Pinterest reported its second-quarter earnings on Thursday, August 7, and, in many ways, it was good newsthough you wouldnt know it from how much its shares have dropped. Here’s what to know:
What did Pinterest report?
The social media companys global revenue rose to $998.2 million from $853.6 million year-over-year (YOY). The 17% jump beat Wall Streets expectations of $975 million, according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC. Its net income also increased by 336% YOY, to $38.8 million from $8.9 million.
Moreover, Pinterest also projected a better-than-expected third quarter, with revenue between $1.03 billion and $1.05 billion.
Plus, its doing well when it comes to actual users, particularly younger ones. Pinterest reports an 11% increase YOY, coming in at 578 million global monthly active users. According to Pinterest CEO Bill Ready, over 50% of those users are Gen Z.
What has the CEO said about the earnings?
Three years into our business transformation, Ive never been more confident in Pinterests ability to deliver for our users and advertisers, Ready said in a statement. Weve found our best product market fit ever by becoming a personalized shopping destination for users and an AI-powered performance platform for advertisers. With this focus, we believe were well-positioned to further capture market share.
Ready further called Pinterest an AI winner in an earnings call, stating that the technology is deeply integrated throughout almost every aspect of the company.
This quarter, it launched a new proprietary generative retrieval model for search, built in-house.
Due to the sophistication of this model and the breadth of content and activity [it] is trained on, it can recommend more relevant and deeply personalized content for our users while also balancing the distribution of fresh content, Ready said.
How is the stock performing after the earnings?
Not well. Alongside all of Pinterest’s great news was lower-than-expected earnings per share. The company reported adjusted EPS of 33 cents, rather than the 35 cents that Wall Street expected.
Pinterests stock (NYSE: PINS) was down more than 13% in premarket trading on Friday as of this writing.
Julia Brau Donnelly, Pinterests CFO, added that advertisers are also worried about tariffs and market uncertainty.
“As we talk to advertisers about Q3, we do hear that some of that tariff-related and broader market uncertainty has continued into how they’re thinking about spend for Q3, though this varies by advertiser,” she said during the call. “Again, it’s definitely a relatively more constructive environment than feared.
New Delhi has put on hold its plans to procure new U.S. weapons and aircraft, according to three Indian officials familiar with the matter, in India’s first concrete sign of discontent after tariffs imposed on its exports by President Donald Trump dragged ties to their lowest level in decades.
India had been planning to send Defense Minister Rajnath Singh to Washington in the coming weeks for an announcement on some of the purchases, but that trip has been cancelled, two of the people said.
Trump on August 6 imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods as punishment for Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, which he said meant the country was funding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That raised the total duty on Indian exports to 50%among the highest of any U.S. trading partner.
The president has a history of rapidly reversing himself on tariffs and India has said it remains actively engaged in discussions with Washington. One of the people said the defense purchases could go ahead once India had clarity on tariffs and the direction of bilateral ties, but “just not as soon as they were expected to.”
Written instructions had not been given to pause the purchases, another official said, indicating that Delhi had the option to quickly reverse course, though there was “no forward movement at least for now.”
India’s defence ministry and the Pentagon did not respond to Reuters’ questions. Delhi, which has forged a close partnership with America in recent years, has said it is being unfairly targeted and that Washington and its European allies continue to trade with Moscow when it is in their interest.
Reuters is reporting for the first time that discussions on India’s purchases of Stryker combat vehicles made by General Dynamics Land Systems and Javelin anti-tank missiles developed by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin have been paused due to the tariffs.
Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in February announced plans to pursue procurement and joint production of those items.
Singh had also been planning to announce the purchase of six Boeing P8I reconnaissance aircraft and support systems for the Indian Navy during his now-cancelled trip, two of the people said. Talks over procuring the aircraft in a proposed $3.6 billion deal were at an advanced stage, according to the officials.
Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics referred queries to the Indian and U.S. governments. Raytheon did not return a request for comment.
RUSSIAN RELATIONS
India’s deepening security relationship with the U.S., which is fuelled by their shared strategic rivalry with China, was heralded by many U.S. analysts as one of the key areas of foreign-policy progress in the first Trump administration.
Delhi is the world’s second-largest arms importer and Russia has traditionally been its top supplier. India has in recent years however, shifted to importing from Western powers like France, Israel, and the U.S., according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think tank.
The shift in suppliers was driven partly by constraints on Russia’s ability to export arms, which it is utilizing heavily in its invasion of Ukraine. Some Russian weapons have also performed poorly in the battlefield, according to Western analysts.
The broader U.S.-India defence partnership, which includes intelligence sharing and joint military exercises, continues without hiccups, one of the Indian officials said.
India also remains open to scaling back on oil imports from Russia and is open to making deals elsewhere, including the U.S., if it can get similar prices, according to two other Indian sources.
Trump’s threats and rising anti-U.S. nationalism in India have “made it politically difficult for Modi to make the shift from Russia to the U.S.,” one of the people said. Nonetheless, discounts on the landing cost of Russian oil have shrunk to the lowest since 2022.
India’s petroleum ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While the rupture in U.S.-India ties was abrupt, there have been strains in the relationship. Delhi has repeatedly rebutted Trump’s claim that the U.S. brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan after four days of fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbors in May. Trump also hosted Pakistan’s army chief at the White House in the weeks following the conflict.
In recent months, Moscow has been actively pitching Delhi on buying new defence technologies like its S-500 surface-to-air missile system, according to one of the Indian officials, as well as a Russian source familiar with the talks.
India currently does not see a need for new arms purchases from Moscow, two Indian officials said.
But Delhi is unlikely to wean itself off Russian weapons entirely as the decades-long partnership between the two powers means Indian military systems will continue to require Moscow’s support, one of the officials said.
