Design is in a time of transition. Whether it’s the influx of generative AI tools, Gen Z shaking off their post-COVID haze to drive new aesthetics, the practice of graphic design adding clarity to tight elections and challenging our meat consumption, or even the sudden viability of technologies ranging from environmentally friendly A/C to exoskeletons that are turning sci-fi dreams into practical realities, design is in a position to face an uncertain world of scarcity with an unprecedented abundance of innovation.
Our honorees for the most innovative companies in design for 2025 span the gamut of product, architecture, and UX. But they are all united in pushing the consumer discourse through design and challenging the status quo to make the world better—or, at least, make it a little more brat.
1. On
For building faster shoes faster
Like all sneaker brands, On has carefully seeded its sought-after demographics into its marketing—Zendaya, FKA Twigs—but most of its collabs, which on paper are great (Loewe! Beams!) are actually relatively forgettable on their own, barely drifting from their approach to circular foamy Swiss minimalism. Its StockX listings sell for list.
But On is selling all the same. Net sales were up 27% in 2024. It’s built up to a certain quiet, cross-culture ubiquity. Think of it like the performance comfort statement of Lululemon in 2015, but not so bougie that cool kids in Europe and Asia won’t wear it. No doubt being a young company helps here (On was founded in 2010). There’s a bring-your-own-meaning to it all that seemingly allows it to fit anywhere without the same cultural weight of donning a Dunk or a Samba. And that meaning is anchored in one of those ideas that make Nike so revolutionary: performance advertised in design.
With a new technology called Lightspray, we’re seeing On’s ambitions grow. Despite a decade of experiments in additive manufacturing and circular products by competitors like Adidas, no sneaker brand has really cracked the code on balancing high performance, sustainable life cycle, and production efficiency. Lightspray is a promising approach to all three of these goals.
A robot holds an outsole (produced in a traditional injection mold) and spins it around, all while a nozzle sprays the entire upper of the shoe into existence. That process takes just three minutes (while it takes another three for it to set). Lightspray requires no extra glues and can be colored with the most minimal spray of dye.
On has simplified its sneaker to just a handful of components and a bare minimum of material, already reducing its carbon imprint by 75% on the upper alone. But because it’s made of just five parts, a Lightspray shoe can (theoretically) be more recyclable long term, as On promised to me earlier this year.
Lightspray shoes have already been worn in multiple marathons (19 athletes wore them at the latest NYC marathon, including Hellen Obiri, who came in second place). This is a long-term bet on core design/manufacturing/performance tech from On, and will be something to watch for years to come.
Read more about On, honored as No. 18 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2025.
2. SharkNinja
For building irresistible home appliances
The SharkNinja brand has come a long way since its vacuum infomercial days of the mid-aughts. The company—and its 1,100-person global design and engineering team—has become one of the most sophisticated manufacturers of domestic appliances on the planet, packaging advanced engineering into novel, easy-to-use, affordable products.
SharkNinja more than doubled its product portfolio in 2024 as part of a massive brand expansion involving categories ranging from outdoor gear (with a Yeti-like cooler) to beauty (Dyson-inspired hairstyling tools) to home (with a battery-powered fan that moves with you). But its runaway hit last year was in a category entirely of its own: the Ninja Slushi, an at-home frozen drink maker that allows customers to whip up a margarita in their kitchens or a perfect frozen Coke, à la the 7-Eleven Slurpee.
Before launching online in July, the $300 Slushi amassed a 200,000-person waitlist and garnered more than 200 million impressions across social media, and it has since sold out 15 times. This success is a result of the company’s obsessive, value-grounded approach to innovation, which involves testing out its products in up to 750 homes before launch to ensure its customers feel competent trying their products the first time—and don’t mind cleaning them up on the twentieth.
“If your cellphone’s not working, you blame the phone,” says SharkNinja chief design officer Ross Richardson. “If you can’t cook a steak properly, or you’re not able to dry your hair, most people will then blame themselves.” SharkNinja wants to change that, ensuring that its products are not just well engineered and easy to use but also allow for creative exploration (which helps them go viral on social media). In the case of the Slushi, the 6.5-inch-wide machine fits onto your counter better than you’d expect, and its prominent tap on the front requires no instruction manual to understand. Even the recipe booklet that comes with Slushi is less about the recipes than understanding basic ratios of, say, sugar and alcohol. “It’s a product that you can experiment with,” says Richardson. “When the consumer is not narrowed into ‘You have to do it this way!’ they want to share. And as soon as they share, we’ve got virality.”
