According to Good American, women’s bodies can fluctuate in size 31 times over the course of their lives. In late 2020, the company piloted its Always Fits collection, which reimagined sizing by offering jeans in flattering fits that work across size ranges. (The jeans come in sizes 00-4, 6-12, 14-18, etc.) In other words, the same pair of jeans will fit, whether your body happens to be a size 6 or 12. The secret to the fabric has to do with how it’s woven: The jeans are made from 90% cotton and 10% lycra and polyester, which are interlaced so that the material can expand by 100%, while most denim on the market can expand only 50%. The jeans are designed to mold to your body, but will return to their original shape after they’re washed, so they don’t become baggy and misshapen.

$139

By spending time creating medical workwear that is stylish, comfortable, and well-designed, Figs has created a loyal following of 1.7 million customers, up from 1.1 million a year ago. In March 2021, it had a successful IPO, and its financials revealed a company that is profitable, making it a rarity among direct-to-consumer startups. Figs acquires new customers primarily through word of mouth, spending less than 15% of its revenues on marketing; and customers often come back to replenish their scrubs, spending an average of $102 an order. While the brand’s bread-and-butter still comes from uniforms, Figs is expanding into athleisure styles, designed to be worn off-duty.

$86

Founded by former Call of Duty gamer Matt Haag, the e-sports organization 100 Thieves has a roster of top players who compete in tournaments for League of Legends, Fortnite, Valorant, and Call of Duty, among other titles. But it’s the company’s push into apparel that’s most intriguing, bringing in millions of dollars for the group. 100 Thieves’s limited-edition merch drops—logo-filled hoodies, sweatshirts, T-shirts, fleece pants, etc.—have grown threefold this year, routinely breaking $1 million in sales, often within 10 minutes. Seeing the success of its Supreme-like clothing drops, 100 Thieves, in July, launched a permanent apparel collection, Foundations, which reportedly took in $2.5 million within its first month. 100 Thieves also recently acquired the high-end gaming keyboard maker Higround, known for limited-edition drops, adding accessories to its merch assortment.

$135

Credit Yeezy, COVID-19, and a steadfast marketing plan, but, this year, Crocs has simply exploded in sales, which grew 67% in 2021. The company mastered the collab, from reskinning the clog with brands like KFC, Minecraft, and Snapchat to handing the silhouette to sneaker god Salehe Bembury to redesign for hypebeasts. Crocs hopes to push its revenue to more than $5 billion a year by 2026, not counting contributions from its recent acquisition of casual footwear brand, Hey Dude. Sure, the Yeezy foam runner and Birkenstock molded sandal have both lent some cultural capital to Crocs over the past few years, but Crocs is responding to the moment with a come-as-you-are statement that the public is loving.

$54.99

Paravel’s wheeled luggage, duffle bags, and cabana totes encourage jet-setters to employ materials like canvas and nylon upcycled from 3.5 million plastic bottles, to date, as well as circular cotton from upcycled fabric scraps, and recycled vegan leather. Its signature Aviator suitcase is a carbon-neutral product, thanks to the company offsetting emissions from its manufacture and transport, as well as from the customers’ first flight with it, of a distance equivalent from New York City to Los Angeles. Paravel, which in 2021 became Climate Neutral Certified and entered into new partnerships with Banana Republic and Marie Kondo, says it has offset more than 12,000 tons of carbon dioxide since 2019.

$375

Kimaï’s sparkly gems are catnip for jewelry lovers who are also concerned about blood diamonds, child labor, human rights violations, and the environmental impact associated with traditional diamond mining. Gem-quality diamonds created in a lab have been around since the 1980s, but Kimaï is using marketing smarts that appeal to Gen Z to make them the norm within the luxury industry. Celebrity investors like Diane von Furstenberg and Rebecca Minkoff have helped burnish the brand, which received a flurry of press just a few months after launch, when Meghan Markle was photographed wearing its earrings. The founders had put the brand on her radar by sending emails to her “inner circle.”

$595 each earring

During the Zoom-schooling era of lockdown, Warby Parker resumed “Pupils Project,” a 2015 initiative that has provided half a million free vision screenings and 120,000 pairs of glasses to low-income and majority-BIPOC communities. As children lost opportunities for eye testing at school, Pupils Project relaunched in existing cities like Baltimore and New York, and dedicated $10 million to expand the project to new areas in 2021, aiming to reach 500,000 more kids by the end of 2025. To prove its hypothesis that better optic health leads to higher educational attainment, Warby Parker teamed up with The Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute, for a three-year study that found students in the lowest quartile, and in special education, wearing glasses equated to almost half a school year of additional learning. 

