On every rung of every industry in every hemisphere — Challenger Brands are waking. This year, we’ve done our best to offer a cross-section, a mere sampling, of the many curious and ingenious projects in the frying pan.

We’ve profiled programs that make presentations, schedule appointments, auto-blog, tour-guide, transfer money, print in three dimensions and provide fashion sense. We’ve met the makers of everything from custom pet food to cupcakes, French (Canadian) panties to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy apps.

We’ve seen water in a box, rice on a website and cleaning products you can eat. (Ok, you don’t want to eat them, but they won’t melt your intestines if you do.)*

Our search has taken us from Vancouver to Slovenia and back home to Pittsburgh. Through it all, again and again, we see the same indomitable spirit, innovative thinking and unfettered imagination that we, too, try to embrace.

Challenger Brand-ness is not a selling point, motto or fad. It’s a mode of survival, a springboard to creativity.

It’s a reason to get up in the morning.

*Seriously, this is not an endorsement to eat method cleaning products.