Over the course of 2022, a new reusable cup rose through the ranks to become the behemoth that it is today: Stanley cups. Resembling the famous hockey trophy of the same name, the Stanley cup has become an infamous part of influencer culture and a must-buy item in department stores across the country, including Target, Walmart, Kohls, and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
This towering bottle is the latest in a long line of other reusable bottles that have trended over time through After World War II, reusable water bottles began to surge in popularity as plastics, steel, and aluminum became more readily available after war rations ended. Through the years, water bottles have been, well, water bottles, providing hydration to anyone who wanted to pay the usually reasonable price for them. Often, metal ones could be more expensive, since metal bottles cost more to manufacture than plastic, but overall, no one was making a statement with their bottle choices. Then came 2019, when the VSCO girl craze went viral across the nation. VSCO was an aesthetic style with a lot of components, like wearing scrunchies, bucket hats, and Birkenstocks, but most importantly, the VSCO girls owned Hydroflasks, metal water bottles that came in an array of captivating colors and an assortment of sizes. As the VSCO craze gradually died down, Hydro Flasks continued to be prominent, especially in high schools where teens appreciate convenient hydration. One of the most debated features of the cup isn’t the enormous handle, the convenient straw, or the eye-catching colors, but the tremendous price tag. The average price of the “Quencher H2O FlowState™ Tumbler” is $45 on their website – that’s 3 hours of untaxed minimum wage in New York, for a water bottle. So what gives on the ludicrous price and the ever-growing hysteria around the Stanley cup?
An important question to ask is, are Stanley’s the first water bottle with exorbitant prices? Although it seems the luxury water bottle market was never a thing before, the aforementioned Hydro Flasks were actually more expensive. The 40oz wide mouth cup costs $50 on the Hydro Flask website – $5 less than the typical Stanley with no customizations added. But is the Stanley really the cheaper option? Well, yes and no. Although Hydro Flasks have a higher price on their website, Amazon and other online retailers often have discounts and deals on the bottles. Comparing per ounce the bottle can carry, the normal Hydro Flask is $1.25 per ounce, while Stanleys are $1.13. However, this is all comparing the price of Hydro Flasks now. Back when they were in high demand, the price was most likely much higher, and people were willing to shell out the big bucks then just as much as they are with the Stanleys now. So, despite what some might argue, Hydro Flasks often cost more than Stanley’s, and the luxury water bottle craze isn’t completely new.
But, we haven’t mentioned the Stanley accessories yet. On online retailers like Etsy and Amazon, there are personalized Stanley name plates, extravagant, colorful straw toppers and “spill stoppers” and silicone boots to keep the cup in place. These all add to the price and can basically constitute the price of another water bottle altogether. Another price-upper is the “personalization” feature on the Stanley website. For an added $10 fee, you can upload images, a monogram, or text to your cup. On Etsy, other unique modifications to the cups, such as name-engraved cups and cups with Disney characters on them sell for $55-$100.
But what brought these cups to popularity in the first place? Technically, Stanley has been a brand for 100 years, and has been selling their “The Quencher H2O FlowState™ Tumbler” since 2016, but it didn’t become mainstream until influencers began to relentlessly market the product in recent years. Some influencers can be seen with armies of the bottles in every limited edition color, and videos featuring the cup have received over 5 billion views on TikTok. In fact, TikTok is most likely to thank for the Stanley’s rise to power. Stanley has an affiliate program set up where they have brand deals with many influencers, who make videos and take pictures with Stanley cups, generating popularity for them as any sponsorship would do. Stanley’s marketing tactic of pairing up with these influencers is reminiscent of when Bang Energy, an energy drink, acted similarly, infiltrating the for you pages of millions of TikTok users. Most of the sponsored influencers tend to be vloggers or beauty gurus whose content is based around “aesthetic” – after all, their audience is watching their content to experience a life they don’t have, searching for any way to replicate the successful people they see on screen. And when they find a cup that can be justified as a necessity and will bring them closer to being “trendy” and “aesthetic” themselves, they buy it.
The effect of demand and the illusion of limited supply and “limited edition” colors make the cup a commodity teens are scrambling to get before they sell out. Their new fall color, “primrose glow” might just be a glowy purple hue, but when it’s marketed as valuable and scarce instead of ordinary, it’s bound to generate some traction. Stanley has a selection of “limited edition colors,” including polar swirl, cranberry winterscape, pale stone winterscape, green divine, rose quartz swirl. On top of that, they have “seasonal colors,” including tigerlily, alpine, pool, iris, orchid, citron, and lavender. All this creates an illusion of limited supply that isn’t really there– the seasonal colors are around all year.
Even the price is a form of marketing. With a hefty price, people tend to talk about the cup, and eventually, people give in and decide to try it out, because a cup that costs that much has to be worth a lot, right? Then, people aren’t going to return it, because it’s a functional water bottle, and the free exposure the Stanleys get from each person in a school carrying the Stanley around as if it’s the bona fide hockey trophy will cause more and more people to be unknowingly marketed to and possibly even buy a cup for themselves.
