 |
|
|
|||||
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.
Category:
E-Commerce
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.
Category:
E-Commerce
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.”
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||