The NEXTY Awards come to Newtopia Now

Four brands from the recent New Hope Network tradeshow have been named as finalists for the Expo West 2025 NEXTY Awards.

Adrienne Smith, Director of Content

August 28, 2024

3 Min Read
NEXTY Awards at Newtopia Now

At a Glance

  • Four products were chosen at Newtopia Now as finalists for the Expo West 2025 NEXTY Awards.
  • The application period for the Expo West NEXTY Awards has been moved up this year, with nominations opening on Sept. 16.

The NEXTY Awards might be synonymous with Natural Products Expo West, but the New Hope Network content and standards teams have chosen four brands exhibiting at Newtopia Now to directly become finalists in the 2025 NEXTY Awards competition.

The team members visited brands in all four Newtopia Now neighborhoods—Glow, Regenerative, Represent and Thrive—and decided to focus on emerging and early stage brands for this opportunity.

These Newtopia Now exhibiting brands will be finalists in the 2025 NEXTY Awards:

  • GlowOxters, an underarm wash that reduces or eliminates the need for deodorant. Charcoal Grit.

  • RegenerateCandid Noons, dark chocolate sweetened with coconut sugar layered on delicate quinoa crispies. Mint Chocolate Crunch.

  • RepresentPi00a is a frozen pizza brand with an incredible mission: to Increase accessibility for deaf people, include deaf people in all aspects of the business and provide continual accessibility training for staff members. The name comes from the "00" flour used for pizza Napoletana. Miso Eggplant.

  • ThriveFunky Mello is a line of incredibly tasty, vegan marshmallow creme made with aquafaba. Creme is also gluten free, soy free and free of eight top food allergens. Vanilla.

Each product was chosen for its representation of the traditional NEXTY Awards judging criteria of the Three I’s: Inspiration, Innovation and Integrity.

Related:Navigating integrity in the natural products CPG industry

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These products will bypass the nomination process for the 2025 NEXTY Awards, and automatically be entered into the pool of finalists. This year, New Hope Network's natural products industry awards program received approximately 1,500 nomination in 35 categories, of which 154 were chosen as finalists. The program is open to natural food, beverage, supplement, natural living/household and beauty and personal care products.

Newtopia Now, New Hope Network's tradeshow that took place August 25-28 in Denver, Colorado, was a hotbed of innovation, inspiration and emerging brands. Of the approximately 600 exhibitors, nearly 200 were first timers at a New Hope tradeshow, and many of these were also new to market, bringing a plethora of fresh ideas to the natural products table.

Divided into four neighborhoods by theme—Thrive, Represent, Glow and Regenerate—Newtopia Now also served as a showcase for new wellness models, diverse-owned brands, natural beauty solutions and pathways to better preserve and restore our natural resources. To highlight some of the exciting brands showcased in each of these neighborhoods, New Hope Network’s team of editors and seasoned NEXTY judges—assisted by expert editors from sister company Supply Side—scoured the show floor at Newtopia Now and chose one outstanding product per neighborhood to participate in the NEXTY Awards.

Related:The 2024 NEXTY Award Winners

All finalist products are featured on newhope.com and other digital trade publications, in the Expo West print edition of Natural Foods Merchandiser magazine, in a physical showcase on-site at Expo West. According to many industry retailers, the list of NEXTY finalists comprises one of the go-to resources for product discovery.

New dates for 2025 Expo West NEXTYS

The 2025 edition of the NEXTY Awards will be debut new nomination dates, with a much earlier timeline that will allow for early-bird pricing and an expanded nomination period. Nominations open on Sept. 16, with early-bird pricing (a $50 discount) through Oct. 16. Nominations will close on Dec. 2, and all samples must be received no later than Dec. 5.

Perishable samples will only be accepted the week of Dec. 5. Brands do not need to be an Expo West exhibitor to nominate for a NEXTY Award, however exhibiting brands will enjoy a slightly discounted price point for their first nomination.

More information about the NEXTY Awards, including the complete nomination guide, can be found at https://www.expowest.com/en/Press/nexty-awards-2025.html.

About the Author

Adrienne Smith

Director of Content, New Hope Network

Adrienne Smith is the director of content for newhope.com and the editor-in-chief of Natural Foods Merchandiser magazine where she helps ideate and produce content for natural products retailers, brands and entrepreneurs. She also runs the NEXTY Awards, an annual program held in conjunction with Natural Products Expo West that recognizes emerging and established natural CPG brands for their innovation, inspiration and integrity.

Before coming to New Hope Network, Adrienne spent two decades writing about food and beverage products and trends for the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Trade in Madrid, Spain, as well as for publications including the International Herald Tribune/New York Times and El País. A former restaurant owner, chef and sommelier, Adrienne is passionate about food in all its forms.

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