SharkNinja’s engineering team keeps the innovations flowing by developing products in a 24-hour global relay, passing work from its Massachusetts headquarters to London to China (where manufacturing previously had been taking place) each day. For the FrostVault cooler—which costs $250 and features drawers to keep your food dry from condensation—the Needham, Massachusetts, development team shoveled three tons of sand inside their studio to ensure that the drawers could open and close on a beach without jamming. SharkNinja can now build just about any product it can imagine—from the popular $370 Woodfire electric grill and smoker to the $350 FlexFusion ceramic hair straightener—at a price most consumers can afford. That formula helped SharkNinja grow revenue 30% in 2024, breaking $5.5 billion for the first time.
“We’re the fastest-growing outdoor cooking company in the world, and we’re also the fastest-growing hair tools company in the world,” says CEO Mark Barrocas. “Who would have thought that would be under the same umbrella?”
Read more about SharkNinja, honored as No. 27 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2025.
3. JKR
For creating beautiful, high-impact rebrands
Most rebrands tend to be either completely cringe or vastly underwhelming. But branding agency JKR spent 2024 pushing clients outside their comfort zones to launch a series of bold rebrands that breathed fresh life into legacy clients. With Impossible, JKR transformed the alt meat pioneer’s strangely greenwashed packaging into a blood red celebration of plant meat. Brand awareness jumped 25% in the first three months after release. For the Kosher food staple Manischewitz, the firm swapped dull white packaging for eye-popping orange, pushing sales by 7% in what the brand anticipates will equate to 10% YOY growth. At RSPCA, the largest animal welfare charity in the world, JKR drove a 200% boost in donations through the brand’s first makeover in 50 years, which swapped stoic typography for cute animal icons. And while it’s too soon to know how JKR’s work will impact Mozilla, the company’s new funky, pixel-loving makeover vows to “reclaim the internet” with dinosaurs and rainbow gradients.
4. Foster + Partners
For refreshing an icon and reviving a city in the process
An icon is back in San Francisco, thanks to a $1 billion project between the real estate developer SVHO and the architecture firm Foster + Partners. The duo reimagined the Transamerica Pyramid Center as a luxe modern workspace to reinvigorate the struggling downtown. Foster + Partners took the renovations all the way back to the studs. Drop ceilings and superfluous cladding were removed, increasing headspace by 10 full feet in the entrance. Clearer windows embrace unparalleled views across the Bay, which can be enjoyed from opulent casual meeting spaces in the center of the tower and top floor.
But despite the lease prices that are 3x competitors in the area, it’s celebrating 70% occupancy in its first year of release and multiyear partnership with TED AI. As for the redwood park planted outside in 1930? That’s not only still open to the public with more seating than before, but it hosts biweekly concerts open to the community.
5. Special Offer
For turning a color into a cultural moment
It was Brat summer, and we were all just living in it. But Charli XCX’s cultural movement owes some of its success to the NYC design studio Special Offer. The firm developed Brat‘s iconic, arresting green brand seen on the album and merch, with its almost lazily, stubbornly printed typeface.
In a world full of brands that try too hard, it’s an aesthetic that’s difficult to describe in any other way than . . . so brat. But the brand’s greatest success was how fans made it their own. Not only was #brat used 1.4 million times on TikTok and 2.7 million times on Instagram, but a “Brat Generator” was visited more than 5 million times as fans built their own brat memes for the season.
With apologies to all things demure, 2024 belonged to the brats. Into 2025, Special Offer is collaborating with several unannounced brands. Its newest project is building the exhibition identity for the Louis Vuitton Visionary Journeys installation in Bangkok.
6. Cactus
For redesigning the entire experience of healthcare
In a world full of design consultancies, Cactus has distinguished itself as a leader in rethinking every touch point of healthcare—be it hospital design or digital workflows—with clients that include Mayo Clinic, Advent Health, and Wellstar. One landmark project will begin construction in March. It’s a new oncology bay for USC’s Norris Center.