The Russian embassy in Delhi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shivam Patel and Aftab Ahmed, Reuters
XRP is the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capor the total value of all its coinswhich currently stands at just over $196 billion, according to data from Yahoo Finance. For comparison, leading crypto Bitcoin has a market cap of 2.3 trillion and Ethereum, the No. 2 coin, has a market cap of $469 billion.
But over the past 24 hours, XRP has seen its price surge by more than 7.7% as of the time of this writing. Currently, XRP is valued at $3.30 per coin. But why? It likely all comes down to one big thing.
SEC and Ripple agree to drop lawsuits
Yesterday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple Labs, a company that offers cross-border payment solutions and is also one of the largest holders of XRP, both agreed to drop legal appeals in a court battle that has lasted for years.
As CoinTelegraph reports, the SEC and Ripple submitted a joint petition to the Second Circuit Appeals Court asking the judge to dismiss the cross-appeal from both parties in the ongoing suit.
As previously noted by Reuters, the two entities have been locked in a legal dispute, with the SEC alleging that Ripple had violated securities laws by selling XRP. In 2023, a judge ruled that Ripples sale of XRP on public exchanges was legal, but that its sales of the coins to institutional investors were not.
Now that the lawsuit has been settled, CoinTelegraph points out, the ruling from the 2023 judgment stands: Ripple will pay a $125 million fine to the SEC, well below the $2 billion the agency sought.
Announcing the joint filings for dismissal, Ripples chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, wrote in a post on X, The end . . . and now back to business.
In other words, the matter appears to be fully settled, and now Ripple can put its focus back on its business interests, which includes a stablecoin platform it just purchased for $200 million.
A spokesperson for Ripple referred Fast Company to Alderoty’s tweet. The SEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
With the threat of an ongoing lawsuit apparently out of the waywhich could have deemed XRP a security, and thus open it to more regulatory oversightXRP is up significantly in early trading on Friday.
XRPs wild summer
XRP has seen volatility over the last several weeks. On July 8, the coin was hovering between the $2.29 and $2.42 range, according to Yahoo Finance data. By July 20, it surged to close at over $3.55. But by the beginning of August, it fell to below $2.75 again.
But now with the news of the settlement being digested by investors, XRP is up 7.7% to $3.30 per coin.
Todays surge is further representative of a good run for the digital asset over the past year. Since the beginning of 2025, XRP is up more than 59%. And over the past 12 months, the coin is up more than a staggering 438%.
If youre in the mood for a yummy and extremely affordable burger today, youll be glad to know that the hamburger fast-food chain Whataburger is offering them for just 75 cents. Here’s why, and how to get your burger for less than a buck.
Whataburger turns 75 today
Headquartered in San Antonio, Whataburger was first founded in Corpus Christi, Texas, exactly 75 years ago today, on August 8, 1950. Since then, the company has expanded to more than 1,100 locations across 17 states.
The burger chain, which was one of Fast Companys 2024 Brands that Matter, actively engages with its fans through outreach events. And today, the company is giving back to those fans in several ways in honor of its birthday.
Whataburger is giving away limited edition 75th anniversary cups and, in its founding hometown of Corpus Christi, is holding an Orange Out night, featuring a minor league baseball game, giving away Whataguy masks and capes, and providing an all-orange fireworks display.
But today the company is also giving everyone the opportunity to buy a Whataburger for just 75 cents.
How to get a Whataburger for just 75 cents
Whataburger is making it easy to get one of their burgers for just 75 cents today. The deal is available to anyone who signs up to be a Whataburger Rewards member and downloads the Whataburger app.
Heres how Whataburger says you can get your classic No. 1 Whataburger for just 75 cents:
Sign up for a Whataburger Rewards account here.
Download the Whataburger app (iOS or Android).
In the app, redeem the option to get a classic No. 1 Whataburger for just 75 cents.
But be sure to act fast
Whataburger says the 75-cent burger offer runs today only (Friday, August 8), and only from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time.
Each Whataburger Rewards account is limited to one 75-cent burger. Full details of Whataburgers 75th birthday offering can be found here.
Greetings, salutations, and thanks for reading Fast Companys Plugged In.
On August 4, Amazon announced that it was restructuring its Wondery podcast studio. The companys CEO and about 110 employees are leaving. Those who remain are being divvied between Amazon’s audiobook arm Audible and a new group called Creator Services, reported The New York Timess Jessica Testa.
Observers, including my colleague Grace Snelling, connected Amazons reevaluation of Wonderys future with YouTubes emergence as, arguably, podcastings dominant platform. As of October 2024, according to Edison Research, the video giant had more podcast listeners than Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Calling podcast fans listeners may already be an anachronism, though: In February of this year, YouTube itself claimed 1 billion podcast viewers.
Overall, says Edison, Americans spend 773 million hours per week consuming podcasts, up more than 350% in a decade. That translates into 7.7 hours per week per podcast consumer.
The medium has changed tremendously in those 10 years. Back in 2015, the hottest podcast was the spellbinding true-crime show Serial, which won a Peabody Award that April after debuting in October 2014. It proved that podcastinglike terrestrial radio in its pre-TV golden agecould conjure up a theater of the mind. A podcast could keep you on the edge of your seat, maybe even more so because you provided the visuals yourself.
In Serials wake, plenty of compelling narrative podcasts did emerge. Still, the field always seemed a little stunted. True crime provided a disproportionate percentage of shows, as you can tell from the titles of such Wondery series as Dr. Death, Killer Privilege, Morbid, American Scandal, and Blood and Vines. As engrossing as tales of murder and scandal can be, I expected more kinds of stories to emerge over time.
Instead, storytelling in general has been on the wane. Podcasting is now awash in talking headshosts gabbing with guests about a given topic, most often relating to current events. Im not knocking shows dedicated to discussion of news of the day: I consume scads of them and appear on my share. Yet I do feel a twinge of sadness that theyve overwhelmed other types of programming. A medium capable of anything has morphed into a giant talk show.
