With August having arrived and summer slipping away, teens and tweens are already in the process of gearing up for the new academic year. For many, a vital question looms before they get back to books and backpacks: What will be the “it” water bottle this school year?
Parents, footing the bill for back-to-school shopping, will likely get caught up in this important, future-shaping decision as well, whether they want to be or not.
Last year, you may remember that the Stanley 40-ounce tumbler was all the rage. The oversized cup, which had already been popular among adult women, became a trendy fashion accessory and collectible from high schools all the way down to elementary schools. Stanley sold an estimated 10 million “Quencher” water tumblers in 2023 (at $45 a pop, in most cases), and when the company released two special-edition cups for Valentine’s Day this year, customers nearly came to blows in Target stores trying to buy them. Some camped outside stores, in the dead of winter, to get their hands on one. In California, two people were arrested after being accused of stealing the collectibles.
But that was ages ago in the life span of status water tumblers. Shortly after the Target collaboration dropped, Casey Lewis, who writes about Generation Z’s shopping habits in the newsletter After School, was telling The New York Times that “some millennials or Gen-Z are already embarrassed to carry a Stanley.” And a recent collaboration with the lifestyle brand LoveShackFancy may prove to be too little, too late.
The average teenager is more attuned to cultural capital than Pierre Bourdieu, the French sociologist who coined the term. Given the light-speed of trends, especially those driven by social media, they know it’s probably time to retire their durable Stanley, if not in a landfill than on a bedroom shelf. But where do they go from here?
The Owala FreeSip, which typically costs between $28 and $38, was already hanging in the shadows of Stanley’s fame, waiting to steal the spotlight. It comes in smaller sizes, making it more portable than the cumbersome Stanley, and in fun colors like citrus crush and neo sage. Its packaging declares, as in a daily affirmation, “I’m leakproof. I’m insulated. And I have a built-in straw.”
Most important, perhaps, is the exclusivity factor among the company’s offerings: the Owala blue bow special edition — or “Bowala” if you speak Gen Z — sold out at Urban Outfitters. Last month, a poster on Reddit asked, “How do you get this blue bowed Owala water bottle?” Though its original retail price was no different from a standard FreeSip, a seller on Poshmark is currently asking $250 for a Bowala and listings on eBay range upward of $150. Clear signs of an emergent status symbol.
Another popular option is the Lululemon 18-ounce Back to Life Sport Bottle ($42) — but only in a certain color. Not pow pink, sonic pink or lip gloss but rather pink glow, which the Lululemon website helpfully features under its back to school tab as a “trending colour,” along with peach bellini.
On the cutting edge of the tumbler trend are stainless steel water bottle kits from Cirkul, some of which have more than a passing resemblance to a baby bottle and are packaged with flavor packets for people who would prefer their water be less like water.
And then, of course, there is the Hydro Flask tumbler, which arguably kicked off the trend of water bottles becoming a must-have accessory almost a decade ago. Hydro Flasks appeared in middle and high schools across the land and were the favored eco-conscious flex of the tech crowd and VSCO Girls, then went the way of the Yeti — the water bottle, not the mythical apelike creature — dying out and being replaced on holiday wish lists by the Stanley.
But don’t discount the appeal of retro cool — look at all the Gen Zers wearing Nirvana T-shirts.
In an essay published last month on LinkedIn, Zaria Parvez, senior global media manager at Duolingo, waxed nostalgic about the first status tumbler she owned.
“I distinctly remember purchasing my first bright green Hydroflask in 2016 and never letting go of it,” Ms. Parvez wrote. “I made sure that bottle was on my school desk, in my backpack pocket — I wanted people to see I had it.”
Sometimes what’s old is new again. Even when it comes to water bottles.
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