The Cons
For every person who loves their Stanley, there’s a person who despises them. The people who loathe Stanley cups generally argue that the cups and their owners are “basic,” meaning they don’t want to hop on an expensive and superfluous trend just to “act cool” and that excessive price is ludicrous and refuse to pay it in lieu of more affordable options. The water bottles come in 20 ounces, 30 ounces, 40 ounces and the mind-boggling 64 ounces (seriously, whoever is carrying that around not only has to take at least twenty bathroom breaks a day, but also has absolutely jacked arms, because those things are not light). SIxty-four ounces is heavy but doable to carry in a plastic bottle, but with metal, these cups double as dumbbells and/or weapons.
The biggest disadvantage of the Stanley cup is, of course, the price, at $45 minimum and around $100 at the highest. This price not only means everyone who wants the cup will probably need to fork over some hard-earned cash or ask their parents for some extra allowance, but for many, the price makes the bottle virtually impossible to afford. This leads to the biggest issue the bottle poses: socioeconomic divide. The Stanley cup is just another example of the material items separating richer and poorer children, making those who can’t afford the bottle feeling left out. Now, not only can someone be judged for their clothes, shoes, or backpack, but for the container they drink their water bottle out of. Truly, not all water bottles are created equal, and ridicule from classmates for seeming worse-off could cause people to make rough financial decisions and buy expensive items, like the Stanley, just to seem “normal” or fit in with their classmates.
The Pros
Drinking water, which you are more likely to do with a massive cup like the Stanley, can reduce hunger by suppressing appetite, according to Johns Hopkins, which is valuable for teens who crave food during the school day. Sipping on some water to distract yourself from how hungry you are is similar to gum, which is also extremely popular in schools (let’s just hope gum doesn’t start costing as much as Stanley’s though). Studies have also shown that drinking more water can help with acne, another problem teens face. Plus, according to a Harvard study, drinking enough water during the day can lead to increased mood and concentration, which can be helpful when navigating through the school day. Basically, Stanleys are advertised as a cure-all for teen issues and insecurities: fit in, get clearer skin, and survive the school day.
The features of the cup are also convenient and persuasive. The massive handles make it easy to grab the bottles from the corner of your desk, they are perfectly designed to fit into cup holders, and Stanley’s website guarantees drinks in the cups will remain cold for seven hours and hot for eleven years. They also offer a lifetime warranty, which is a growing trend among pricey items like these. Lululemon has a similar policy for their leggings– if they rip, they can be replaced free of charge at the store, which is supposed to guarantee the consumer can use the product for a longer time, potentially justifying the cost. If you keep buying cheaper leggings, the prices could add up, but with a pair of Lululemons that can respawn every time they get ruined, they can last and make up for the initial cost. The same logic could be applied to Stanleys.
Reusable water bottles as a whole are environmentally-friendly, and Stanleys are seen this way, too, with 90% recycled metal. While they generally take up more materials, time, and precious resources to be made, the bottles are still a step towards sustainability as they reduce the need for single-use plastic water bottles.
Additionally, if you take a look around the school, almost no one’s Stanley cup is the same; from pastel pinks and vibrant blues, different Stanley’s represent different styles, like a pair of fashionable sneakers that sits on your desk all day as you reap the hydrating benefits. Stanley boasts on their website that the cups can “reflect your personal style”. The personalization of Stanleys shows the sheer amount of personal expression people are putting into their cups when before, all bottles were more or less treated equally, so long as they didn’t have holes on the side and contained clean, potable water.
Summary
Expensive water bottles have been around for a while, and if history repeats itself, the Stanley will end up replaced by the next coolest bottle with even more limited-edition magic and even more dollars to its name, as the Stanley stays prominent in the background.
Hydroflasks, as being less hyped up right now, have much more discounts and sales on websites like Amazon. My 32oz was only $30, so it’s easier to skirt around the price for Hydro Flasks than for the Stanley, whose demand is so high that the price isn’t getting any lower unless you’re buying a knockoff, better known as a dupe. From Target’s Owala cup to generic ones from TJ Maxx, Marshall’s, and other discount stores, similar bottles are omnipresent and can often provide similar enough quality for a much lower price.
A more important question, however, is if this is all a fading trend. Will Stanleys be obsolete in the near future? Well, they certainly won’t be obsolete, since the need for thirst-quenching water won’t be going away anytime soon. But, it’s important to take a look at the Hydro Flask. After all the hype is gone, it’s still a durable cup that is still commonly used and readily available. So, as long as Stanleys prove to be a sufficient quality cup, their use probably won’t die down unless they fall under a PR crisis of some sorts.
Just remember, get the water bottle you want, not the water bottle your social media is begging you to buy, or the bottle “everyone else has.” Because, chances are, it isn’t everyone who actually has them, it’s the few people whose giant, hot pink bottle is so eye-catching that it seems like the only bottle in the room.