STUDSON Named No. 265 on the 2026 Inc. 5000

Inc. Magazine released its 2026 Inc. 5000 list this morning. STUDSON came in at No. 265 out of 5,000 companies nationwide.

We ranked No. 1 in Oregon. No. 11 in Manufacturing. No. 1 in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro area.

The list ranks American private companies by revenue growth over a three-year window. Ours came in at 1,279% between 2022 and 2025. 

Growth on this list is a proxy for something simpler. It means more crews chose our safety helmets than the year before, and then did it again.

That is the part worth sitting with. Every point of that 1,279% is a purchasing decision someone made on behalf of workers they are responsible for. Safety managers do not switch helmet programs casually. There is training involved, budget justification, and a crew that has to actually wear the helmet all day. When an organization makes that change, it's because the old answer stopped being good enough.

STUDSON started in 2019 in a garage in Oregon. The premise was that the technology already standard in ski and climbing helmets had never made the jump to the job site, and that industrial athletes deserved better than a design that had barely changed in a century.

The first SHK-1 shipped in 2021. Since then we have added the SHK-1 Full Brim, and more recently the dual-certified version carrying both CSA Z94.1 and ANSI/ISEA Z89.1 Type II certification. That helmet is among the first of its kind in North America, built for crews running work on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border.

The technology inside is inspired by action sports and adapted for industrial conditions. KOROYD welded tube polymer crumples on impact to absorb force and may reduce the risk of serious head injuries. Twiceme NFC chips carry medical ID and inventory data. The Fidlock magnetic chin strap closes one-handed, even in heavy gloves.

Each of those features exists for the same reason. A helmet only protects a worker who is actually wearing it, worn correctly, throughout their whole shift.

This one belongs to the people who wear our helmets. To the safety directors who took a chance on an unfamiliar brand because the protection made sense. To our distribution partners. To our team that has built something real out of a garage idea in six years.

We are not done. The industry is in the middle of a genuine shift toward Type II protection, and the standards are catching up to where the technology already is. There is more work ahead than behind.

There is also an exciting product announcement coming this fall. We are not saying more than that yet.

Congratulations to every company on this year's list.

See the full 2026 Inc. 5000 list at inc.com/inc5000/2026

Explore STUDSON safety helmets at studson.com.