Don't Take Another Bite Of Wingstop Before Knowing This

There are few foods more universally loved than the chicken wing. It should come as no surprise then, to see the success Wingstop has become. Born in Dallas, Texas, the chicken wing chain has grown to include more than 1,500 locations around the world. 

But truth be told, success was never a sure thing during the company's early years. Yes, chicken wings had been popular for many years before Wingstop arrived, but most restaurants relegated these savory bites to appetizer or side dish status. Wingstop, on the other hand, wanted to serve only chicken wings and make them the star of the plate. By doing so, it has garnered a legion of diehard fans. 

But even the most devout Wingstop loyalist likely doesn't know the whole truth about this chicken wing empire. From its unparalleled growth and huge Canadian expansion plans to its restaurant design of the future and connections to a famous rapper and NFL quarterback, this is the untold truth of Wingstop.

In the late 1980s, Antonio Swad was the proud owner of the Dallas-area pizza restaurant Pizza Patrón (via Franchising.com). As the years went on, he noticed there was an overabundance of pizza places in area, which led him to the question: Why not serve something else? He came up with the idea to get into the chicken wing business and started by giving out samples at Pizza Patrón. Not long after, Swad went all-in on the chicken wing concept.

The first Wingstop opened in Garland, Texas in 1994. By this time, Pizza Patrón had grown to four stores. Swad spent years working nearly every type of job at both restaurants, including fry cook, customer service specialist, and even general contractor. He eventually sold both businesses when each closed in on 100 locations (via Restaurant Business Online).

But restaurant ownership is clearly in Swad's blood, so the industry veteran wasn't out of the game for long. In 2019, he opened a new restaurant in Mesquite, Texas called Porch Swing. The Southern-themed eatery features menu items such as grilled meatloaf, pork loin, shrimp, and chicken fried steak, as well as an in-house pie shop. "This concept revealed itself over time and in the end gelled together like no other," Swad said in a statement. "It's a blend of contemporary and classic Southern touches with a real social, comfortable, fun atmosphere. And it's all about the soul foods we love and crave."

Wingstop has gone from a single restaurant in 1994 to roughly 1,500 U.S. locations today (via QSR Magazine). That puts it amongst the largest chain restaurants in America, according to Restaurant Business Online, and one of the top 10 chicken brands.

While the up-and-coming fast-food empire's steady growth during its first 25 years was quite impressive, Wingstop has really stepped on the accelerator since then. According to QSR Magazine, the company was the fourth fastest-growing chain restaurant in 2020 based on number of locations. The chain added a net of 153 stores during those 12 months, more than Taco Bell, Wendy's, Shake Shack, Five Guys, Whataburger, and Arby's combined. Only Starbucks, Domino's, and Jersey Mike's opened more restaurants.

Not only is Wingstop expanding its footprint at a higher rate than its competitors, but it's also increasing its revenue at a nearly unmatchable clip. The chicken chain grew its sales by 31% in 2020, according to Restaurant Business Online, the second-largest increase among the country's restaurant chains. This came on the heels of a 19% bump in 2019. All told, Wingstop's system-wide sales grew by more than $600 million in just two years.

The chain has no intentions of slowing down, either. It has a goal of reaching 4,000 locations in the United States and 3,000 stores abroad.

Wingstop has become a global brand. Yet, of all the countries the chicken chain has expanded into, our neighbor to the north is not one of them. That is all about to change very soon, however. In April 2021, Wingstop announced it would be opening 100 locations across Canada over the next 10 years.

"Wingstop in Canada marks another key step toward our stated goal of becoming a Top 10 Global Brand and further validates the portability of our brand on a global level," Nicolas Boudet, Wingstop's president of international, said in a statement. "We currently see Wingstop addressing a need in the Canadian market with our unique brand positioning and product offering and believe this is a market where we can replicate the success we've experienced in the U.S. based on Canadians' appreciation and craving for bold flavor and high-quality product."