This trend helps explain why podcasts have become so important to YouTube, and vice versa. As the medium has focused on conversation, its become typified by hosts who are glib and charismatic, such as Joe Rogan, Theo Von, Alex Cooper of Call Her Daddy, and Armchair Experts Dax Shepard. You dont have to like all of them to acknowledge that theyre vivid personalities and good at expressing themselves in a memorable way. That gives them a lot in common with the creators who have long attracted mass audiences on YouTube.
Some audio-only podcasts are repurposed on YouTube without a real visual element. But the ones that feel at home are full-blown video productions. Sometimes, theyre shot with fancy equipment in a studio and meticulously edited; other times, their production values are reminiscent of a staff meeting held on Zoom. Either way, video podcastings popularity on YouTube shows that it can command attentioneven if all youre seeing is people sitting around and chatting.
Now, video podcasts are hardly newIve somehow managed to hold on to a few I downloaded 15 years ago using Apples iTunes, which helped popularize podcasts in the first place. Apples present-day Podcasts app supports video as well. Meanwhile, Spotify has lately been beefing up its video experience, adding features such as the ability to flip back and forth between video Joe Rogan and audio-only Joe Rogan in mid-podcast.
Even so, the recent boom in video podcasting may have snuck up on the rest of the industry. And in case you havent noticed, its tough to beat YouTube at creating an environment thats conducive to watching video.
App developers taking video at least as seriously as audio might be critical to the future of podcasting, a mode of communication that has thrived in part because its so open. Theres no vast content repository controlled by a single company; instead, podcast feeds run on RSS, which is why you can subscribe to all your favorite shows in the app of your choice. (From 2020 to 2024, when a deal reportedly worth $200 million made The Joe Rogan Experience exclusive to Spotify, it wasnt a podcast by the strictest sense of the term.)
By its nature, RSS also respects privacy: Creators can tell how many downloads theyre getting, and can detect subscribers IP addresses, but they cant use data on individual listeners for ad targeting or other purposes.
YouTube lets creators pipe RSS feeds of their podcasts onto the platform to automate their distribution. But a pedant might contend that theyre no longer podcasts once they get there. Theyre just YouTube shows monetized via YouTube advertising, inhabiting a parallel universe distinct from RSS-powered podcasting as it exists in other apps. Which is why not all podcasts are available on YouTube and nobody assumes that every YouTube show will be available elsewhere.
Last year, Google doubled down on YouTube as its podcasting hub by discontinuing its own podcast app in favor of YouTube Music. As that apps name indicates, its mostly a portal to stuff on YouTube. But it does let you subscribe to podcasts by plugging in their RSS feeds. That preserves a link to podcasting in its most open form, even if its more of a backup than the primary interface.
None of this matters much as long as the greater podcast ecosystem beyond YouTube remains viable. Id be alarmed if YouTube started cutting exclusivity deals for popular podcasts, or if its position grew so commanding that creators just didnt bother making their shows available elsewhere. So far, neither scenario is panning out.
Heres hoping they never do. Its fine for the lines between podcasting and YouTube to blur a bitas long as they dont fade away altogether.
Youve been reading Plugged In, Fast Companys weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to youor if you’re reading it on FastCompany.comyou can ceck out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard.
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Crypto is booming again. Bitcoin is near record highs, Walmart and Amazon are reportedly exploring stablecoins, Robinhood is tokenizing shares of public and private companies, and NFTsonce left for deadare stirring back to life. Even crypto-powered network states are inching toward reality.
But one star from the last bull run hasnt joined the rally: the metaverse.
Back in 2020 and 2021, the metaverse was the tech industrys favorite toyan immersive digital frontier where wed work, play, and shop. Facebook rebranded to Meta, VR headsets flew off shelves, and internet searches for metaverse jumped 7,200% in a single year. JPMorgan called it a $1 trillion opportunity that would likely infiltrate every sector.
Decentraland was among the breakout stars of the metaverse, a bustling virtual city with casinos, concerts, branded events from Dolce & Gabbana to Nestlé, and even a JPMorgan lounge.
But now, in 2025, the future of the internet looks far from the Ready Player One-esque revolution once promised.
Once-booming world hits record low
Built on the Ethereum blockchain and powered by its own cryptocurrency (dubbed MANA), Decentraland allowed users to buy and sell land as non-fungible tokens and customize avatars with tokenized wearables.
Blockchains, NFTs, and Web3 overall are similar,” says Matthew Ball, CEO of the venture capital firm Epyllion. “There are those who believe these technologies and/or systems will be needed to build the metaverse, others who say its the best way to do so, and some who believe that these technologies are irrelevant to the metaverse and in general.
While some saw Decentraland as a financial opportunity, most used it to socialize, attending concerts by artists like Grimes, Ozzy Osbourne, and Björk, or gambling in a virtual casino that reportedly generated $7.5 million in just three months.
But last year, reports surfaced claiming the once-thriving world had become a ghost town, with fewer than 50 active users during a 24-hour period.
Other blockchain-based worlds have also struggled to maintain engagement. The Sandbox, another decentralized platform, has attracted just 5.7 million usersin totalsince its founding in 2011.
Decentraland refuted the low usage claims, asserting that it had 8,000 daily active users instead.
Still, user sentiment paints a complicated picture. One Reddit user shared their early excitement but noted they “lost interest for a number of reasons,” citing poor user experience, low engagement, and abandoned projects. I wanted it to work, perhaps it still could, but not without an enormous overhaul to the overall design and leadership approach.
Others had similar experiences: Some made money and left, while others simply moved on. Made a shit ton of money from it,” one Reddit user said, “but when crypto winter came in 2021, that shit died. Another added: Used to log in during COVID and play in the casino for fun. There was never anyone around even then.
