How category creators like Willow and Oura ward off dupes and defend their leads

CPG Playbook // July 8, 2026 How category creators like Willow and Oura ward off dupes and defend their leads By Melissa Daniels When the wearable breast pump company Willow was founded in 2014, pumping breast milk was a sit-down endeavor.

Most nursing moms tended to use an electronic pump connected to a large battery, a bulky and multi-part contraption that required the mom to sit down and stay put with cords dangling from her chest. But the Willow was a wearable pump that could be placed inside a bra, allowing moms to walk around while pumping hands-free.

“We had breast pumps that were not designed for the women who used them,” said Willow CEO Sarah O’Leary. “They were so inconvenient, and tied you down and all of that.

Our core innovation of a pump designed around the person using it, that could go in your bra so you can move around while you pump, was an idea that turned a whole category on its head very fast.” Over a decade later, the wearable breast pump is a common purchase for a mom-to-be, with models available from brands like Momcozy, Zomee and Spectra.

Insurance marketplaces that sell breast pumps even have “wearable” as a product filter now. O’Leary said Willow generally sees the competition as a sign that the brand successfully disrupted the category. But she’s cautious of copycats, worried that quickly duped products may undercut safety in a race to the market. Her advice to other brands?

“Don’t let the race disrupt what you’re truly good at and what is really hard to copy, which is that truly customer-oriented, user-focused innovation,” she said. Willow’s attempt to stay atop a growing category is an example of the opportunities and challenges faced by “first movers,” or brands that launch in a white space and become category creators.

This year, such companies are some of the ones that are faring the best in a tepid consumer environment: SharkNinja, known for its viral product drops like the ice cream maker Ninja Creami, saw 15. 6% year-over-year growth to $1. 41 billion in the first quarter of this year, driven by double-digit growth in cleaning, cooking and beauty appliances.

Oura, the first wearable health-tracking ring company, founded in 2013, reached an $11 billion valuation in October 2025 and filed for an IPO this summer. But being a category creator comes with its own set of new-to-market challenges, from customer adoption to distribution to copycats.

Company leaders at Shark Ninja, Oura and Willow say the key is solving an actual problem that is an unmet market need — then continuing to listen to customer feedback to stay ahead. Growing retail distribution and protecting intellectual property are also critical to fending off copycats.

Willow, which is privately held and doesn’t share revenue figures, has aimed to maintain its competitive advantage with a large footprint; it’s sold in about 1,900 Target stores and 200 Kohl’s doors, plus online marketplaces like Babylist and FSA Store. In November, it launched its wearable manual pump, Willow Wave, at 1,600 Walmart locations.

“One of the ways you continue to win is you have to continue to focus on truly bringing new ideas to the category,” O’Leary said. “And for us, that means clinically efficacious innovation, so that when we bring something to market, we know it’s going to work.”

Tapping the consumer need Companies that are category creators tend to begin from the same place: finding a creative solution to an unmet need or problem. Any technologies or inventions included in a breakthrough product help to solve the problem.

In Willow’s case, the unmet need was that existing pumping supplies left women literally tethered down, and the technology was the slightly egg-shaped pump that could operate from inside a bra. Like Willow, the Oura ring tapped an unmet need, but in the wearable health-tracking category.

The company was founded in 2013 in Finland and brought its first product to market in 2015, a time when companies like Garmin and Fitbit provided tracking technology that focused on steps or fitness.

Chief Marketing Officer Doug Sweeny said Oura found its place in the market by focusing on sleep tracking, as well as the discreet wearability of a fashionable ring. “It sits at this interesting intersection [of healthcare and jewelry], and I think that intersection is somewhere we can continue to own and carve out,” he said.

Some of its strongest adoption came after the Covid-19 pandemic when interest in health and wellness began to skyrocket. And since 2023, it has begun to show up in brick-and-mortar retailers like Best Buy, Target and Costco.

Sweeny also said the company has looked to drive awareness in places where it sees its product naturally and organically popping up, pointing to its partnerships as the Official