by Next time you go to Target, you might need to wear a helmet. The store sells them, now that I think about it.
The reason is that last week, Stanley, the company known for trendy glasses, released two sets of special edition glasses, one of them in collaboration with Starbucks, for Valentine’s Day. They caused a stir in multiple Target stores across the country. There has been a constant stream of videos on social media showing customers almost coming to blows or storming the store to get their own 40-ounce glass of pink or red water. Some are even camping… camping! — outside Target to make sure can you get one.
If all of this sounds like we’re speaking a different language or you’re confused by the videos that have appeared on your social media, we’re here to help.
Who is Stanley?
Well, Kubrick was the legendary director. Then there’s Flat Stanley, which traveled around the world after an unfortunate encounter with a bulletin boardand then there is…
No, the cups.
Oh I’m sorry. Of course. Stanley, which primarily sells bottle-adjacent products and is based in Seattle, has been around for more than a century and was the brainchild of inventor William Stanley Jr. In 1913, he combined vacuum insulation and steel to create a water bottle. For most of its existence, the company focused on outdoor enthusiasts.
But in 2017 there was a change. The Buy Guide, a blog that recommends products for consumers, featured the Stanley 40-ounce Quencher Mug, calling him “the one” in an Instagram post. It was a stroke of luck for Stanley, who didn’t promote the bottle much. It was a product that went little unnoticed when it was launched the previous year. Two years later, the team behind The Buy Guide (two sisters and their cousin) struck a deal with Stanley to wholesale the cups and quickly sold 5,000 units.
“The brand has really shifted from marketing primarily to men and women now,” Shelley E. Kohan, a retail management professor at Syracuse University, said of Stanley.
The partnership continued to be exponentially more fruitful, as The Buy Guide helped bring Stanley products to its primarily female audience. And Stanley made the Quencher a priority and released it in different colors.
(Our own Wirecutter review: “The Adventure Quencher is good! But it’s also overrated and, depending on how you plan to use the tumbler, it may not be worth buying.”)
What role did social media play in Stanley’s recent rise?
The culture of influencers has been central. Content creators picked up the bottle and began sharing it, particularly on TikTok and Instagram. #StanleyTumbler became a popular hashtag, used millions of times. The cup has become a fashion accessory and a collector’s item.
“Influencers are great influencers, but it’s also you and I, the consumer, making videos about their experiences with the Stanley Cup as an example,” Ms. Kohan said.
Not to mention, drinking water has become a weird thing on social media. There’s a corner of TikTok called WaterTok where people demonstrate various stylish ways to hydrate. (Aliens are looking to invade us and disconcerting social trends come with the package!)
In 2020, the Quencher became Stanley’s best-selling product, which coincided with the hiring of Terence Reilly, a former executive at the Crocs shoe company, as the company’s president. Sales of the product skyrocketed 275 percent from 2020 to 2021.
Ha ha. A Stanley Cup.
Everyone has already made that joke. It’s not actually a cup!
Alright. What’s up with Valentine’s Day mugs?
It’s never too early to hydrate for love, which is why I guess the special edition cups were released in late December and early January, more than a month before Valentine’s Day. Target is marketing the limited-edition tumblers as part of an “exclusive Galentine’s collection.”
The $45 mugs are sold out. on the Target website. (The company did not respond to a question about how many glasses had already been sold or whether others would be produced.) However, for the Starbucks version of the cup, a Starbucks representative said the cups would not be restocked. “Many stores are sold out,” the company said in a statement.)
There is a scarcity effect on consumers, particularly women, which has driven the trend, Kohan said.
“Now this reusable cup becomes a fashion accessory like a bag or a belt,” Kohan said. Add a special color or a limited edition and it’s a “fashion frenzy,” he added.
You can always buy the glasses on eBay, where they currently sell for up to several hundred dollars in some cases.
Is there a new water bottle king on the horizon?
The water bottle, since it became a fashion accessory, has become a status symbol. Colors matter. The size, shape and how it goes with an outfit. And status symbols are malleable as trends change. (The term “emotional support water bottle” is not unknown.)
Enter Owala, a water bottle brand that started in 2020 and has become a In thirst quencher. The bottle that has become most popular is their FreeSip model, which is designed to allow you to sip or drink as you see fit. Hashtags that include the brand name have been viewed this year at least tens of millions of times on TikTok alone. (The company has 150,000 followers there and 244,000 on Instagram.) And there’s been a celebrity push: both ‘NSync’s Lance Bass and author Samantha Irby included Owala bottles among his favorite items in The Strategist.
On Amazon, tens of thousands of people have left five-star reviews for the bottles.
Owala hasn’t caused camping outside department stores yet, but it’s still early days in 2024.