Crypto-based worlds taking the back seat
When asked for more recent figures, the Decentraland Foundationthe nonprofit overseeing the open-source platformreported 2.3 million unique visitors to platform properties and 24 million all-time unique visitors.
At Decentraland, we believe success in a virtual world isnt measured by how many people log in every day, Decentraland Foundation marketing chief Kim Currier tells Fast Company. Daily active users is a metric borrowed from social media and gaming platforms that are designed to keep people endlessly scrolling or grinding. Thats never been our goal.
Instead, the foundation emphasizes engagement. More than 274,000 friendships accepted, 19 million chat messages exchanged, and over 616 million Emotes [actions for your avatar like dance moves or a wave] expressed to date, Currier shared. These are signs of real presence and connection.
To improve user experience, the foundation has continued to build. In October, it made a major shift from a browser-based platform to a downloadable desktop version. It also removed the requirement for Web3 wallets, aiming to make the platform more accessible.
According to the foundation, the desktop version has been downloaded over 196,000 times. It added that third-party usage trackers can no longer reliably measure activity. Any numbers they share today are outdated and incomplete, a foundation spokesperson tells Fast Company.
Changing expectations
While blockchain-based metaverse platforms havent taken off as once expected, others have succeeded in offering immersive digital experiences without relying on VR or cryptocurrency.
Theyre thinking, like, way further in the future, Currier says. The misconception is that the metaverse is something where you put a headset on and youre fully immersed in a world that is photorealistic and completely different from your physical experience.
Many see the metaverse as VR, because when Zuckerberg renamed Facebook, their sole produt in market was a VR headset, Ball notes. Still, he adds, the technology isnt advanced enough yet, and its not essential for the metaverse to exist.
I think now we are in a place where people have more realistic expectations about whats physically possible and technologically possible, Currier says.
Todays metaverse may look more like platforms such as Roblox or Minecraftvast, user-driven spaces where social interaction is central.
The clearest market leader is Roblox, a virtual world platformand one which described itself as a metaverse company long before Facebook or Microsoft ever declared for the same ambitions, Ball says. He points out that during Roblox Corp.s IPO, the word metaverse appeared in its SEC filing 16 timesmore than it ever had before.
As the dust settles on early hype, the concept of the metaverse is also shifting in how its meant to fit into peoples lives.
At Decentraland, we really, firmly believe its not meant to replace your real life, Currier says. People are spending a little bit more time in the physical world with their real families, their friends, and thats okay.
Appliance-maker SharkNinja has a reputation for creating smart, viral appliances, from a frozen slushy-maker to an LED cryo-mask to an indoor-outdoor fan with an ingenious cooling mist attachment. Key to SharkNinjas success is its ability to create both ultra-functional products (vacuums, air fryers, blenders) and ones that take consumers by surprise, especially on social media. And despite the challenges posed by President Trumps ever-evolving trade deals, the company continues to grow: Net sales were up 16% year-over-year in Q2 2025.
I spoke to SharkNinja CEO Mark Barrocas about where his teams find the company’s next big idea, how quickly it can move from idea to being in stores, and which category SharkNinja’s expanding into in September.
SharkNinja has been expanding its product portfolio. The company went from selling blenders and vacuums to the beauty category, launching hair stylers and more recently an LED face mask. How do you decide which categories to enter?
Our innovation comes from identifying known or unknown consumer problems. You could be a consumer products company and you could build your product roadmap off of a core technology. If you do that, it will lead you only to the places that core technology is applicable to.
We think there’s an endless number of consumer problems to be able to solve, which is why over the last 17 years we’ve gone into 37 different product categories. On any given day we’re focused on making robots, on skincare, on outdoor cooking, on haircare, on cleaning, on air purification, on fans.
[Photo: SharkNinja]
Does that mean you have customers coming to you and saying, I want something to curl my hair and I also want a slushy machine?
We have a team of consumer insights researchers that are constantly looking at online reviews, negative sentiments, social media sentiment. We have people that are in consumer homes every day, they’re in restaurants, they’re in commercial environments. And we’re constantly mining the next problems to be able to solve.
On any given quarter, we will run things called hack weeks where we’ll set up a team of 8 to 10 people and we’ll have them go and hack on a particular problem or idea that they have. That could range from the consumers doing something outside the home that they’re not able to do inside of the home. The consumer used to have to go to a med spaso we developed an LED infrared cryo mask for them to be able to do that at home.
SharkNinja’s planning on introducing 25 new products this year. How long does it take between having an idea for a product and putting it on the market?
We launch 25 new products a year. Thats not a new color or a new knob. That’s a new, ground-up, from-scratch product. We’ll start with a pipeline of anywhere from 50 to 60 ideas. Ideas will eventually weed themselves out because the technology is something we might not have right now, the product might be too expensive, or the consumer might not be ready for it.
We just launched our first FDA-approved product, the Shark Cryo Globe mask. That took two and a half years for us to develop. We take anywhere from 12 to 16 months to bring technology we already have to market. If it’s a completely new technology, we think that two and a half years is about the time for us to be able to do that.
Whats an example of a product that consumers werent ready for?
In New York, they passed a law around composting. That’s a new thing for the majority of New Yorkers, and it’s not something that exists really in lots of other areas of the country today. We think that as consumers start composting, there’s going to be some real challenges. They’re sitting there with a plastic little bin full of fruit flies and dealing with the smell of six days worth of food scraps.
Our team got really motivated and excited about wanting to solve that problem. The challenge is that the problem is not yet well understood by the consumer. They’re going to need to compost for a year. It’s going to have to get beyond just New York. It might be something that is a great idea, but we might be too early on the cycle for it right now.
Maybe as we get into 2026 and 2027, we pull it back out of the roadmap and say, now is the time where the consumer will really be able to listen to this story.
