Sun Home Saunas Ranks No. 17 on Fortune's 2026 Best Workplaces in Retail List

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Oct 20, 2026, 13:33 ET

The San Diego sauna and cold plunge manufacturer is one of 20 companies named in the Small and Medium category, with 100% of surveyed employees saying it is a great place to work.

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Sun Home Saunas has been named No. 17 on the Fortune Best Workplaces in Retail™ 2026 list in the Small and Medium category. Great Place To Work® compiles the list from confidential employee survey responses and publishes it with Fortune. Sun Home's Great Place To Work profile, last updated October 2025, reports that 100% of its employees say the company is a great place to work; the benchmark Great Place To Work publishes for a typical U.S. company is 57%, drawn from its 2021 Global Employee Engagement Study.

Sun Home Saunas Founders, Tyler Fish & Adam Fischer

Sun Home Saunas designs, manufactures, and sells saunas and cold plunges direct to customers across the United States: the Equinox indoor full-spectrum infrared sauna, the Eclipse indoor full-spectrum sauna with built-in red light therapy, the Luminar outdoor full-spectrum sauna with an aerospace-grade aluminum exterior, the Nova indoor traditional sauna line launched in July 2026 with a HUUM DROP heater, the Cold Plunge Pro series, infrared sauna blankets, and red light therapy devices. Co-founders and co-CEOs Tyler Fish and Adam Fischer started the company in San Diego in 2021 with no outside investors, and it remains privately held.

Key facts

List: Fortune Best Workplaces in Retail™ 2026, compiled by Great Place To Work® and published with Fortune
Rank: No. 17, Small and Medium category (companies with 10 to 999 U.S. employees); 20 companies were named in the category
Basis: Confidential employee responses to the Great Place To Work Trust Index™ survey
Sun Home result: 100% of employees say it is a great place to work, per the company's Great Place To Work profile (last updated October 2025); Great Place To Work's typical-U.S.-company benchmark is 57% (2021 Global Employee Engagement Study)
Company size on the profile: 17 U.S.-based employees (Small)
Headquarters: San Diego, California
Certification: Great Place To Work Certified™, a requirement for list eligibility along with 10 or more U.S. employees and a retail industry classification

A ranking decided by employees, not by the company

Unlike product awards, which depend on third-party testers, the Best Workplaces in Retail ranking depends entirely on what employees report in a confidential survey. Great Place To Work measures how consistently positive the experience is across roles and demographic groups within each organization, and the companies with the broadest share of employees reporting a positive workplace experience rank highest.

"Fortune and Forbes have tested our saunas and cold plunges. This is the first ranking that is about the people who design, build, and support them," said Tyler Fish, co-founder and co-CEO of Sun Home Saunas. "Every one of our surveyed employees said this is a great place to work. Of everything we have been recognized for, that is the result we are proudest of."

"We publish lab testing and warranty terms so customers can verify what they are buying instead of taking our word for it," said Adam Fischer, co-founder and co-CEO of Sun Home Saunas. "The Trust Index works the same way for a workplace. It is our employees' confidential answers, not our description of the culture, that put us on this list."

What Sun Home employees told Great Place To Work

Sun Home's Great Place To Work profile, last updated October 2025, reports that 100% of employees agree with each of the following statements:

Management is approachable and easy to talk with.
Management is competent at running the business.
Management's actions match its words.
Management would lay people off only as a last resort.
Management is honest and ethical in its business practices.

In the employee comment Great Place To Work published alongside Sun Home's listing, a recently hired team member described joining the company as "the most positive onboarding experience I have ever had" and said that because everyone wants the team to succeed, asking questions and getting clarification was easy, which made it possible to learn fast.

