ProBar is a food and drink brand founded in Park City, Utah, in 2003. It is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
ProBar's first storeroom was a closet across the hall at Skullcandy, rented for $100 a month. Jeff Coleman found his first bar around 2002 in a Park City health food store, wrapped in what he called "probably the worst packaging job you could imagine." Within weeks he had bought out a partner's interest.
The recipe came from Art Eggertsen, a chef known as the Food Coach, who worked it out while snowboarding at Snowbird. Coleman, by the company's account, arrived in Park City in 2002 living on Philly cheesesteaks and martinis until the trails changed his order. ProBar lists 2003 as its founding year.
As it grew, the company moved to Salt Lake City, and in 2014 into a 35,000-square-foot plant. "We manufacture ourselves, which is really different than a lot of bar companies," Coleman told CompanyWeek. The bars are blended, not baked.
Coleman later bought the company outright, and it is privately held with him as CEO. In 2015 he said the energy chews and protein bars needed machinery ProBar had chosen not to buy. In 2018 U.S. Ski & Snowboard named ProBar its official energy bar, which put a Snowbird snowboarder's recipe back on the snow.
ProBar sales director Jules Lambert spent two years selling the bars from an RV with his wife and three kids, and their fourth child was born on the road.
My brother and I lived off ProBars for years. I always have one in my bag.
Alex