SharkNinja CEO Mark Barrocas [Photo: SharkNinja]
What’s an example of a product that you wanted to make, but the tech isn’t there?
We believe there are lots of unmet needs in the lawn care space, but from a technology standpoint right now, we don’t have a solution that the world needs us for. Its important to recognize, when we go into a category, that we have to answer the question: Why does the world need us? Why does the consumer need us? Are we doing it cheaper? Are we bringing something to the consumer that they’re not able to get anywhere else?
If we can’t answer that question, then it’s not a category for us to expand into.
Is the same team of engineers coming up with all of these products across categories?
We have 1,300 engineers around the globe. They’re based in Boston, London, and Asia. And I think one of the exciting things about being an engineer and working at SharkNinja is that you can find your next job at SharkNinja. If you’re an engineer that’s working on haircare andyou’re interested in thinking about outdoor cooking, you can go on the outdoor cooking team, you can switch to the robotics team, you can switch to the slushy team or the air fryer team or the air purifier team at SharkNinja.
We’re constantly cross-pollinating ideas across the global engineering teams. There’s mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, software engineers, people working on IoT (internet of things). Were bringing all of those pieces together to bring as much technology as possible into a product that could sell for on average for $199 to $239.
How have you been affected by tariffs?
That process started for us way back in the first Trump administration. When tariffs went into effect five years ago, 35% of our products were tariffed at that time coming into the United States at 25%. Prior to that, 100% of our production was made in China. Four and a half years ago, we started making our first product outside of China, and by the end of Q2, we moved primarily to Southeast Asia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia.
There really isn’t any necessarily safe haven other than manufacturing the products in the United States, but four and a half years ago is when we started making our first product outside of China. By the end of this month, we’ll be able to make nearly 90% of our production outside of China. By the end of the year, we will have nearly 100% of our production outside of China.
So has it had an impact? Of course, it’s had an impact, but I think that we’ve got a highly diversified supply chain. I think we’ve developed a really high-quality, fast-turn, low-cost supply chain that’s been a real competitive advantage for the business.
Have you passed any costs onto consumers?
We have had to pass some costs onto consumers. We’ve tried everything possible to keep that to an absolute minimum.
So much of the way we think about our business is what we call affordable, accessible innovation. We really want to make products for almost everyone. You could buy a Ninja product for $49; you could buy one for $999. You could buy a Shark product for $59 or buy one for $899.
What’s so core to the Shark or Ninja brands is you could be a Walmart shopper and be a SharkNinja consumer. You could be a Sephora shopper and be a SharkNinja consumer. I don’t think there’s another brand out there that has as large a socioeconomic group of consumers as us.
At least on TikTok, there’s a widespread perception the Shark hair products are an affordable dupe for Dyson products. I actually think that’s probably helped you sell quite a few units. How do you respond to those comments?
In every industry, a brand has to find their white space in the market. For us, that white space is market leading performance, great quality, and great value. I think that the products that we bring to market are much more versatile.
You bring up our haircare. We looked at products in the market and we saw that products were really single-use products. You had to buy a hairdryer, you had to buy a styler, you had to buy a brush. We don’t think the consumer wants to have four different products to be able to do their hair. We saw that unmet need and we developed a product called the Shark FlexStyle.
If you have a great experience with one of our products, you’re willing to try us as you go into [a different] category. I think that really helped us get into the beauty business. [Consumers thought] they had a great experience with a Shark vacuum or a Shark air purifier or a Shark steam mop. Let me now try them in haircare.
You have products across categories, price ranges, and retailers. How do you market them?
We sell our products in every major retailer in every major market. We’re one of the most searched brands on Amazon. We have a robust direct-to-consumer business. We want to be relevant wherever the consumer chooses to shop for our products.
It’s our job to create consumer demand through viral marketing, and ultimately, it’s up to the consumer to decide where they want to shop for the product, whether they want to shop at a brick-and-mortar store or online or they want to go direct-to-consumer. We just want to be relevant wherever they choose to shop.
On the marketing side, I think what’s so interesting is we were a company 16 years ago that only marketed [via] long-form infomercials. I mean, my partner and I at the time didn’t have any money. We would run 30-minute TV infomercials. Fast forward to today and we have seven times more social media engagement than our nearest competitor. Our products not only go viral on social media, but they generate a tremendous amount of user-generated content.
What’s the next category you want to get into?
In September we’ll be launching a new outdoor category. Weve publicly stated that we feel like we can enter two new product categories a year as we move forward.
Morgan Stanley projects the space economy will hit $1.8 trillion by 2035. Yet most companies still dont have a strategy for it. Last quarter alone, multiple space startups secured seven-figure funding rounds. NASAs Artemis program also hit a major milestone. This is a very real, trillion-dollar economy forming in real time, and the window to get in early is closing fast.
Critically, space is the first truly infinite domain of commerce. Unlike Earth-based markets, it offers endless potential for new infrastructure, new services, and new economies to emerge. And while many are distracted by AI or supply chain chaos, the next massive growth platform is quietly taking shape above our heads.
Its not just rockets and rich guys. Its agriculture, R&D, and your next competitor
When most people think of space, they picture billionaires in zero gravity or cinematic sci-fi. But the reality is that its becoming a critical infrastructure layer for future business, just as the internet did 30 years ago. The parallels are striking. In the early 1990s, many leaders saw the internet as a novelty. Today, its the backbone of the global economy. Space is on the same path, but with even broader implications.
From biotech to agriculture to cybersecurity, space is already critically transforming industries. Biotech companies like Redwire and Varda Space Industries are leveraging microgravity for drug development and bioprinting, enabling breakthroughs not possible in Earth-bound labs.
Agriculture firms are using real-time satellite imagery to optimize water use, detect crop stress, and improve yield forecasting. Platforms like Planet Labs and Descartes Labs are making precision agriculture scalable and climate-resilient.
