Subway Debuts Footlong Collection With Churros, Pretzels, And Cookies

In what's cleverly dubbed the Sidekicks collection, Subway is debuting a trio of sweet footlong snacks to accompany its well-established footlong sandwiches. Beginning January 22, fans of Subway chocolate chip cookies get a 12-inch-long version of them in nationwide stores, accompanied by some fan faves from Cinnabon and Auntie Anne's. The classic shopping mall snacks joining this collection in footlong iterations include Cinnabon churros and Auntie Anne's pretzels, available in this super-sized stick form only at Subway stores.

With brief sneak peeks in 2022 and 2023, the Footlong Cookie, described as thick and gooey with loads of chocolate chips, finally takes a permanent slot on nationwide menus at a $5 price point. The Cinnabon Footlong Churro enters at $2 and features the exclusive Makara cinnamon grown in Indonesia, an ingredient that also appears in Cinnabon's beloved cinnamon rolls. The third newbie is the Auntie Anne's Footlong Pretzel for $3, a new incarnation of its classic pretzel, now served with Subway's Honey Mustard for dipping.

In a company news release, Douglas Fry, President of Subway North America, notes the company's decades-long footlong expertise now culminating in the Sidekicks collaboration, predicting that 2024 "may be the most exciting chapter yet in our growth story." Cinnabon and Auntie Anne's are owned by Focus Brands.

In 2023, the company released, for the second year in a row, the very shareable Subway footlong cookie featuring a whole lot of chocolate chips — but with some significant caveats. It was only available on December 4, National Cookie Day, for five hours and in single locations in four cities: Dallas, Miami, Chicago, and Miami. The limited release came via what Subway called a Cookieway, in which the locations were temporarily transformed with a cookie-centric celebration. A company news release at the time teased a future permanent footlong cookie on the menu, which is now part of this January 2024 surprise grouping of the three footlong sweet desserts.

Based on the overwhelming response to the Footlong Cookie in its previous year's limited appearances, Subway customers are likely ready and waiting. In 2022, the super-long cookies sold out in two hours at a single Miami location. After what Subway calls "a year perfecting the recipe," the slightly expanded 2023 release of sweet footlongs for a few hours in a handful of cities came free with a purchase of its counterpart, the footlong sub sandwich. For National Cookie Day, the promotion helped support the Subway Cares Foundation and its Fresh Start Scholarship for students.