Duluth-Made Products 'Coolest Thing Made In Minnesota' 2025 Top-8

'Tis the season for a little friendly competition among businesses around Minnesota.

The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce is looking for your help naming the 'Coolest Thing Made in Minnesota' with a bracket-style voting campaign now underway.

The annual competition got started this summer, with the nomination period getting underway in early July. After wrapping up the nomination period in August, a bracket of 64 products is assembled using the nominees submitted.

A council of industry peers uses the nominations to make the selections for the bracket.

Voting got underway on September 2 this year, with the public voting in various head-to-head matchups to advance to the next round of the bracket. The competition is now down to the 8 finalists, two of which are from Duluth!

The bracket is pitting Duluth's Cirrus Aircraft and their SR Series G7+ Aircraft against Hormel's SPAM. Talk about an ultimate battle of a classic Minnesota-made food against a feat of modern technology!

The other Duluth company in the running is Duluth Pack, with their "The Wanderer" backpack is up against ATZ Manufacturing's Trackchair.

Here's the full list of matchups in this round:

Voting for this round of 8 finalists got underway on Monday and will wrap up Sunday night at 11:59 pm. Voting for the final round will begin Monday, September 29, and will wrap up on October 5. The winner will be announced on Tuesday, October 7, at the 2025 Manufacturers’ Summit in Minneapolis.

In case you're curious, last year's winner was 3M's Scotch Magic Tape.

13 Things You Never Knew That Were Invented in Minnesota

There are a handful of things that most Minnesotans know were invented in the state, like SPAM or Post-It notes, but did you know grocery bags with handles is a Minnesota invention? Let's take a look at some other little known Minnesota inventions.

Gallery Credit: Tony Hart