$195

As part of its efforts to be both carbon-neutral and 100% circular by 2030, Smartwool, the performance wool company, launched a program to take back old socks from customers and repurpose them into the filling for dog beds (while it works on figuring out a system for turning them into new yarn that can be reused).

$25

This luxury marketplace, which partners with small boutiques around the world, has troves of data about what consumers are looking for. It determined that since the start of the pandemic, people have been investing in long-lasting pieces, preferably made sustainably. Farfetch used this insight to launch a new brand: the private label womenswear line called There Was One. Rather than playing into trends, the line focuses on creating closet staples, such as $95 organic cotton T-shirts and $1,400 biker jackets made from traceable leather, all delivered in recyclable and compostable packaging.

$1,096

Aether Diamonds—which makes visual and chemical carbon copies of mined diamonds made with captured CO2—sells a 1.0-carat pavé diamond ring for $7,900. That’s not cheap, but mining a carat of diamonds requires 250 tons of earth to be dug up and creates about 150 pounds of emissions. Aether says it’s able to remove 20 metric tonnes of CO2 with each carat it synthesizes. 

From $7,898

Launched in July 2020, the at-home boxing platform Liteboxer is a connected fitness device that doubles as a game. The company’s patented hardware device looks like a high-tech punching bag. The twist is that its force-detecting pads, which track a puncher’s progress, have LED lights that sync to the company’s collection of some 300 on-demand, trainer-led workouts. In 2021, Liteboxer debuted a wall-mounted punching bag ($1,400) that takes up significantly less room than its original freestanding device ($1,600).

From $1,695

Therabody brought out the big guns in high-tech recovery tools in 2021 with the futuristic-looking RecoveryAir Pro, a medical-grade pneumatic compression system, with sleeves for the arms, pants for the legs, and a vest for the chest. It also acquired PowerDot, an electrical muscle-stimulation wearables company, thus adding a device that can deliver electric pulses through stick-on electrode pads, something that its major competitors have yet to match.

$1,299

Hoka, the 13-year-old brand, owned by Deckers Brands (the parent company behind UGG and Teva), had a breakout fiscal 2021, seeing net sales increase by 62.0% to $571.2 million. What’s driving this growth is Hoka’s commitment to delivering innovations that keep athletes—amateurs and pros alike—running faster and more comfortably. Hoka is known for developing a new kind of EVA foam that’s extra soft and lightweight, and molded into a rocker shape to help propel runners forward. Last year, Hoka built on this EVA foam base by embedding its popular Bondi shoe with a stiff, carbon-​fiber plate that puts a literal spring in runners’ steps. Called the Bondi X, the shoe was well reviewed by leading running publications for delivering the pro-grade advantages of a carbon-fiber plate without sacrificing Hoka’s renowned ultra-cushiony comfort.

$200

Obé Fitness is carving out a fitness niche where TV shows meet workouts that the company calls “entertrainment.” Founded by former agents from Creative Artists Agency, Obé offers a streaming service with 22 live classes per day and more than 7,000 on-demand for $27 a month or $199 a year. It augments its 1980s VHS exercise-tape aesthetic with special themed workouts, in which Obé partners with Hollywood studios to translate entertainment events into fitness. Think workouts tied to the releases of Cruella, where the classes were taught in drag; and West Side Story, in which the company paired some of the musical’s iconic songs with moves inspired by the film’s choreography.

From $27

Clmbr is bringing high-intensity, low-impact workouts to the home in a single machine. The company’s eponymous vertical climber features a large touch screen that can be used to access Clmbr’s library of on-demand, instructor-led classes that span different lengths and workout goals while using benchmarks and achievements to motivate a workout.

From $2,799

On top of initiatives to help recycle and reuse its clothing, Lululemon has taken big steps to recreate the process of making them entirely. The brand partnered with companies to experiment with using lab-grown polyester made out of carbon emissions and to incorporate lab-grown leather. (Lululemon is a founding member of the Mylo Consortium devoted to using mycelium, a mushroom’s root structure, as a viable material alternative.) Starting last July, the company released yoga accessories incorporating Mylo, including duffle bags with leather-like handles and trim. The Barrel Duffel Bag features easy-to-access side and interior pockets and a removable shoulder strap. Lululemon also invested in the bioengineering company Genomatica to find new ways to create plant-based fabrics, such as a plant-based nylon.

