Why Subway Had To Change The Old Name Of Its 6-Inch Sub

Fast-food behemoth Subway, originally called Pete's Super Submarines when it opened in 1965, has the most locations throughout the entire world — over 40,000 — beating out even McDonald's, according to CNBC. It's not difficult to see why it's so popular, with over 37 million sandwich combinations, per Huff Post. Though Subway has come under a significant amount of fire in the past few years for its lackluster ingredients, it is, after all, fast food. 

In its nearly 60-year run, Subway has accrued a massive amount of menu changes and featured items. Some were popular, like the $5 footlong promotion. Others sort of faded away after flopping; anyone remember the Flatizza? One thing everyone knows about Subway is that you can get any of their hoagie-style sandwiches in footlong or 6-inch varieties. But like "footlong" is a name for the 12-inch sub, the 6-inch type used to have its own name as well.

According to the Subway website, the 6-inch sub was debuted in 1977, but under a specialty name: The Snak. Subway wanted a specialty name for the smaller version of their widely popular footlong subs. According to The Travel, Subway wanted a whimsical name for their smaller sub in order to market it, but the name didn't end up sticking. Instead of ordering "The Snak," customers opted to just order the sandwich by asking for the length of the bread. This ended up being confusing, so Subway eventually did away with The Snak moniker. The smaller size sandwich is still known as the 6-inch today. 

Cute names for shorter subs don't always fail, though. Regional east cost competitor Wawa saw huge success with its "Shorti," the 6-inch offering of Wawa's signature hoagies. With massive marketing campaigns like Hogiefest and the more recent 2020 Wawa Shortis for a Year Coin Shortage, Wawa's Shorti's have been a staple on the menu since 1992, at least partially thanks to these marketing campaigns.