LOS ANGELES, Oct. 28, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Legacy Lab, Team One’s think tank exploring brands making a long-term impact in a short-term world, today announced its annual 2026 Legacy Makers 100 list. Unlike rankings of only the hottest or most popular brands of the moment, The Legacy Makers 100 identifies the brands consumers believe will still be in their lives years from now: organizations committed to making a durable difference in their lives and the world around them. For the second consecutive year, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital claims the top spot.

Each year, The Legacy Lab asks more than 10,000 U.S. consumers to evaluate an extensive list of brands nominated by leading business and communication schools in the United States. This year researchers also introduced a revealing new question: “Does this brand have my best interests at heart?” The responses offer a fresh perspective on what drives consumer belief, advocacy, and loyalty. Consumers who believe a brand has their best interests at heart are also more likely to want to spend more time and money with it.

“This one additional question helped explain which brands consumers believed in most, recommended, and stayed loyal to. And it revealed something interesting: the brands people backed most strongly weren’t necessarily the ones promising to save the planet. They were the ones whose interests aligned with their own,” said Mark Miller, Chief Strategy Officer at Team One and Founder of The Legacy Lab. “Even sustainability works that way. ‘Helps me live more sustainably’ emerged as one of the strongest new drivers in the study. When someone tells us a brand has their best interests at heart, what they’re really saying is simple: this brand has my back.”

While some familiar names continue to lead, this year’s ranking also reveals a changing mix of brands earning consumer support. Thirty brands are new to the 2026 list compared with last year, including 19 appearing for the first time since the study launched in 2023. One of the year’s biggest standouts is Bobbie: the infant formula brand graduated from last year’s emerging-brand Radar list to No. 6, ranking ahead of household names including NASA, Apple, and Google. 

The 2026 Legacy Makers 100 brands are:   

    1. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital 
    2. Johns Hopkins Medicine 
    3. Girls Who Code 
    4. Habitat for Humanity 
    5. Mayo Clinic 
    6. Bobbie 
    7. Aimé Leon Dore 
    8. Cotopaxi 
    9. RIMOWA 
    10. NASA 
    11. The Citizenry 
    12. Loro Piana 
    13. Amazon 
    14. Faherty 
    15. Buck Mason 
    16. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) 
    17. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater 
    18. John Varvatos 
    19. Filson 
    20. Dr. Bronner’s 
    21. The Row 
    22. IWC Schaffhausen 
    23. Shinola  
    24. A24 
    25. Veja 
    26. Apple 
    27. Sesame Street 
    28. NVIDIA 
    29. Lucchese 
    30. Away 
    31. The Olympics 
    32. HYBE 
    33. Google 
    34. National Geographic 
    35. Martin Guitar 
    36. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) 
    37. TED 
    38. Bang & Olufsen 
    39. BYD 
    40. PBS KIDS 
    41. Arc’teryx 
    42. LOEWE 
    43. Microsoft 
    44. Taylor Guitars 
    45. Toyota 
    46. FIGS 
    47. Visa 
    48. Gates Foundation 
    49. Aesop 
    50. Substack 
    51. Sanrio 
    52. TELFAR 
    53. Khan Academy 
    54. Tecovas 
    55. Blue Origin 
    56. Breitling 
    57. REI 
    58. Intel 
    59. NPR 
    60. Medium 
    61. Costco 
    62. H-E-B 
    63. General Electric 
    64. Miu Miu 
    65. USAA 
    66. Seventh Generation 
    67. Strava 
    68. Patek Philippe 
    69. Lilly  
    70. STANLEY Tools 
    71. YouTube 
    72. Fender  
    73. Crayola 
    74. Off-White 
    75. MSCHF 
    76. Chick-fil-A 
    77. Pixar 
    78. Disney 
    79. Sol de Janeiro 
    80. The Bluebird Cafe 
    81. Patagonia 
    82. The Ordinary 
    83. Samsung 
    84. Reformation 
    85. Veuve Clicquot 
    86. Duolingo 
    87. GSK 
    88. Sonos 
    89. GoFundMe 
    90. Harman Kardon 
    91. On 
    92. The Home Depot 
    93. MasterClass 
    94. Trader Joe’s 
    95. Dyson 
    96. Carhartt 
    97. LEGO  
    98. Vuori  
    99. Moncler
    100. Fenty Beauty

“Since launching the study four years ago, we’ve learned something new each year about the brands consumers value most,” Miller added. “In year one, brands with the strongest beliefs rose to the top. In year two, belief alone wasn’t enough; the highest-ranked brands needed high-quality products to back them up. Year three belonged to brands making their solutions the standard for their entire category. This year’s Legacy Makers are doing all these things in service of something more personal: being a trusted ally in their consumers’ lives and the world they live in. The takeaway is clear: the brands that look out for their consumers are the ones earning their loyalty in return.”  

Beyond more established leaders, the study also publishes its annual Legacy Makers Radar list, spotlighting ten up-and-coming brands, each 15 years or younger, that are already earning deep support from the consumers who know them.  

On this year’s new best-interests question, Radar brands clearly outperform their more established counterparts, one of the most pronounced differences between younger and established brands across the study. 

The 2026 Legacy Makers Radar brands are: 

    1. Gentle Monster 
    2. Yield Giving 
    3. BÉIS 
    4. TOGETHXR 
    5. Coursera 
    6. Cursor 
    7. Kosas 
    8. Credo Beauty 
    9. ClassPass 
    10. Perplexity

“Our Radar list has developed a track record of identifying future legacy makers,” noted Miller. “While our data doesn’t guarantee that a Radar list recipient will deliver a long-term durable difference, it does show that the consumers who know these emerging brands best are already behind them. And that kind of support is a strong foundation from which to build any legacy.” 

For more information about The 2026 Legacy Makers 100 and Legacy Makers Radar lists, visit https://www.teamone-usa.com/the-legacy-lab.

ABOUT THE LEGACY LAB 
Launched by Team One in 2012, The Legacy Lab is a Los Angeles–based think tank exploring the dynamics of long-term brand building in a short-term world. It focuses on ambitious leaders: remarkable individuals who have succeeded in making their brands enduringly unique, inspiring, and influential—even as the times, technology, and competition change around them. The Legacy Lab includes The Legacy Lab Consultancy, which helps brands build legacies with the understanding that aspirational brands endure over time and have lasting value, as well as The Legacy Lab Foundation—a nonprofit created to invest in leaders and organizations aiming to make a durable difference in the world. The Legacy Lab is an enterprise of Team One. For more information, visit The Legacy Lab and follow all the latest learnings on LinkedIn. 
  
ABOUT TEAM ONE 
Team One is Publicis Groupe’s fully integrated media, digital, and communications agency dedicated to helping premium and luxury brands achieve their highest aspirations in the modern media landscape. With more than 400 employees, Team One has six North American offices, including its Los Angeles headquarters, Dallas, New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Boise. Team One clients include Lexus and the Lexus Dealer Association, Marriott International, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, The RealReal, HKS Architects, Metabo HPT, The Duckhorn Portfolio, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP Inc., Moët Hennessy, and Cathay Pacific Airways. Team One continues to be recognized for its industry-leading work and unique culture, which encourages innovation at all levels. To learn more about the agency’s work, team, and innovation ethos, visit TeamOne-USA.com.

PRESS CONTACT: 
Shelby Griffin 
Communications, Team One 
AMG@teamone-usa.com  


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