$328

The Vive Focus 3 is HTC’s third try at a stand-alone virtual reality headset, and the company nailed it. The innovative headset’s 5K high-resolution graphics, tight head tracking, and 120-degree field of view make it easily superior to the consumer VR headsets currently on the market.

$1300

Flare, founded by two survivors of sexual assault, sells a fashion-item-meets-safety gadget: a wrist bracelet that doubles as an alert system for anyone who may fear abuse or assault, including commuters, college students, and gig economy workers. In case of threats or attacks, a discreet push-of-a-button can alert police, send a GPS location to friends and family, or trigger a prerecorded incoming call with an excuse to leave a threatening situation. The Flare bracelet, which also pairs with a mobile device, sold out three times in 2021. Available in four sizes, XS to L, to perfectly fit your wrist. Company data shows that owners wear them, on average, three days a week, and have activated them more than 25,000 times in the last year.

$129

Canva’s customers, many of them small and midsize businesses without the resources for a professional design team, use the company’s in-browser design platform to create more than slide decks and business cards. Canva’s software suite keeps pace with—and anticipates—how companies communicate, internally and externally. Last year, Canva released a suite of tools to help businesses disseminate social media posts and help with video creation. And this year, it plans to take on the ubiquitous PDF with the launch of a tool that turns any design into a single-serve website. 

From $9.99/month

Form’s two-year-old smart swim goggles are more than just a fancy way to count your laps. With the guided workouts, you can see your lap times and get live instructions on the goggles’ built-in display, so you’ll know when it’s time to pace yourself or pick up steam. Even an Apple Watch can’t do that. In addition to the smart goggles, membership includes the Form Swim app, and guided workouts.

From $15/month

Logitech’s Logi Dock helps people cope with their WFH realities—combining a stereo speaker, six noise-cancelling microphones, and a laptop docking station into a single box. The all-in-one unit eliminates the need for extra peripherals and a tangle of power cords, cables, and wires. Also, pairs to your smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth.

$399

Framework’s laptop hardware looks as slick as any other $1,000 Dell or HP machine; the difference lies in how easily you can take this notebook apart. Remove the keyboard and access the internal components underneath or pry apart the magnetically attached display bezel to replace the screen or webcam. Also, it’s customizable in so many ways: Choose the ports you want and keyboard language, add memory and storage, even upgrade the entire mainboard.

$999

Analogue, considered the tops in premium retro gaming, introduces the Pocket—a handheld system that makes Game Boy classics look even better than you remember, and that’s just the beginning. Cartridge adapters and a developer program will expand the Pocket to even more forgotten gaming systems, and Analogue’s software will let you save “memories” of your favorite in-game moments. And not just for gaming, the Pocket has a built-in digital audio workstation for making music and can connect to a Mac, PC, or other hardware with MIDI and Sync cables.

$219.99

Thanks to advanced AI, Grammarly goes far beyond helping people avoid basic grammar gaffes. The communication tool offers the Premium upgrade subscription, which can analyze text for tone, fluency, and overall readability—as well as integrate company style guides, propose full-sentence rewrites while retaining the intended meaning, detect plagiarism, and flag culturally offensive terms like “Chinese virus.”

From $12/month

Three-year-old Possum Creek Games publishes independent tabletop role-playing games for people who want to go beyond the well-trodden world of Dungeons and Dragons and grapple with deeper ideas. The company uses Kickstarter to fund and promote its projects, which include creative director Jay Dragon’s 2019 game Sleepaway (about counselors at a queer summer camp trying to protect their charges from an otherworldly threat) and Wanderhome, which launched on Kickstarter in 2020 but came to life in 2021 after raising more than $300,000. Following a group of traveling animals through a pastoral landscape that’s recovering from a war, Wanderhome earned praise from reviewers for quietly exploring how violence can scar communities.

$45 to $60

The Harvard scientist, who developed a novel aerosol technology, called Fend in 2020 and partnered in 2021 with design firm Ammunition (Beats by Dre, Ember) to create a disposable nasal mister that, the company says, can help prevent the contraction of COVID-19 or other airborne viruses. After using the device, which contains tiny particles of saltwater fortified with calcium (e.g., seawater), a person breathes out 99% fewer respiratory droplets that could carry disease and make other people sick, and prevents inhaled droplets from reaching the lungs. The new, miniaturized mister is durable, ergonomically shaped, and preloaded with enough solution to use for a month. And when you’re done, you can send it back to Fend to be recycled.