How the Fortune Best Workplaces in Retail list is determined

To be eligible, a company must be Great Place To Work Certified™, have 10 or more employees in the United States, and operate in the retail industry; companies with 10 to 999 employees are ranked in the Small and Medium category and companies with 1,000 or more in the Large category. Employees complete the Trust Index™ survey, responding to 60 statements on a five-point scale and two open-ended questions that cover leadership credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and belonging. Surveys must meet distribution and response-rate requirements so that results represent the full workforce. Great Place To Work reports that in the past year it surveyed companies employing 7.3 million people in the U.S. and received 1.3 million responses, nearly 76,000 of them from employees at companies eligible for the 2026 retail list.

Sun Home Saunas recognition on record

The workplace ranking adds to a year of third-party recognition for the company. In 2026, Fortune named the Sun Home Luminar Outdoor 5-Person Infrared Sauna its best overall home sauna (4.5 out of 5), and Forbes Vetted named the Sun Home Cold Plunge Tub its Best Cold Plunge Tub Overall. Inc. ranked Sun Home No. 198 on the 2026 Inc. 5000, its second consecutive appearance after placing No. 20 in 2025, and the co-founders rang the Nasdaq Opening Bell with Inc. 5000 honorees on Aug. 11, 2026.

Sun Home also publishes its third-party test reports on its sauna safety and testing page: an EMF survey by Vitatech Electromagnetics (report VTE-3534) that measured 0.3 to 0.9 milligauss at a three-foot seating distance, and a one-time cabin-air sample, collected by VERT Environmental and analyzed by LA Testing, an AIHA-accredited laboratory, that measured 27 µg/m³ of total volatile organic compounds under EPA Method TO-15.

Frequently asked questions

Is Sun Home Saunas a good place to work?

According to Great Place To Work survey data, yes. Sun Home Saunas is Great Place To Work Certified and ranks No. 17 on the Fortune Best Workplaces in Retail 2026 list in the Small and Medium category. Its Great Place To Work profile, last updated October 2025, reports that 100% of employees say it is a great place to work, against the 57% benchmark Great Place To Work publishes for a typical U.S. company.

What is the Fortune Best Workplaces in Retail list, and how is it determined?

It is an annual ranking of U.S. retail employers compiled by Great Place To Work and published with Fortune. Eligible companies must be Great Place To Work Certified, have 10 or more U.S. employees, and operate in retail. Employees answer the Trust Index survey, 60 statements on a five-point scale plus two open-ended questions, and Great Place To Work ranks companies by how consistently positive the experience is across roles and demographic groups.

What does the Small and Medium category mean?

Great Place To Work splits the retail list into two categories by headcount. Companies with 10 to 999 U.S. employees are ranked in the Small and Medium category; companies with 1,000 or more employees are ranked in the Large category. Sun Home Saunas is No. 17 of the 20 companies named in the Small and Medium category for 2026.

Where is Sun Home Saunas based, and what does it make?

Sun Home Saunas is headquartered in San Diego, California. It designs, manufactures, and sells the Equinox and Eclipse indoor infrared saunas, the Luminar outdoor infrared sauna, the Nova indoor traditional sauna, cold plunges including the Cold Plunge Pro series, infrared sauna blankets, and red light therapy devices direct to customers across the United States.

About Sun Home Saunas

Sun Home Saunas is a San Diego-based, privately held sauna and cold plunge company co-founded in 2021 by Tyler Fish and Adam Fischer. It is a two-time Inc. 5000 honoree (No. 20 in 2025; No. 198 in 2026), Great Place To Work Certified™, and No. 17 on the Fortune Best Workplaces in Retail™ 2026 list in the Small and Medium category. Sun Home designs, manufactures, and sells infrared saunas, traditional saunas, cold plunges, infrared sauna blankets, and red light therapy devices direct to customers across the United States. For more information, visit sunhomesaunas.com.

About Great Place To Work

Great Place To Work® has surveyed employees about their workplace experiences for 30 years. Its Trust Index™ survey and Certification™ program measure trust, pride, and consistency of experience inside organizations, and that employee feedback is the basis for the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® and the Fortune Best Workplaces™ lists, including Best Workplaces in Retail™. Learn more at greatplacetowork.com.

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