Popeyes considered calling boneless wings 'bites' to not confuse customers

Before launching them, Popeyes experimented with various names for its boneless wings, including "bites," due to concerns that customers might be confused by the term. In a chat with Business Insider, Jeff Klein, president of Popeyes US and Canada , revealed, "There was a lot of online chatter around 'what the heck is a boneless wing?’”

"They're not de-boned wings," he clarified. Boneless wings are crafted from breaded breast meat, and the moniker "boneless wings" often leaves patrons scratching their heads. "We've definitely tested a variety of different names," Klein admitted, mentioning "bites" as one of the options.

Klein pointed out that labeling them as wings allows Popeyes to market its entire wings selection both with bones and without its advertising campaigns. He also mentioned that sales of bone-in wings have risen since the promotion of the boneless variety began, stating, "because it's just generating that demand for wings in general."

• Chick-fil-A is now selling waffle fry pool floats and cow print bucket hats

• New York deli's pickle sandwich drawing in crowds from TikTok causes 'pickle mania'

The fried chicken chain made bone-in wings a staple on its menu in November.

"Boneless wings were always part of the plan," Klein disclosed, adding that they account for nearly 40% of the total wings market.

He also noted that boneless wings tend to attract a slightly different crowd than bone-in wings.

"Boneless wings tend to skew a little bit younger than bone-in," said Klein. "They tend to skew a little bit female relative to bone-in, not drastically, but just a little bit."

According to Klein, wing orders typically come from larger groups and are often placed through digital channels.

"There's a little bit of seasonality to wings, but not as much as people would think," he added, referring to their popularity as a match-day snack.

Boneless wings are an ideal option for restaurants because breast meat is more abundant, making them cheaper to purchase than wings.

Popeyes' launching boneless wings apparently "wasn't supply chain-motivated at all," Klein said. "There can be volatility in the bone-in wings pricing at times, but not a current concern for us. It was more around variety."