Who Is Behind Polar Monkeys? Inside the South Florida Brand Sweeping 2026’s Cold Plunge Awards

Polar Monkeys is a Hallandale Beach company, founded in 2021 by Alejandro Rostoker and led today by CEO Eric Halfen, that designs, engineers, and assembles premium thermal recovery systems in South Florida. In 2026 it became the most decorated name in its category, with awards, tested reviews, and features from Men’s Health, Fortune, BarBend, Forbes, and Garage Gym Reviews arriving in a single season. The story of how a Sunshine State startup became the authority on cold is worth the dive.

How did a South Florida company come to own cold?

The irony is the origin story. Polar Monkeys started as founder Alejandro Rostoker’s personal wellness practice, an ice bath ritual in one of America’s hottest metros, and turned into a garage operation between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The scrappy era was literal: the company’s first cold plunge traveled from Miami to Jacksonville in the bed of a pickup truck.

Then South Florida’s wellness boom met the product. In a Shopify case study on the company’s growth, Halfen described the summer 2022 surge plainly: “We went from $0 to $200k in a month.” The same profile credits the brand, within three years, with millions in sales and trust from professional athletes, commercial facilities, and health enthusiasts, with fulfillment tightened to next-business-day shipping. The team of designers and engineers still works out of Hallandale Beach, which makes this one of the more unlikely hometown wins in American wellness: the cold plunge authority operating in a place where it’s 85 degrees at Thanksgiving.

Who is Eric Halfen?

Halfen is the University of Miami graduate running the company’s powerhouse era. He came to wellness from South Florida’s building world, having worked as a project executive in local development before taking the helm at Polar Monkeys, a background that shows in how the company talks about its products: engineering, materials, and installation first, vibes second.

His public throughline is that the company sells a practice, not a tub. Alongside Rostoker’s founding vision and COO Elizabeth Levy’s operations, Halfen has positioned the brand around community, resilience, and self-discovery, and around building the largest collection of cold plunges on the market rather than a single hero product. When the company launched its integrated hot and cold Contrast Edition this spring, his framing was characteristically direct: the science of contrast therapy has been clear for decades, and “what’s been missing is a system worthy of the protocol.”

What did the national press decide in 2026?

Whatever the hometown angle, the awards came from outside testers, and they came in a sweep. Every recognition below links to its source.

The 2026 recognition record

The headline honors: Men’s Health named the Brainpod 2.0 the year’s best indoor and outdoor cold plunge and backed it with a full review by its editorial director, who installed one in his own home gym. Fortune’s testing team scored the same unit 4 out of 5, called it built for professionals and serious athletes, and confirmed FSA and HSA eligibility, alongside naming it Best Indoor Cold Plunge in its best cold plunge tubs guide.

BarBend’s expert-maintained guide handed the brand two categories in one update, adding the marine-grade steel Cyber Plunge as Best Luxury Cold Plunge at a 4.1 score while keeping the Brainpod 2.0 as Best Hot and Cold Plunge. Forbes Vetted featured the $28,880 Contrast Edition in its July report on the science of cold plunging, and Garage Gym Reviews put the same flagship through its own 2026 review. Five national outlets, four different products, one address in Hallandale Beach.

What does this mean for buyers?

It means the due diligence is done and the risk is priced. The residential cold plunge lineup behind the sweep runs from the new $6,290 ONE, which keeps the flagship’s true 32°F ice-making floor in a cooling-only system, through the Brainpod 2.0 ($10,990), The Barrel ($12,890), and Cyber Plunge ($15,690) with heating to 107°F, up to the integrated Contrast Edition ($28,880). Reviewers’ consistent con was price. None of them found cut corners behind it.

Company FAQ

Who founded Polar Monkeys, and who runs it?

Alejandro Rostoker founded the company in 2021 out of his own cold therapy practice. Eric Halfen serves as CEO and Elizabeth Levy as COO, and the leadership trio operates from Hallandale Beach, Florida.

Where are Polar Monkeys systems designed and built?

The company designs, engineers, and assembles its thermal recovery systems in South Florida, with a team of in-house designers and engineers, US-based support, and free domestic shipping.

What awards has Polar Monkeys won in 2026?

Best Indoor and Outdoor Cold Plunge from Men’s Health, Best Indoor Cold Plunge from Fortune, and Best Luxury Cold Plunge plus Best Hot and Cold Plunge from BarBend, alongside a 4/5 Fortune tested review, a Forbes Vetted feature, and a Garage Gym Reviews examination of the Contrast Edition.

The bottom line

Every hot wellness category eventually gets a definitive brand, and in 2026 the cold plunge got its own from the least likely climate in the country. A garage in South Florida, a first delivery in a pickup bed, and five years later a sweep of the national testing press. For buyers, the takeaway is simpler than the story: the experts already ran the comparison, and they kept landing on the company from Hallandale Beach.