Cybersecurity providers have also been looking beyond Earth for years, as satellite networks become part of critical infrastructure. Companies like SpiderOak are pioneering zero-trust security models for space assets.
The market is heating up and capital is flowing in
In 2023 investors poured $12.5 billion into space startups globally, despite broader tech market pullbacks. Startups focused on in-space manufacturing, small satellite constellations, and launch technologies are leading the charge. The Artemis program is unlocking new lunar and deep space opportunities, while commercial players like SpaceX and Rocket Lab are slashing launch costs.
Public-private partnerships are expanding rapidly. The Department of Defense is investing in space-based logistics and mobility. NASA is funding space-based solar power and commercial space stations. Private equity firms are acquiring ground infrastructure and launch supply chains. The smart money is building and pivoting, quickly.
Four ways to make space part of your growth strategy
Meanwhile, too many companies and policymakers remain tethered to earthbound thinking. The point of tapping into this market isnt to become a space company. Most companies wont build satellites or spacecraft. Instead, theyll find new ways to leverage the unique conditions and infrastructure of space to improve their products, services, and operations on Earth. Or theyll take existing products and services and fid ways to adapt them for space.
Heres how to ensure youre positioned to lead in this rapidly expanding trillion-dollar market:
Start thinking like a space vertical. You dont have to build rockets to benefit from space, but you do need to understand how the industry works. Study space value chains and learn where your products, services, or capabilities might fit in. Even surprising players can break into the market. For example, a small watchmaker in Albuquerque was tapped to build components for space-bound hardware. This wasnt because they were in aerospace, but because they solved a unique precision problem.
Tap into satellite-enabled insights to optimize operations. If youre not already, look into ways your business can uniquely leverage satellite data for actionable insights, whether its tracking supply chain bottlenecks, improving precision in agriculture, or identifying untapped markets with geospatial analysis.
Codevelop with space startups tackling niche challenges. Consider partnering with startups innovating in microgravity manufacturing, on-orbit servicing, or space-based energy solutions. Explore shared R&D that aligns with your industrys specific needs, like 3D-printed components or novel materials.
Train your teams on space-driven opportunities. Upskill your workforce by collaborating with universities or space-focused research institutions. Equip your employees to identify how advancements like quantum communications or hypersonic transport could create revenue streams in your sector.
The cost of waiting? Irrelevance.
Its time to adapt, innovate, and lead. The companies that embrace space as a critical business opportunity will not only future-proof themselves but also define the next chapter of economic history. Every major technological revolution has created winners and losers. Space will be no different.
On a hot, oppressively muggy summer day in a city like New York or Atlanta, when you crank up the AC, it might not feel like its working well. Thats because conventional air conditioners arent optimized to deal with humidity. Your AC will run longer as it tries to deal with both heat and moisture in the airand if the humidity stays too high, your home can feel clammy or sticky even if the temperature is dropping. Because humidity makes the air feel hotter, you might not feel much cooler even as your electric bill climbs.
But what if you could save 90% of the cost of your air-conditioning electric billsand actually be cool during a sweltering summer? That’s the promise of a new kind of AC technology that deals with humidity more effectively; its just coming out of testing and into commercial development. Though the technology exists, you’re going to have to wait (but not too long) before you can have it in your home.
The innovations, from a handful of startups and larger companies, can save huge amounts of energy and provide more effective temperature control. As the planet gets both hotter and more humid, new tech can help more people afford to stay cool. It also can help the grid so blackouts are less likely in a heat wave. And with less energy use, it can help tackle the cooling paradox: the fact that the growth of conventional air-conditioning is a major source of emissions, forcing us to rely on ACs even more.
The problem with legacy AC
New technologies take different approaches to solving the same challenge. The air-conditioning problem really is a humidity control problem, says Russ Wilcox, CEO of Trellis Air, an air-conditioning startup spinning out tech that was originally developed by Harvard researchers.
Standard air conditioners remove humidity and cool the air at the same time. When hot, wet air passes over cold coils inside the machine, it condenses, like beads of water on a cold drink. But because the system’s main goal is to cool, on a very humid day, you need to turn the temperature way down to remove enough humidity to try to feel comfortable.
The AC has to run longer, guzzling more energy. Rooms can end up either cool and clammy or too cold. In some large spaces, like a movie theater, overcooling sometimes means that the heat comes back on, despite the fact that its sweltering outside.
There are more than a billion air conditioners in use now, responsible for a carbon footprint thats around twice as large as that of aviation, and around a third of the electricity they use is for dehumidification. Emissions are also quickly growing as more people buy air conditioners. By 2050, the number of units in use around the world is expected to triple, causing emissions from air-conditioning to potentially double to 2 billion tons of CO2 per year.
How the new tech works
Cutting-edge AC tech deals with humidity separately from temperature. Trellis, for example, uses a membrane to filter water vapor out of the air before cooling it, an approach that is far more efficient than a typical air conditioner that expends energy cooling both the air and the water inside it.
That gives us a huge edge in energy for dehumidification, Wilcox says. And we do it with an engineered plastic film, which means its a pretty passive, simple, reliable, potentially very cost-effective way of dehumidifying.
Blue Frontier, a startup that has raised more than $36 million from investors including Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, uses a salt-based desiccant to store energy that can later be used when electricity prices are high. During peak hours, the system uses the desiccant to remove humidity. (It’s like a battery, but instead of storing electricity it stores drying power.) The technology can reduce electricity use by 50% to 90%.
Transaera, which raised an $8.2 million round of seed funding in November 2024, uses a type of material called a metal-organic framework (or MOF) with a microscopic tinker-toy-like shape.
MOFs are “really powerful because they allow us to target a specific moleculeyou make the pores just the right size for that molecule to go in, says Ross Bonner, cofounder and CTO of the Massachusetts-based startup. In our case, we have tuned them for water. Transaera uses the material to coat a substrate, and then can add it to a standard air conditioner. Depending on the climate, it can cut energy use by around 40%.
