24 Oct Coolest Thing Made In Kansas Announces 2024 Coolest Innovation Winner
The Kansas Manufacturing Council (KMC) on Wednesday, October 9 announced Stinger, Inc is the winner of the 2024 Coolest Thing Made In Kansas – Coolest Innovation.
“The KMC is excited to celebrate the Stacker 8500 as the 2024 Coolest Innovation,” said KMC Executive Director Brandie McPherson. “Our panel of judges had a very difficult job in narrowing it down from the 40 products nominated to just one.”
Presented by Forvis Mazars, the KMC added this category to highlight the many ways Kansas manufacturers research and develop new products and work to improve products to address crucial challenges.
The contest began with 29 nominated products. 14 moved on to the first round of judging by completing a questionnaire detailing their innovations. A panel of judges reviewed the questionnaires and then ranked the products for their innovative solutions, narrowing the competition for the final round of judging.
During the final round, the judges heard from the companies who advanced to the finals:
- Stacker 8500 by Stinger, Inc
- Cosmic SMM by Radiation Detection Technologies, Inc.
- Operator Command Center for Outstander SO26 Stand on Mower by the Grasshopper Company
- The Beast Rogue Fire Fighting Tools by Prohoe Manufacturing
The judges choose the winning product based on a criteria that includes its impact on the challenge it solves as well as the impact it has on the business, its employees, and customers.
The winner of the 2024 Coolest Thing Made in Kansas – Coolest Innovation was announced during the KMC’s Kansas Manufacturing Summit held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Wichita.
There are nearly 2,500 manufacturers in Kansas, employing 170,000 people with an average annual compensation of $79,722. Manufacturing produces more than $28 billion in output annually, 15% of the total output in the state. Manufacturing helps drive the state’s economy with more than $9.93 billion in annual manufactured good exports to markets such as Canada, Mexico, and Japan.