Portable Fans Become Summer's Must-Have Accessory as Heat Records Fall

New York City recorded temperatures reaching 100 degrees this summer, the hottest numbers on record in over a decade, according to The New York Times. On the city's subway platforms, the response was visible: portable fans became the season's must-have accessory.

From electric hand-held models and neck fans to traditional paper fans, cooling devices now appear as ubiquitous as a pair of headphones, Glossy reports. What was once a purely functional purchase is shifting into the territory of fashion and beauty accessories — and brands are acting accordingly.

The commercial backdrop is unambiguous. According to Berkeley Earth's 2025 Global Temperature Report, 2025 was the third-hottest year on Earth since 1850. The Fifth National Climate Assessment found that the number of heat waves per year in the United States has doubled since the 1980s. Extreme heat is increasingly the norm rather than an outlier event, which converts cooling products from occasional emergency buys into recurring seasonal purchases.

That shift explains the marketing playbook now spreading through the category. As Glossy reports, makers of fans and other cooling devices are taking a cue from fashion and beauty marketing. Their tools: collaborations, stylish colorways and influencer marketing. The goal is to reposition cooling devices as not merely a functional tool but a desirable accessory — the same status-driven framing that beauty brands apply to lipsticks and fashion houses apply to handbags.

The parallel with beauty and fashion is structural, not incidental. Both industries have proven that a commodity category can support premium pricing and repeat desire when products are styled, colored and seeded through influencers. Cooling devices fit the pattern: they are carried on the body, visible in public, and used daily during heat season.

For beauty and fashion retailers, the development signals a new adjacency. Accessories wall space, once reserved for bags, eyewear and hair tools, may increasingly include neck fans and handheld coolers — especially in markets with long, hot summers. Brands with existing influencer networks and collaboration pipelines are positioned to move first.

The category's growth case rests on climate data. If heat waves continue at their doubled frequency and record temperatures recur, cooling devices stop being a novelty and become a seasonal staple with annual replenishment potential. That gives the accessory strategy durability beyond any single hot summer.

Whether fans achieve the staying power of headphones as an everyday carry item will depend on execution: design credibility, colorway drops and collaboration partners that give the products cultural weight rather than purely practical appeal. The raw material — heat — is no longer in short supply.