The first store is set to open in Toronto sometime in 2022. Wingstop teased the opening in late 2021 when, according to blogTO, it gave out free wings from a food truck that traveled around the city. "People have been very excited about Wingstop coming to Toronto and us bringing our flavors and made-to-order wings to Toronto," a Wingstop spokesperson told the outlet. It appears the highly anticipated store opening is not far away, as a storefront in Toronto is already covered in Wingstop signs (via Daily Hive). It's now just a matter of time.

Wingstop has long been a restaurant of the people. Now, it's a restaurant owned by the people. In 2015, the business became a public company, according to Reuters. This means anyone can buy shares of the restaurant chain on the stock market.

Wingstop priced its initial public offering at $19 per share, which valued the company at roughly $543 million. That was higher than the expected range of $16-$18 per share, which was set earlier in the week. But it still might have been too low as investors were ready to pounce at the opportunity to get into the chicken wing business. By the end of Wingstop's initial day on the market, its stock price rose 60 percent to approximately $30.50, according to the Nation's Restaurant News. "We have something that's attractive to investors," Wingstop president and CEO Charlie Morrison told the outlet. "We've got all the growth characteristics of a fast-casual concept, but we have the size and scale of this brand at 700 locations, and the cash-flow characteristics of a best-in-class franchisor." In total, the first day of selling shares raised more than $110 million for Wingstop.

Few things go together better than chicken wings and football. So, who better to serve as a spokesperson for Wingstop than a famous quarterback? In 2003, former NFL quarterback Troy Aikman signed to become a spokesman for Wingstop (via ESPN). During his playing days, which ended in 2000, Aikman was a member of the Dallas Cowboys. Wingstop is based out of Dallas. "At the time, it was a natural fit," Aikman told ESPN. "They had a Wingstop right across from our Valley Ranch training facility, and I used to meet teammates there on Thursday night."

The quarterback's relationship with the chicken wing chain grew in 2011 when he was named to the company's board of directors. As part of his compensation, Aikman was awarded a significant number of shares in the business (via Dallas Business News). When Wingstop when public in 2015, the Hall of Fame quarterback cashed in — big time. According to ESPN, Aikman made millions of dollars by selling a portion of his stocks during Wingstop's initial public offering. Declining to provide the exact amount, Aikman only disclosed that the total was more than he made in his first four years in the NFL, which was $6 million.

Wingstop clearly has a robust fanbase. But amongst this group of diehard devotees, one chicken wing lover stands above the rest: Rick Ross. The rapper has made his love for Wingstop well known. His fanaticism goes so far, in fact, that Ross doesn't just eat at the restaurants — he owns them. According to Complex, Ross is the proud owner of 25 Wingstop franchise locations.

The musician first thought about getting into the Wingstop business after his career took off in the late 2000s, he told Forbes. "I began having those thoughts every time I pulled up to the restaurant," he said. "Like, 'Yo! This is something I need to do.'" He opened the doors to his initial location in 2011, and he hasn't slowed down ever since. "My personal passion for it hasn't wavered any, over all the years I've loved Wingstop," he told Complex. "You see, I'm still repping it like it's the first time I had it. And when I eat Wingstop, it's still like the first time I had it. And on a business side, when I went and sat down with the CEO, Charlie Morrison, he knew I had no experience being a franchisee. He knew I didn't have the time sitting in a franchise, but he saw my vision and my passion. He opened the doors for me. He didn't just let me follow my dreams; he let me go to that next level."

Wingstop turned 25 in July 2019 and to celebrate the anniversary, the chain offered an expanded menu of 25 new items over the course of 25 days. Among these unique options were six new wing flavors: Lemon Garlic, Dragon's Breath, Bayou BBQ, Mango Volcano, Hot Lemon, and Atomic BBQ. According to the chain, these original varieties were inspired by its fans' creative remixes of some of Wingstop's 11 mainstay flavors. For instance, Hot Lemon is a combination of Original Hot and Lemon Pepper, while Bayou BBQ is a mix of Hickory Smoked BBQ and Cajun. The homemade creations became so popular on social media that Wingstop chose to give the people what they wanted.