$28.99

Hourglass Cosmetics—a cruelty-free, vegan beauty brand owned by Unilever—developed the first-ever vegan replacement for carmine, a vibrant red pigment made from insects that has long been virtually impossible to replicate. After three years of R&D, the “Red O” Lipstick with refillable applicator was introduced—delivering creamy long-wearing color with a satin finish that won’t smudge or feather.

$39

When Heat Free Hair founder Ngozi Opara spotted a gap in the beauty market, she quit her job to create the first 100% raw, ethically sourced human hair extensions that match the natural hair textures of women of color. The brand has since released accompanying care products—shampoos, conditioners, mousses, and serums that are meant to extend the life of any brand’s extensions by up to 6 months. 

From $149

With the goal to create an inclusive skincare brand for women of color by women of color, Eadem—Latin for “the same” or “all”—developed Cloud Cushion, a revolutionary dark-spot serum formulated specifically for more melanin-rich skin tones. 

$55

No longer just candles, Boy Smells cracked the beauty industry with their line of Genderful Fine Fragrances—scent compositions that further the brand’s mission to shatter the binary and refute outdated expectations surrounding identity.

$98

Former J.Crew creative director and president Jenna Lyons’ LoveSeen makes selecting and applying fake lashes a user-friendly experience with customization and a range of shades in shapes and sizes developed based on testers of varied ages and ethnicities

From $52.80

Genexa pioneered clean medicine in 2016 with a mission to launch over-the-counter treatments for pain, allergy relief, and cold and flu that include the active ingredients also found in Tylenol, Benadryl, and so forth—but without the artificial filler ingredients. These include propylene glycol, artificial dyes, synthetic binders, and talc as well as other potential allergens such as gluten and lactose, which may be lurking in the formula unlabeled. Genexa replaces these with clean ingredients, such as organic fruit extracts and beetroot, rather than artificial flavors and colors. 

$11.99

Launched in 2020, Attn: Grace has taken on the mission of making over a $2.5 billion market for the aging woman by celebrating and nurturing the body that has carried her through the years. The wife-and-wife entrepreneurs behind the startup started with the often hush-hush issues that older women face, such as bladder leaks. The wellness brand designs personal-care items, such as high-performance liners, pads, and briefs, with a sleek touch and elegant packaging (no more shamefully frumpy branding), as well as a gentle barrier cream meant for the most sensitive folds of skin. All of it is made with sustainable, bio-based materials in carbon-neutral factories.

From $13

Omsom partners with iconic chefs to make shelf-stable pantry starters that help people cook restaurant-quality Asian dishes at home—in less than the time it’d take to order Grubhub. Colorful starter packs contain complex sauces like Vietnamese lemongrass BBQ and Japanese yuzu misoyaki—just add protein and vegetables. The brand imports 90% of its domestically difficult-to-source ingredients from Asia, and bases its recipes on those dating back generations in the chefs’ families. Since it launched in May 2020, it has sold more than half a million starter packets throughout all 50 states and launched a Thai krapow starter in partnership with Pepper Teigen in May 2021—the first in its category to boast about containing MSG—an ingredient the founders say has been “slandered by bad science and anti-Asian xenophobia.”

$55

Zip Top’s range of durable pouches in assorted heights and depths can replace single-use Ziplocs and a whole drawerful of Tupperware. They won’t leach BPAs, lead, PVCs, latex, or phthalates, and they nest to save storage space. They’re also American-made, and dishwasher-, freezer-, even sous-vide-safe.

$89.99

Ooni won big when sales jumped fivefold during the pandemic, leading to international expansion and reports of a market valuation—for a company that manufactures just five models of its pizza oven—that could be hundreds of millions of dollars. Ooni’s top seller, the Koda 16, is generally considered to be a nearly professional-grade pizza oven, which also can fit in a car trunk, reaches 950 degrees Fahrenheit in 15 minutes, has excellent heat distribution, and cleans up easily afterwards.

$599

Founded in 2017 by engineer Phäedra Randolph, Spero makes the case that alt-dairy’s future lies not in almonds, soybeans, or oats, but in the lowly sunflower seed. Sunflower seeds are 7 to 8 times cheaper, yet grow 50 to 70 times faster—resulting in 99% fewer CO2 emissions than dairy production and using 96% less water than nut cheeses. Spero’s line of cream cheeses in such flavors as herb, cheddar, and strawberry are now available nationwide, at grocers Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Balducci’s. 

