On Day 2 of the NECA Show in Las Vegas, the EC&M editorial team stopped by the Rack-A-Tiers booth to recognize its new Wire Waffle product for winning the overall platinum award in this year's Product of the Year competition. Representing the Fittings (Conduit & Cable) category, this product is definitely unique. Judging by the heavy foot traffic around their booth today when we stopped by to present them with the trophy, attendees were flocking to see this new product in person.

“The Wire Waffle is the ultimate wire connector, and it was designed by an electrician with electricians in mind,” said Travis MacLachlan, vice president of sales and product development at Rack-A-Tiers. “That is what Rack-A-Tiers saw as a perfect fit within their growing line of connectors. We want to continue to push innovation in the industry, and this product is a perfect example of that.”

According to Hunter Franssen, who invented the product with his father, who is also an electrician, in partnership with Rack-A-Tiers, this product is truly unique. "There was nothing like this out there, so we built something that was already mandated by Code instead of building something and trying to get the Code changed." 

This year’s competition featured products introduced to the market between Jan. 1, 2025 and Dec. 31, 2025. A hand-picked panel of judges narrowed down the 144 entries to 35 category winners for the first phase of the competition. These category winners were then narrowed down to our three finalists through an online poll available to EC&M readers, who cast their votes to determine the three award-winning products.