Coolest Thing Made In Kansas - People's Choice Winner Announced
After six weeks of competition, the Kansas Manufacturing Council (KMC) on Thursday announced the Terramac Crawler built by Ernest-Spencer is the winner of the 2022 Coolest Thing Made In Kansas - People's Choice.
"The KMC is excited to celebrate the Terramac Crawler as the 2022 Coolest Thing Made in Kansas. Thank you to everyone who nominated and voted for their favorite Kansas-made products. It has been a fun competition," said KMC Executive Director Brandie McPherson. "The manufacturing industry is an important part of the Kansas economy. The KMC launched the Coolest Thing competition as a way to promote the manufacturing industry and to raise awareness about the many cool products made in our state."
Presented by FORVIS, the competition kicked off in August with 60 products. The top nominated 16 products moved on to the bracket-style tournament to compete in head-to-head match-ups. The product with the most votes moved to the next round. More than 25,000 votes were cast during the first two rounds of the competition.
The final round put the final four Kansas-made products up against one another. The final four were:
Terramac Crawler, Ernest-Spencer
Peanut M&Ms, Mars Wrigley
Rocking Chairs, Schaffer Furniture
Zero-turn Lawn Mowers, The Grasshopper Company
Kansans cast more than 11,000 votes during the final round, making it the most competitive final four in the history of the competition.
"Our team at Ernest-Spencer is excited to be part of the Coolest Thing Made In Kansas and honored to be this year's People’s Choice winner. The other nominated Kansas-made products are amazing and the competition was fierce," said the company's President and CEO Neal Spencer. "The competition not only gave us an opportunity to share our customer's product with Kansans across the state but also allowed us to meet many other manufacturers and learn about their products."
The winner of the 2022 Coolest Thing Made in Kansas - People's Choice was announced during the KMC's Kansas Manufacturing Summit held at the Kansas Casino and Event Center in Mulvane.
There are more than 2,500 manufacturers in Kansas, employing 157,000 people with an average annual compensation of $74,541. Manufacturing produces more than $27 billion in output annually, 15.55% of the total output in the state. Manufacturing helps drive the state's economy with more than $8.26 billion in annual manufactured good exports to markets such as Canada, Mexico, Japan, United Kingdom, and Germany.
