Zappos.com was honored with two awards at a gala ceremony on February 23, 2017, at The Gathering in Banff, Canada, an annual summit celebrating the world’s most coveted brands.

The first award recognized Zappos.com as a brand that has attained cult status among consumers, while The Pinnacle Award was bestowed by attendees as a “best of show” acknowledgement of the brand’s significant success and achievement among peers. Previous Pinnacle Award winners include AirBnb (2016), Cirque du Soleil (2015), and GoPro (2014).

The awards were accepted by Tyler Williams, Fungineer and Lead Link for Brand Aura at Zappos.com who was accompanied at The Gathering summit by Zappos.com CEO, Tony Hsieh.

“You really can’t host a summit of brands that have won such fanatical levels of customer devotion and not include Zappos.com,” explained The Gathering co-founder and CEO of Calgary-based Cult Collective, Chris Kneeland. “Each year, our panel judges hundreds of brands on their cult-like merits, but only a handful are truly special enough to honour. These awards represent a significant accomplishment, and have become an opportunity for peers from around the world to celebrate and pay homage to those brands who are so deserving of the recognition.” Since inception, The Gathering has been hosted and curated by Kneeland’s Cult Collective, with the first summit taking place in February, 2014.

Hsieh, who wrote and published the New York Times Bestseller “Delivering Happiness” in 2010, also delivered a keynote presentation at The Gathering, detailing the past, present and future of the Zappos.com brand. Other keynote sessions were delievered by author and customer experience expert, Jeanne Bliss, ex-Apple executive and Chief Evangelist of Canva, Guy Kawasaki, and Jonathan Mildenhall, Chief Marketing Officer at Airbnb. Chris Kneeland of Cult Collective also gave a keynote.

The Gathering summit was held at the Fairmont Banff Springs resort from February 22-23, 2017, in the heart of Banff National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. While only Zappos.com received The Pinnacle Award, other brands honored at The Gathering 2017 included Fender, Make-A-Wish, Canada Goose, Mountain Dew, Levi’s and Chapstick.

Past honorees include Red Bull, GoPro, Cirque du Soleil, UFC, Converse, Carhartt and Lululemon.

Nominations are open to the public each year until May 30 at www.cultgathering.com