AirJoule, another startup, uses metal-organic frameworks along with waste heat to efficiently dehumidify and cool the air (and to produce pure water that can be used elsewhere). Data centers are target customers. Industry veteran Carrier has partnered with the startup to incorporate the tech into its own equipment.
Two large AC manufacturers, Chinas Gree and Japans Daikin, have developed super-efficient air conditioners that use different sensors and controls for humidity and temperature.
Its really smart design and smart controls, and the ability to sense and respond to real-time conditions, that enables them, says Ankit Kalanki, who works on the carbon-free buildings program at the nonprofit RMI. The designs from Gree and Daikin also use the most efficient components possible, from heat exchangers to compressors. Both companies won the Global Cooling Prize, a contest that launched in 2018 to encourage innovation in air conditioner design.
Proven tech
Over the past few years, the companies have been proving that the technology works. RMI recently partnered with Gree and Daikin to test their units in real-world conditions in India. They rented seven apartments in a city outside Mumbai and pitted the new designs against the most efficient ACs and mini-splits currently on the Indian market, looking at how much power it took to stay below 80 degrees Fahrenheit and 60% humidity.
Earlier this year, after nine months of testing under different weather conditions, they published the results: The new tech cut energy use by 60%.
Transaera began testing a prototype of its tech on a large commercial building in Houston last year. Our approach was, okay, we have this technology, weve proven it out in the lab, we want to put it through its paces and really see if it can perform and do what we say it can do, says Bonner. So we found the most punishing climate that weve been in.
Last summer, when they went on the roof of the building for the installation, they measured the surface temperature: 140 degrees. It was so hot that the installers had to wear knee pads so they didnt burn themselves. After months of testing in Houstons ultra-humid weather, where a typical summer day might have a heat index of 110 degrees, the AC has been saving even more energy than projected. Now Transaera is working with a manufacturer to make a full-size prototype for testing.
The path to market
If you need a new window air conditioner, you can’t yet go to the store and buy one of the new designs. So far, the first product to come to market is a commercial one. Blue Frontier launched a 15-ton “dedicated outdoor air system” (or DOAS) unit earlier this year.
Selling first to commercial customersfrom medical centers to schools to restaurantsmans that the company can have the biggest climate benefit with each unit it sells. “The conventional technology DOAS are the ‘gas guzzlers’ of the industry,” says Daniel Betts, founder and CEO of Blue Frontier. The standard tech of this type is very inefficient and energy-intensive. Blue Frontier’s version also offers energy storage so the units can run for four to six hours with little electricity use; that lets building owners make better use of renewable electricity and lower electric rates at certain times of day.
The technology can also be used in smaller residential units, but that will come later. “It’s just a matter of picking a market entry strategy that makes sense to us and that helps our community the most,” Betts says.
Gree and Daikin, the Global Cooling Prize winners, initially aimed to bring products to market in 2025. Their technology is ready, says RMIs Kalanki, who is working with the companies on commercialization. But it isnt likely that the ACs will be in stores this year. From a technical feasibility standpoint, I think that has been proven through the testing, he says. So its more about commercial viability now.
One challenge, Kalanki says, is that international standards for residential air conditioners dont yet measure the energy used to remove humidity. Were working very closely with the international standards organization to really bring dehumidification into the conversation, he says. This needs to get reflected so we can reward the products in the right way and industry has the right target to design for.
Though customers will be able to save money over time on electric bills, the up-front cost of the units will be higher, making them a little more challenging to sell. Institutional buyers, who purchase in bulk, could help jump-start the market, Kalanki says, noting, “That demand signal is going to be very critical for manufacturers to make those early investments.
More commercial options are likely to be available sooner. AirJoule plans to be on the market next year. Transaera is now working with a manufacturer that will be able to produce its commercial units at scale after the current pilots end, and is already in conversations with customers. The technology has the biggest advantage against conventional products in a commercial application, Bonner says, but the company also plans to later make residential ACs. (It’s already made a viable prototype.)
Trellis, which launched last year, is at an earlier stage and hasn’t yet started testing prototypes. The process will take time. “I think we have a lot of ambition of how we can manufacture this cost-effectively in the supply chain and make a robust product,” says Wilcox, noting that the team previously worked together on the development of the screen for the Amazon Kindle. “But we also appreciate that it takes some years to really make something robust enough to ship all around the world.”
The startups recognize the urgency of their work, as the need for ACs and their impact continues to grow. “I’m always impatient,” says Bonner. “We can go faster, and we need to go faster. And we have a responsibility to future generations to make the difference that we know we need to.”
When it comes to designing a safer football helmet, Jason Neubauer knows what he’s up against. “You can make a very safe helmet that ranks No. 1 for performance,” he says. “But if the players don’t like the way they look in it, it really doesn’t matter. You’re not going to protect anyone.”
What Neubauer and his team at Schutt Sports have built with the F7 Pro could be one of the safest helmets ever produced. It’s certainly one that players are gravitating toward.
Since the F7 Pro launched this spring, it has become the fastest-adopted helmet in NFL history. While Aaron Rodgers may not be a fan, an All-Pro roster that includes Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase, CeeDee Lamb, and Travis Hunter (the two-way star taken No. 2 overall in this year’s draft) will kick off the 2025 season donning the sleek F7 Pro, which earned a top-5 ranking in the NFL and NFL Players Associations rigorous 2025 helmet performance testing.
New helmet models don’t really peak in their adoption rate until about the third year, Neubauer says. It takes a while for players to get comfortable with a new look.
Neubauer has spent more than 25 years developing sporting goods, focusing on extreme sports before shifting to football helmet design in 2016. Hes one of the masterminds behind the F7 Pro, whose innovations fundamentally reimagine how helmets protect against the defining threats of modern footballthe high-speed collisions that make highlight reels, and the thousands of smaller impacts that accumulate over a career.
