Unplugs Wins a 2026 Red Dot Design Award

Before we've shipped a single pair, Unplugs just earned one of the design world's highest honors.

It's official: Unplugs has won a 2026 Red Dot Design Award, recognized in both Innovative Design and Fashion Design. That's a first-of-its-kind win for a product that hasn't even reached ears yet.

If you don't live in the design world, here's why we're a little giddy. The Red Dot has run since 1955 and is judged by an independent international jury of designers, professors, and critics. Every year it pulls in more than 18,000 entries from over 70 countries, scored on function, aesthetics, usability, and responsibility. Winning work goes on display at the Red Dot Design Museum in Essen, Germany — a global benchmark for what good design looks like.

Here's the part that still feels surreal.

"I'm a first-time hardware founder. To earn this before we've shipped a single unit is, honestly, wild — and it's not because of me. It's because of the people who believed in the vision before there was anything to believe in."

— Tom Worcester, Founder & CEO

Because this was never a one-person win. It belongs to the audiologists who've spent 75 combined years helping people one ear at a time. To the engineers who sweated every gasket and every click. To the designers who made something worth showing off. And to our Kickstarter backers, who trusted us early and told us exactly what to fix. Every note shaped what we built.

Three years ago, this was a vision two world-class audiologists had carried for decades — and a founder who'd never built hardware. Now we're weeks from putting it in your ears, and helping people protect the sense that connects them to music, to conversation, to the people they love.

The click is coming.