$38.99

Ghia launched its signature nonalcoholic apéritif in the summer of 2020—a ketchup-red, Mediterranean-inspired bitter made from the botanical extracts of fruits, roots, and medicinal plants said to de-stress and impart energy. In 2021, Ghia added its first ready-to-drink offering: Le Spritz, available in cans of two flavors, the original earthy apéritif mixed with either sparkling water or ginger beer.

$18

In 2020, Boulder, Colorado-based Jot launched with a novel concept: a powerful concentrate that is 20 times the strength of coffee and differs from other options because of the controlled extraction process by which it’s made. The liquid is sold directly to the consumer in glass bottles and added by the tablespoon to a glass of water or mug of milk. In just two years, Jot has sold an estimated $10 million worth of its Ultra Coffee. In addition to creating a new coffee beverage category, the company has pioneered a limited-edition release model with different brews including Encore, made from single-origin beans sourced by a women’s organic cooperative in Guatemala.

$26

Food52 began as a website that curated recipes from everyday home cooks—bridging the gap between gourmet cooking and food blogs—and has since evolved to include an online marketplace that sells more than 5,000 kitchen goods from small brands, including its own Five Two line of kitchen, designed in-house and based on reader insights. In 2021, Food52 strengthened its product offerings by acquiring both the Scandinavian-inspired cookware brand Dansk and Schoolhouse, a lighting and lifestyle goods company. These investments were funded by the VC firm The Chernin Group, which acquired a majority stake in Food52 in 2019 and tripled Food52’s valuation to $300 million.

From $48

With marijuana legalization sweeping the nation, dispensaries are already packed with THC-containing sour gummies, fruity chews, and chocolate chunks. Rose Los Angeles elevates cannabis to improbable gastronomic heights for the refined palette of discerning connoisseurs. It combines single-strain flower rosin, a pure form of plant extract, with fascinating flavor pairings—often created in conjunction with Michelin-starred chefs—in a Turkish Delight-style candy. Rose expanded into CBD edibles and national online distribution in 2021. Deep Sleep, Rose’s first product designed to improve sleep, boasts the CBD flower rosin plus the calming properties of passionflower and vanilla, as well as the sweetness of mulberries.

$40

Grove Collaborative has been aggressive in pursuing its goal to sell only plastic-free products by 2025—with new goods like a plastic-free hair- and body-care line called Peach, and new laundry detergent sheets. Available in three scents—Lavender Blossom, Mango & Tangerine, Peony & Freesia—and Free & Clear, the sheets dissolve quickly in standard-machine and HE front-loader washes (bye-bye, polymer laundry pods and plastic jugs) and are gentle enough to use when hand washing items.

$12.95

Eight Sleep woke up the mattress industry a few years ago with a high-tech bed, futuristically called a “Pod.” Today’s version comes with a suite of sleep-well capabilities: temperature-regulating microclimates that can be heated or cooled; sensors that track deep sleep, REM sleep, and daily heart rates; and a gentle wake-up experience, with an alarm that gradually cools the mattress several minutes before cuing a soft, chest-level vibration. In 2021, Eight Sleep rolled out SleepOS, an AI-powered operating system that learns a user’s ideal sleep conditions, based on tracker data, and then automatically adjusts accordingly while also factoring in the ambient environment. It even serves as a private sleep coach, offering actionable feedback and flagging abnormal events.

From $2,645

Ten U.S. states have programs that fund drop-off and collection facilities for unused paint, which have saved more than 50 million gallons of paint from landfills. While that’s great news for the environment, this glut of paint has grown to the point where storage is scarce. Enter Up Paint, whose technology takes stockpiles of abandoned paint and processes, purifies, and refines them into retail-ready paint with a variety of viscosities, sheens, and colors. Added bonus: The reconditioned eco-friendly result is sold at a fraction of the cost of traditional paint. 

From $19.99

Lovevery proves education companies don’t have to be high-tech to be innovative. It has drawn more than 220,000 subscribers with its popular low-tech toys and subscription play kits that are tailored to support every stage of a baby’s brain development, from the first 12 months through 3 years of age. In 2021, Lovevery sent out more than 1 million play kits and introduced a line of toys at Target, to make its products more accessible to all parents, with prices ranging from $9 for its Montessori Sensory Ball to $141 for its play gym. For a personalized Play Kit subscription, parents enter their child’s birth date, activate the subscription (which can be canceled at any time), and will receive a kit every few months that’s appropriate for their toddler’s stage of development.

From $80/month