Zip Top won the ECRM-MMR Buyers Choice Award for its reusable containers during ECRM’s recent Housewares Program.

Blue Sky Clayworks was a finalist for its Tractor Teapot.

The products were selected from dozens of entries submitted by participating suppliers. Buyers were able to evaluate each entry and cast their votes based on product packaging and innovation via the MMR-branded Buyers Choice Awards section of the ECRM Connect platform.

“With most people spending more time at home over the past year, the housewares category is continuing to explode,” said Tony Giovanini, senior vice president of general merchandise for ECRM. “The winners have both innovative design and function that appealed to our buyer participants. Congrats to both winners.”

Zip Top aims to offer easy to use containers that are developed to be safer for people and the environment. Made in the USA with 100% pure platinum silicone, Zip Top containers have been recognized across the globe for their designs. The brand has won an International Design Excellence Award, Gold German Design Award, European Product Design Award, America by Design Season 1 winner, and was named a Good Housekeeping Editor’s Pick at the 2019 International Home + Housewares Show.

The patented Zip Top’s reusable containers are designed with a one-piece construction that was developed for durability, making them safe for the microwave, dishwasher and freezer. The products’ 100% platinum silicone construction contain no BPA, plastic, fillers, or other harmful chemicals and are available in a variety of sizes and colors in cups, dishes, bags, kid snack containers, and breast milk storage bags.

Blue Sky Clayworks has been in business for more than 25 years and specializes in hand crafted and hand painted ceramics. Its products are all designed by an in-house artist and produced in the company’s own factory in China. They are designed to be unique in style and carry a high perceived value at retail. Blue Sky makes over 180 sculpted teapots with products ranging from Tabletop, Seasonal, Pet, to Garden, many of which are collected.

The Tractor Teapot was inspired by Blue Sky Clayworks designer Ronaldo Bishop as part of his love for rural America. Spending summers on the farm in Southern Utah, he loved working with his father and grandfather cultivating the fields on the tractor.

Karissa Burdon is a marketing manager at ECRM.