How Sheetz and Liquid Death Used a Custom Truss Rental to Chainsaw Sandwiches and Turn Heads
When Sheetz and Liquid Death teamed up for an unforgettable in-store stunt, they needed more than just a bold idea, they needed a bold structure to match.
Enter TentCraft's Rental Program.
To pull off an activation that involved chainsawing sandwiches in front of their customers, the agency behind this activation partnered with TentCraft to rent the hardware and design a custom truss system that could provide safety and custom branding to create attention-grabbing energy right outside one of their Pennsylvania convenience store locations.
Because when you’re doing something bold like cutting hoagies in half with a chainsaw, you can’t settle for a weak event setup.
The Challenge:
Building a Custom Truss for a Parking Lot Brand Activation
This wasn’t your average activation. The partnership between Sheetz and Liquid Death was designed to be loud, unique, and go viral, a perfect storm to create on-brand chaos and content.
The goal?
- Turn a standard store visit into a spectacle
- Create a performance space that could be safely assembled on-site
- Integrate Liquid Death’s punk-metal aesthetic into the setup
- Handle unpredictable wind, weather, and crowd interaction
- Wrap the entire activation up in one day
It needed to be tough, mobile, and look like it was built for a festival concert, not your normal convenience store with a car wash.
The TentCraft Solution:
Why Truss Rentals Work for Experiential Retail Events
Our team worked with Sheetz' event agency Mod Op to design a custom aluminum truss structure that delivered on both function and form as a rental option. Here’s what was included:
- Modular 20x20’ truss system with overhead cross beams for signage and lighting
- Custom-branded banners and valance graphics to highlight Liquid Death and Sheetz partnership
- Load-bearing design to support speakers and suspended elements
The end result? A rented, professional-grade event structure that looked like it belonged on a festival stage, but was deployed in a parking lot.
The Activation and Content:
The Best Truss System for Pop-Up Brand Events
At the event, influencer chainsaw Jenna used her trusty chainsaw to “slice prices” by cutting hoagies in half outside the Sheetz location.
Crowds gathered. Phones came out. Social content rolled in. Local news stations covered the event. And the rented truss structure served as a visually striking, rock-solid centerpiece that pulled the whole scene together.
“We needed this structure to be turnkey for our client, but also safe and well-built so that we could focus on the activation. TentCraft got it, and made it happen fast.”
– Mod Op Team
Bonus Win:
Re-Renting the Same Truss for a Second Sheetz Activation
Just two weeks after the chainsaw stunt, Mod Op, the agency behind Sheetz’s activations, came back to TentCraft for another high-profile event: a parking lot concert featuring The All-American Rejects at a different Sheetz location.
Thanks to the modular design and durability of the original truss system, we were able to re-rent the exact same truss Structure for the concert setup. Because the framework had already been fabricated and proven in the field, the second activation came together faster, more affordably, and with zero compromises on quality or impact.
This is exactly why the TentCraft Rental Program is built to work across multiple activations types saving time, money, and stress for busy marketing teams.