Inspired by a first-class airline cabin, these modular rooms will offer comfortable, private spaces to cancer patients who are undergoing transfusions. Experimental treatments, in particular, can require patients to be connected to machinery for up to 12 hours. The new bays allow them to rest in a reclining chair or bed complete with amenities like music and a screen.
In addition to offering the patient a cozier environment, the bays are nested together, making them space efficient and increasing the Norris Center’s capacity by 50%, while being easy for healthcare professionals to monitor. Norris Center will also test moving these bays outside of the clinic, given that their modular design can essentially create a pop-up clinic anywhere.
7. Code and Theory
For building interfaces that offer clarity during uncertainty
Digital agency Code and Theory is building the best data visualization tool in broadcast today. Following the firm’s success rebuilding CNN’s touchscreen Magic Wall in 2018, NBC recruited Code and Theory to re-create its competing Big Board for live news broadcasts.
The new board, which debuted for the presidential primaries last year, became the focus on MSNBC’s election night coverage. Data guru Steve Kornacki used it to take 5.5 million Americans through a tumultuous night, zooming into districts with 10M+ data points from 16 years of electoral data, with real-time updates of 16,356 geographies across the U.S.
Code and Theory was also tapped by Microsoft last year to develop immersive product landing pages for one of its most important releases in recent history: the Microsoft Copilot+ PC. Rather than build a traditional promotional website, the firm created dynamically generated pages across 52 markets worldwide, tailoring these AI demos to a user’s own interests and inputs.
8. Squarespace
For using AI to build custom websites even faster
For all of the promise of generative AI, it hasn’t offered a lot to the average person. But for Squarespace users looking to construct beautiful websites as fast as possible, the company’s Blueprint AI tool made the task even easier.
Through natural language—just answering a few questions about their business—users can have Squarespace build them a custom site with a modern layout, customized fonts, and interchangeable colors. It will even fill the site with stock imagery and generated copy. Of course, Squarespace might not get the design perfectly to your liking, but each component is easily updated through the graphic interface.
After a few years of stock ups and downs, Squarespace was acquired by private equity firm Permira last year. Blueprint AI is an innovation modernizing the company’s design tools. It improves on Squarespace’s templated approach to website building and pushes it a step further in speedy, simple UX that courted 25% of users to try it last year across 200 countries.
9. Quilt
For building a heat pump that anyone can use
It’s so small that you barely notice it. Unlike your traditional space heater or window A/C unit, the Quilt heat pump almost disappears onto a wall—despite replacing both of these products in one. As the smallest and most efficient multi-zone heat pump on the market, the units are a mere 8 inches tall and can heat or cool a room automatically with the assistance of predictive algorithms.
Quilt makes convenience a core feature: The company handles everything from sales to installation, pairing customers with an installer. That convenience is catching on. After launching the heat pump in the Redwood City area in May, Quilt quickly sold out of its 2024 inventory. In 2025, it plans to spread to five major markets including L.A.
While the product promises to save customers energy and money, the carbon impact alone might make the upgrade worthwhile: Over the next 15 years, Quilt’s most ambitious targets project cutting the CO2 equivalent of the state of California up to 10 times over.
10. Skip
For making it easier to move
Skip may very well sell you your first exoskeleton. After spinning out of Google X in 2023, the robotics company developed what it dubs an “e-bike for hiking” called Mo/Go (which is short for “mountain goat.”) It’s a pair of robotic bracers that move along with your stride, relieving half the effort of each step.
But while most robots look like robots, Skip teamed with the outdoor gear company Arc’teryx to integrate Mo/Go into a pair of pants. The pants made their debut in August 2024 through a climbing clinic in Squamish, Canada, and since then, Skip spent the latter half of the year validating and refining both the fit and the algorithms behind the design through hundreds of testers who’ve rented samples, more than half of whom reported “loving” the experience.
After fulfilling its $4,500 preorders that start shipping in fall 2025, Skip plans to put Mo/Go on sale inside Arc’teryx stores and eventually expand its purview to serve people with movement challenges from strokes or Parkinson’s disease. In other words, while Mo/Go is being designed for hikers hoping to get a leg up on the trail, the performance machine is being developed to eventually benefit everyone who just wants to move with more ease.
Explore the full 2025 list of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, 609 organizations that are reshaping industries and culture. We’ve selected the companies making the biggest impact across 58 categories, including advertising, applied AI, biotech, retail, sustainability, and more.
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