Knowing their origin story, it should come as no surprise to learn that the flavors were a hit with customers. So much so that Wingstop brought back three of them in February 2021. Starting on Valentine's Day, which the company says is one of its busiest days of the year, Hot Lemon, Bayou BBQ, Lemon Garlic reappeared on Wingstop menus nationwide for a limited time. Wingstop wasn't done. It went back and found thousands of social media posts that mentioned these flavors and asked for them to be put back on the menu. As a thank you, the chain gave each user that wrote one of these posts a $10 promo code to use on an order of wings.

It's no secret that many restaurants went out of business during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wingstop, however, had a much different experience. Not only did the chicken wing chain not suffer during this time, it saw record growth.

According to Restaurant Business Online, Wingstop's systemwide sales increased nearly 30% in 2020 to a whopping $2 billion. Much of the company's success was thanks to how well suited it was to handle the complicated logistics brought on by COVID-19. "Having a robust digital infrastructure already in place and a proper delivery partner have more to do with the strength of the brand than anything else," CEO Charlie Morrison said. Wingstop's digital platforms already accounted for nearly half of its total sales prior to the pandemic. In addition, 2020 was coincidentally the first year the chain had delivery available across its footprint.

It wasn't just the bottom line where Wingstop experienced a banner year. The brand also increased its total number of restaurants by 153, surpassing its own expectation of 120 to 130 new locations. This was due in no small part to Wingstop's steadfast — and creative — franchisees. "We're focusing efforts on ways to gain the attention of local municipalities to get these restaurants open," Morrison said in July of 2020. "Some team members have figured out how to Facetime permits and get them taken care of. We've shared those best practices across the company and it has worked well."

We've all been there — sometimes a phone call is just too much effort. That was Wingstop's thinking when, in 2016, it launched a social media ordering platform that allowed customers to place orders on Twitter and Facebook Messenger. According to the company, this technology was the first of its kind.

All a customer has to do to get started is begin a conversation with Wingstop on one of the two social media platforms. The user is then taken to a private conversation where they can customize and complete their order. They'll also be informed of the nearest Wingstop location and estimated pick-up time. "Wingstop has always engaged with consumers who talk about their cravings for our wings on social media," Flynn Dekker, Wingstop's chief marketing officer, said in a statement. "Now, we are giving those same fans a convenient way to place orders via social media right from their phones, tablets, or even watches."

Wingstop made things even easier for customers the very next year with its SMS text ordering platform (via Fast Casual). Hungry users can simply text "order" to "94647" ("WINGS"), enter their zip code, and select a menu item. "Texting has become one of the leading methods of communication today," then-CEO Stacy Peterson said in a press release. "So what's more natural than inviting our fans to feed their flavor cravings by placing an order in the way that feels most comfortable and familiar?"

It hasn't been all smooth sailing for Wingstop during its meteoric rise. In the past few years, the chain has garnered some negative publicity thanks to a few rogue employees and the power of social media. In 2016, a Colorado Wingstop employee was filmed dunking her head into a bucket of chicken and rubbing her face in the food, according to the Daily Mail. The video was posted on Facebook and spread online. The owner of the location referred to the employee's transgression as a "bad judgement call," but insisted the chicken was never served to customers. "The health and safety of our customers is of the utmost importance to myself and to the Wingstop brand and the actions displayed in this video are not acceptable," he said in the statement. "We have confirmed that the food in the video was not served to customers and was immediately thrown away after the video was taken."

More recently, a TikTok video gave a behind-the-scenes look at some unsanitary practices in one Wingstop kitchen. According to the Daily Dot, a video posted last year by a user who claimed to be an assistant manager included accusations that employees were not allowed to wear gloves and were told to use food that has fallen on the floor. One commentator, a Wingstop employee, claimed that these practices were not company-wide. "It all depends on management and where [you're] located," they wrote.