[Photo: Schutt Sports]
What the NFL does right
The NFL has caught plenty of flak forwell, almost everything. But its historical approach to player safety is high on the list. Over the past decade, however, the league has done what any smart company does in the digital age: dive into data.
To better understand how and when head and neck injuries occur, the NFL compiles detailed reports on every head and neck injury sustained in practice or games. The league tracks actual on-field impacts using sensors and cameras, documenting the speed, location, and type of every hit. This information is then shared with helmet manufacturers so engineers can discern what they’re building to protect against.
This data-driven approach is working. Preseason concussions dropped by more than half from 2017 to 2024, from 91 to just 44.
This granular data informed the F7 Pro’s overall design philosophy. The information showed not just where and how hits occur, but also the timing, force distribution, and frequency patterns that traditional helmet design hadnt accounted for. Armed with this data, Neubauer’s team could optimize protection at a fundamental levelrethinking everything from materials to architecture rather than just adding more padding.
[Photo: Schutt Sports]
F7 Pro innovation: 3D-printed lattice
Traditional football helmets work like old-school steel car bumperssolid structures that conduct the full force of impact, transferring it to the passenger. The F7 Pro works more like a modern car bumper. Its outer shell uses a custom material blend designed to flex under impact, while a layer of 3D-printed lattice beneath the shell does the real work.
Research from Tulane University’s physics department found that a large defensive lineman hitting a quarterback generates impact forces equivalent to a car hitting a brick wall at 18 to 20 mph.
You’ve got two guys who are 220 pounds running at a very fast rate and hitting each other, Neubauer says. You can’t get rid of that energy, so you need to slow it down to the slowest rate you can to minimize the forces on the brain.
The F7 Pros lattice does exactly that with a network of microscopic shock absorbers, each smaller than a pencil tip, all working together to distribute an impact across thousands of tiny columns that buckle and bend in controlled sequences.
“The physical nature of buckling and bending is what’s slowing the impact down, so you don’t feel all the force at once, but you feel it over that offset distance, Neubauer explains.
Instead of each hit unfolding as one blunt force, the impact is more like a controlled demolition.
[Photo: Schutt Sports]
F7 Pro appeal: Lighter, sleeker, safer
By using 3D printing to integrate various functional elements into a unified design, the lattice eliminated eight separate plastic components that traditional helmets required. The result is a seamless design that is lighter on players’ necks while enhancing protection, something traditional manufacturing couldn’t achieve.
Schutt developed its lattice technology in-house rather than licensing existing solutions. Out there in the world right now, there are quite a few different lattice technologies that companies could choose from, Neubauer says. It’s literally like a drop-down menu. That would have been a lot easier for us to do. But we found that we were able to get a better-performing, lighter-weight result by doing it ourselves.
Weight reduction is critical because players’ heads and necks endure thousands of impacts over a season, and every ounce of helmet weight adds to fatigue and long-term neck strain. But it also allows for a sleeker profile, addressing something equally important: The helmet looks damn good.
Players have to want to wear it, and when stars like Jefferson and Chase sport the low-profile design in prime time, other players notice. It’s functional vanity at its finestsafety technology that doesn’t make you look like you’re wearing a fishbowl.
[Photo: Schutt Sports]
A new era of customization
In 2021, helmet manufacturer Viciswhich had been acquired by Certor Sports, Schutt’s parent companyintroduced the first position-specific helmet, the Trench model, designed for linemen. It focuses on protecting against the thousands of smaller hits that accumulate from play after play in the trenches. Schutt followed up with quarterback models that prioritize back-of-head protection because quarterbacks are frequently slammed to the turf when sacked and can’t brace themselves.
The F7 Pro’s variants optimize protection based on real impact data. And as the data gets more intuitive, new position-specific helmets will likely enter the market, with Schutt and Vicis leading the way.
Its OctoFit system lets players customize foam pod combinations based on their unique head shapes. So a process that once required custom ordering and waiting for delivery now occurs in the locker room in real time.
Its AiR-Lock system is activated by a small push button located on the back of the helmet. Remember the old Reebok Pumps? The AiR-Lock is similar. Players can pump their helmets up for a tighter game fit, then release pressure to be more comfortable in practice or during walk-throughs, adjusting helmet security without using tools or having to leave the field.
This combination of position-specific protection with real-time fit adjustment represents where helmet design is heading: equipment that adapts to how players get hit based on how they experience the game, while catering to their individual comfort preferences.
The future of protection
Virginia Tech has an independent helmet testing lab that serves as the industry’s safety standard, evaluating helmets and assigning star ratings that guide consumers. When the university updated its protocols in July 2025, 77% of helmets that previously received five-star ratings were downgraded (from 26 to just 6), signaling that safety standards are evolving at every level.
And as the NFL helmets evolve, high school and youth gear will follow. Schutt is partnering with national youth and varsity organizations to gather impact data similar to what the NFL provides, studying how younger players get hit and what protection works best for developing bodies.
“The types of impacts that kids aged 8 take are very different from an NFL athlete,” Jeremy Erspamer, CEO of Certor Sports, says. “And we as helmet manufacturers need to understand that and develop technologies that specifically keep players at each level safe.”
Schutt is set to launch a new youth helmet this fall, according to Erspamer, which will also be five-star rated.
The number of concussions in the NFL decreased 17% from 2023 to 2024, reaching a historic low last season, while preseason concussions fell more than 50% from 2017 to 2024. The F7 promises to continue that momentum in 2025 toward a safer game for players at all levels.
We believe it’s the best helmet out there at the elite level, Erspamer says. But what we also know is that in three years, we’re going to have even better technology. So we’re excited about where we are, but we’re even more excited about where we continue to go.
