Newsweek and BrandSpark International are have announced the winners of the 2026 BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards. As you can imagine by the name of it, it awards brands that are most trusted by consumers in the U.S.
They determined the recipients through national consumer survey of 35,215 U.S. shoppers. It’s their 13th year conducting the survey and the award in the U.S. and Canada.
The basis for the ranking was top-of-mind unaided responses for categories consumers actively shop and services they use. Ties were declared if the margin of victory was within 3%. A brand needed a minimum 10% trust share in its category to be declared a winner or among the top 3 most trusted brands.
BrandSpark conducts one of the most rigorous independent studies of brand trust, ensuring rankings that reflect real consumer experience that help Americans make smarter purchase decisions. Brands that are identified as #1 most trusted brands have the unique opportunity to communicate this exclusively unlike other claims where competing brands can make similar claims.
Robert Levy, President of BrandSpark International
The BrandSpark American Trust Study shows that 80 percent of consumers value trust in their purchase decisions. Brand trust is is as important as ever with so many new brands and new products continually coming to market. Anecdotally, in the outdoor cooking industry, I hear it from retailers that consumers like to buy brands.
When consumers are deciding between similar options, trust recognition functions as a tiebreaker before purchase. Seeing a consumer-voted trusted award across social, in store, or digital touchpoints creates confidence in the brand and drives purchase.
Philip Scrutton, Vice President of BrandSpark Shopper Insights
Two companies that sell products that are used outdoors in the CPG space were amongst the top five, most trusted brands. The lighter company Bic had the most trust of any brand with a 97% trust share, and bug repellant brand Off! was fifth with a 85% trust share.
In the world of outdoor cooking Weber was named the most trusted brand both for grills and for smokers. Coleman was the most trusted for camping and other outdoor products. It’s not surprising given the storied history and popularity of both brands.
I found it interesting that for coolers YETI and Igloo were tied for being the most trusted brand. I would have guessed that YETI would have been the winner given how much they invest in branding around the image of being super high quality.
SharkNinja won for multiple categories in the home, including air fryer, blender, and vacuum. That’s notable because they recently entered the outdoor cooking category, are investing in it, and note that they believe there’s opportunity there. Part of the reason for their initial success is from their brand loyalty inside the home.