In case you didn't hear the terrifying news at the time: there was a chicken wing shortage across the country in 2021 (via Vox). What could have been a crippling blow to Wingstop instead turned out to be an opportunity. In June 2021, the company launched Thighstop, a completely virtual brand that sold, you guessed it, chicken thighs (via CNN). Thighstop did not have any dine-in restaurants. Instead, customers ordered online at Thighstop.com or through DoorDash. The menu included the same 11 sauces you would find at any Wingstop and the chicken thighs came in both bone-in and boneless varieties.

For Wingstop, the new brand helped in two ways. First off, it improved its bottom line. Wingstop CEO Charlie Morrison told CNN Business that the price of a pound of chicken wings had risen from 98 cents to $3.22 in just a year. Chicken thighs, meanwhile, were about half that price.

The second benefit for Wingstop was creating a larger market for the less-popular piece of meat. Just a few months after launching Thighstop, Wingstop added thighs to its menu. "When launching Thighstop as a virtual brand, we knew our fans would be excited to try thighs," Wingstop's Chief Growth Officer Marisa Carona said in a statement. "The response was overwhelming ... They asked, so we've answered — we're bringing it all together by adding thighs to the Wingstop menu to amplify our full flavor experience."

Wingstop is not your grandfather's fast-food restaurant. Nowhere is that more true than the chain's ordering system. The days of visiting a Wingstop location, ordering at the counter, and paying for cash are coming to a close. In fact, the company has a goal of 100% digital transactions.

So, what will that mean for the brick-and-mortar restaurants? It means they'll look a lot like the newest Wingstop location in Dallas, Texas. Dubbed the "restaurant of the future," the eatery will serve as a prototype for how the chain can deliver the optimal digital experience. The restaurant has no dining tables, offering only delivery and takeout. And there's no cash accepted. Instead, available QR codes allow in-store ordering and payment.

The prototype restaurant, which opened earlier this year near Wingstop's Global Support Center, will also serve as a test site for new flavors and equipment. "A glimpse into our [Dallas] location is a glimpse into the future of Wingstop — focused on 100 percent digital transactions, seamless back of house operations, ongoing flavor innovation, and a business model centered around our fans, who love to dine off-premise with friends, while gaming, or just about anywhere you can think of," Chief Growth Officer Marisa Carona said in a statement. "We're excited to continue optimizing the size and layout of our restaurants as we drive toward our vision of becoming a Top 10 Global Restaurant Brand."

In today's fast-food world, few battles are as fierce as that of chicken sandwiches. Seemingly every chain has their own version of the tasty poultry treat, each trying to get its slice of the chicken pie. The competition got even stiffer last year when Wingstop joined the fray. In August, the chicken chain unveiled its take on the chicken sandwich, one that came in a whopping 12 different flavors.

"The nationwide launch of the Wingstop Chicken Sandwich is an opportunity to bring new guests to the brand by proving our position as The Flavor Experts, and reward our existing fanbase by putting menu innovation on center stage," said Stacy Peterson, Wingstop's Chief Revenue and Technology Officer. "The Wingstop Chicken Sandwich doesn't just come in one flavor – fans can choose from our 12 bold, signature flavors. We're so confident in the product that we're incentivizing fans to split from their current chicken contender and find a new favorite chicken sandwich at Wingstop."

That confidence proved well founded. According to Restaurant Business Online, Wingstop sold 1 million chicken sandwiches across the country in just six days. Demand was so high, in fact, that Wingstop simply ran out of sandwiches. Hungry customers didn't have to wait too long to get their chicken sandwich fix, however. About one month later, Wingstop relaunched the product and you can find it on menus nationwide today.

