsequent years after high school which included college and a smattering of odd jobs (most notably a brief stint as cabana boys in Cocoa Beach, Florida), the guys returned back home and rented a house in Kennesaw. From their house, they were purchasing dirt bikes, repairing them, and reselling them for a bit of profit. At the same time, enlisting the help of Sean’s Mom, Karen McSweeney, they were making as many pretzels with Mom Mom’s Italian blend as they could and running out to arts and crafts festivals around the metro on weekends to sell pretzels.

In the spring of 2013, at one of their Saturdays spent at local arts festivals, Marietta’s own Red Hare Brewing Company approached Sean and Casey at their pretzel tent and invited them to an upcoming Red Hare anniversary party at the Delk Road brewery. They agreed to attend the beer festival and sell their glutenous goods. In four hours, they had sold more pretzels than they ever have.

A proverbial light bulb went off. Beer and pretzels. Pretzels and beer. A match made in heaven!

From there, they looked into the upcoming Atlanta Beer Festival. Seeing the festival was only a couple of months away, they signed up and got to work making the product.

“The lines for our pretzels were longer than the lines for the beer!” Casey shared, his hand rushing through the air to indicate the impossible length of their pretzel procession.

“We learned that the serious beer drinkers used pretzels as a palate cleanser in between drinking strong flavors and styles.”

After selling out all their product and getting a ton of interest from brewers, the pair knew that their new initiative was to find as many beer festivals they could to keep the momentum going.

At that point, the guys would drive anywhere within an 8-hour radius, getting up at 3:00 am and arriving in time to set up, sell all their product, load up the car and drive back. They never stayed in hotels.

“We stayed hungry and put everything back into the next weekend’s product.”

After they had done a couple of years of heavy guerilla marketing, giving away hundreds of pounds of pretzels to bowling alleys, breweries, gas stations, and local stores, they were able to secure a couple hundred retail contracts. Getting into Harry’s Market on Roswell Road and then following into Whole Foods when they built the new store in Kennesaw was the lynchpin for their explosive growth. The guys attribute those domed sample containers as the vehicle for getting their product out to a wider audience. In July of 2021, Sean and Casey estimate they found themselves in 225 retailers in Georgia and all the Whole Foods in the Southeast region. A mere eight months later, Knotty Pretzels is in 1455 retailers nationwide. This includes the mid-Atlantic Krogers, Whole Foods, Publix stores, Albertsons South Region (all of Texas), and breweries near and far. Both Sean and Casey were bullish in their estimate that after Kroger assesses their sales, that’s it’s only a matter of time before full expansion into all Krogers nationwide. On the topic of discussing their success, the pretzel purveyors dropped on me the fact that last year Knotty Pretzels was named the #1 selling local product out of all Whole Foods stores.

Sean and Casey, both full of energy, spoke to me about their team. They started with only three employees and are now employing around twenty people that are engaged in manufacturing, shipping, packing, and branding. Though they’ve seen exponential growth in the past year, both guys still do pretty much everything in the company. They are now at the point where they are operating out of two separate facilities and would like to consolidate into one large building to make logistics more seamless. On the topic of their employees, in a heartfelt gesture, Sean looked right at me and said, “I have to say one thing about our employees before we go any farther.” Sean made it a point to ask me to include the employee that has been with them the longest and is by far the most important- his mother, Karen McSweeney.

“She gave everything to this business, is always helping, and this wouldn’t exist at all without her sacrifice and work. Absolutely selfless.”

On the name “Knotty Pretzels”:

The double entendre was created as they were ideating potential names while at a friend’s house one evening over drinks. Their buddy’s dad was nearby and overheard some of the conversations and popped his head into the living room. He gave them the idea for the “Knotty Pretzels” name and both Sean and Casey knew in that exact moment the perfect name to encapsulate their brand had been created.

After the initial success of the Italian seasoning, the guys have experimented and enjoyed strong sales with many other flavors including Hot Wings, Honey Mustard, Cinnamon Roll, Smoky Cheddar Bacon, Mesquite BBQ, and their newest flavor, ChileLime.

You can find Knotty Pretzels in many Marietta establishments including, but not limited to, the Local Exchange, Atlanta Hard Cider, Red Hare, Ironmonger Brewing, Tree Horn Cider, Schoolhouse Brewing, Baby Tommy’s Pizza, the Whole Foods on Barrett Parkway, and Publix stores.

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On Instagram @knottypretzels