As the NCAA basketball tournament got underway last month, the PA Chamber tipped off its own bracket-style competition – a first-of-its-kind tournament featuring 32 products made across the Commonwealth, encouraging Pennsylvanians to vote on Twitter and determine what they believed to be the “Coolest Thing Made in PA.”

The contest was wildly popular, receiving more than 32,000 votes, one million Twitter impressions, and much media attention (which you can see here) and encouraging many of the participants to get their fan bases in on the game! Contestants included PA Chamber members and non-members and ranged from the edible – Yuengling beer, Hershey’s Kisses, the Sheetz MTO, Primanti Bros. sandwich and Mrs. T’s pierogies – to the future of tech, with the Astrobotic lunar lander, the Metaverse and Aurora self-driving cars; and other well-known or increasingly popular products made here in the Keystone State.

By the time the contest was narrowed down to the semi-finals, it was clear Pennsylvanians voted with their stomachs, with their love for PA-made foods shining through. Yuengling beer, Mrs. T’s pierogies, the Sheetz MTO and the Primanti Bros. sandwich rounded out the Final Four. Mrs. T’s and Primanti Bros. faced off in the final, and Primanti Bros. took home the title with 53 percent of the overall vote. To celebrate, the 90-year-old Pittsburgh-based restaurant chain gave out a free beer on Wednesday, April 5 at all their Pennsylvania locations, and PA Chamber President Luke Bernstein visited the restaurant’s Camp Hill location where he moonlighted in the kitchen, cooking up the famous sandwich!

We loved hosting this contest as a way to celebrate some of the made-in-PA products that help make our Commonwealth great! Let us know if your favorite item didn’t make the cut this year, and we might just include it in the expanded bracket next year.