Wingstop is known for its delectable seasonings, and in the summer of 2022, it dialed up the temperature a few degrees by introducing its newest flavor: Hot Honey Rub. Honey-sweet and cayenne pepper-hot, this new dry seasoning had all the flavor and none of the sticky, gooey mess of a sauce. "We had to get in on the hot honey game in a way that only the Flavor Experts could – with a dry rub differentiator," said Wingstop's Chief Growth Officer Marisa Carona said in a press release. "Spicy and sweet fans can unite for this buzz-worthy marriage of the two. At Wingstop, we're constantly innovating to stay top of mind and we're confident this craveable, standout flavor will excite our most loyal and future fans alike."

Needless to say, the Hot Honey Rub was a hit, and when the limited run ended, fans were more than a little upset. One went as far as posting on Facebook that, "a part of me died when Wingstop got rid of the hot honey rub." Wingstop heard the calls for Hot Honey Rub to return, and return it has. In February, the chain announced it was bringing back the popular dry rub. "We saw how much hype there was around the flavor when it first launched and we're here to tell flavor fans that we heard you – we're bringing Hot Honey Rub back again!" said Wingstop's President and CEO Michael Skipworth.

You've done it! After years of taste-testing research and countless orders of wings, you've finally developed the perfect Wingstop chicken wing flavor. You're certain the chain's bigwigs will want to hear about it. You log on to Wingstop's website to find out where to send your recipe, only to discover that the company does not, in fact, want to hear about your new wing flavor.

That's right: According to corporate policy, Wingstop does not accept culinary ideas from fans or third parties. It's nothing personal. Wingstop loves its passionate fans but it is going to leave its culinary operations in-house. The primary reason that the chain does not accept unsolicited flavor ideas deals with legality. Determining who owns the new flavor could lead to a legal dispute.

If customers choose to ignore the company's wishes and submit their own, original ideas, they will be ignored. Wingstop makes it clear that it has no obligation to acknowledge or review the submission and that it will be deleted immediately. Your culinary ingenuity will have to be confined to your kitchen walls—at least for the time being.

Next time you order a basket of boneless wings from Wingstop, know that you are not getting what you might think you are. Yes, those bite-sized pieces of meat are chicken, but they have no business being called "wings." According to Business Insider, Wingstop's boneless wings are made from the meat of chicken breasts, not from the wings of chickens.

Wingstop isn't trying to pull a fast one on you, however. At least, no more than any other chicken wing provider. You see, all boneless wings are made from breast meat, which makes them more similar to chicken nuggets than traditional, bone-in chicken wings. Boneless wings are a more appealing menu option for restaurants to offer. There's far more meat in the breast of a chicken than in the wings. You could get a whole order of boneless wings from a single chicken, but can only get two chicken wings. The limited availability of true chicken wings affects their price, causing them to often be more expensive than chicken breasts. Therefore, restaurants can save money by serving boneless wings while simultaneously satisfying their customers' chicken wing cravings.

It hasn't all been smooth sailing for Rick Ross's growing chicken wing chain empire. In August 2022, Boss Wing Enterprises LLC, the Ross family-owned company that operates five Wingstop stores in Mississippi, was found to have committed several labor violations.

According to the Department of Labor, Boss Wing Enterprises made its employees pay for their uniforms, safety training, background checks, and cash register shortages. After those deductions were taken out of their paychecks, employees were paid less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. They were also paid overtime rates that fell below the federal minimum.

"Restaurant industry employees work hard, often for low wages, and many depend on every dollar earned to make ends meet," said Audrey Hall, a Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division District Director. "The law prevents Boss Wing Enterprises LLC from shifting operating costs to workers by deducting the costs of uniforms, cash register shortages or training expenses, or to allow a worker's pay to fall below the minimum wage rate."

Boss Wings Enterprises was also found guilty of allowing a 15 year old to work past 10 p.m., a violation of child labor laws. For its transgressions, the company was forced to pay nearly $115,000. Roughly $52,000 was given to a total of 244 employees for back wages and damages. The remaining sum of about $63,000 was paid to the Department of Labor as a fine.