The -Exclusive Limited Supply Only- Adult Sippy Cup takes on the World
By: Joy R. Tanoni
Edited by: Fiorina Siamir
“Adult Sippy Cups” is the infamous term some news outlets have been calling the ‘Product Of 2023’ selected by the Advertising Specialty Institute, a well-accredited company that rates rising products of the year. A ‘simple’ cup that promises an enhanced drinking experience and a symbol of higher social class as prices of these cups have reached an unprecedented value. From WWII Pilots to construction workers to the top of Hollywood, let’s formally introduce you to The Stanley Quencher.
How did it all begin?
Stanley was established in 1913 by William Stanley Jr., a company that focused on curating bottles for WWII pilots and blue-collared American men. While Stanley is nowadays known as one of the fastest growing companies, before the cup went viral, they were actually a decent-performing company. Their annual revenue was $73 million in 2019, but they could have done better as they were established more than a century ago.
Before, its market was quite good, as they had a loyal customer base especially concerning their targeted market which was men, they also had quite a grasp on men or families who loved adventures or even tailgating, and many construction workers also used their cups as they have amazing temperature control. These cups last hours of cool or hot drinks allowing accessing consumers to have the temperature they desire at any time and any place. For the past century, up till recently, most of their products are not widely on the market as they have a higher price range compared to other water bottles and thermoses available in the market but, Stanley bottles and cups were not a status symbol yet and took fights and flights to get. While they had some advertisements here and there, nothing could prepare Stanley for what would come next.
Who is to thank or blame for their 10x revenue surge?
Here’s the simple answer: the strong influence of women, and of course, social media. To begin with, 2019 was the year Stanleys began multiplying their revenues due to an Instagram account and now website run by 3 women The Buy Guide, an account filled with exclusive content that showcases products they’ve purchased that have made life “a little better” and now they have hundreds of thousands of people watching, listening, and buying the products they review. One of the founders, Ashlee fell in love with the Stanley-Quencher and shared one cup each with two of her other founders right when The Buy Guide had just launched. Not long after launching their account and website, they discovered that the Stanley Quencher they loved so much was not selling well, was highly unvalued by Stanley, and was soon to be discontinued. The three founders took so much time and effort to attempt and connect with executives of Stanley to stop this discontinuation of a cup they believe has incredible potential. After some time, the three founders' friends, a quite famous social media personality, Emily Maynard was gifted a Stanley Quencher as a gift as a new Mother, which Maynard loved and shared her love of the cup and shared more about The Buy Guide and this caught the attention of Stanley executives. And just like that, The Buy Guide had the opportunity to speak to Stanley. With at last an in with Stanley, the women were assured that they had the right market for these cups to sell, and with help from managers at Stanley, The Buy Guide purchased 5,000 cups that day to resell through their website, and once The Buy Guide sold out all the cups in 5 days (most of the consumers being women), it was like a green light to the three women that they were right, this Quencher was going to be a must need for every woman.
So, while Stanley’s target market was initially for construction workers and families that go on adventures such as camping, climbing, tailgating, etc., the cups luckily made their way to one of the women who run this account and they all simply fell in love with the cup. All the women behind the Stanley Cup hype are solely responsible too from all the hype from Tik Tok which now has led children to celebrities to follow the Stanley Cup Obsession.
Other than kids, celebrities, moms, and The Buy Guide speaking positive words about the Stanley Cup, one video posted in November 2023 may have pushed The Stanley Cup hype right to an all-time high. This video claimed that her Stanley survived (remained unscratched) where an entire car had been caught on fire! The post itself gained millions of views and amazed reactions which is quite the free ad, and quickly, this video caught the attention of the executives at Stanley they responded and said that they were more than happy to gift Danielle (@danimariellettering) a brand new car, and this touched the hearts of many all over social media leading to a crazy spike in sales yet again.
Has the sippy cup reached its peak? Is it going to inevitably fall?
While we all know that the Stanley is a qualified product due to the fact it’s over 100 years old and is still standing, and a water bottle is seemingly always handy and a good investment, there are countless ethical and moral questions to this new fixation plus, it’s no secret that as a society we tend to move on from certain ‘eras’ or phases after young children and adults fixate on it, and this is completely normal.
However, many people are anxious and seriously concerned with how many people especially in the United States are presenting their obsession, such as collecting all the colors of the Stanley Cup they could get their hands on, and due to social media and how fast it is now, millions get to see how crazy it is and it unconsciously promotes the cup even more leading to more chaos and overconsumption. The big question many scientists have about the Stanley Cup collection is “Will it be the next tote bag?” You see tote bags are a great alternative to plastic bags but due to our generation’s hyper-fixation of trends, tote bags were subsequently mass produced which could even be much worse. This comes back to the Stanleys, the market as of now is huge for Stanley, hundreds of thousands of people, even a million are waiting in line to get their hands on Stanley Cups, and while Stanley does stand for reusable cups and has some corporate social responsibility initiatives, at the end of the day, they are still a company and aims to generate as much as profit as possible. This question still stands up now as Stanley has yet to release a statement about what’s next and how to stop the overconsumption of a reusable bottle. This itself may not be enough to end the ‘Adult Sippy Cups’ to take on the world as of recently, social media has shared again countless footage of a few men body slamming employees in targets, many parents accompanying their kids to stay out overnight a shop to be first in line first thing in the morning to get their hands on a cup, and kids evidently getting bullied and looked down upon for not having a Stanley cup, and so much more. Sure, The Stanley has promoted great sustainability, lots of citizens are using these bottles rather than plastic ones, but it has gone too far to the point that a cup itself has become a status symbol.
The reason why some may feel this fixation has been getting out of control is simply all due to the media. Social media has given everyone, most importantly developing children access to see these products being held and sipped by big stars all over Hollywood and popular influencers.
From then on, the company decided to partner up with The Buy Guide, and this only ever happened due to the right time when the company was switching up its leadership that too saw the Cup’s potential in the market after 5,000 cups selling out in 5 days. From then on, Stanley too switched the way the company ever processed anything, starting on a sole product focus, a completely different target market, and flipping the company’s income by adding a lot more zeros. Stanley, unlike many companies in that year, used the power of “women talking to women”, which is something to admire. Women hold such a strong impact on consumerism and Stanley partnering up with The Buy Guide gained them access to one of the biggest markets in the world, 25-45 year old women. Stanley went on the train of women and social media which showed numbers Stanley had never seen before.
Buy The Cup and Risk your life? Should you even get it then?
In the topic of downfalls, this could be the one thing that could drag Stanley cups back to the start. Lead. Hundreds of Stanley consumers on Tik Tok of course have begun testing for lead on the beloved Stanley bottles, and to everyone’s surprise, the tests have been coming back positive.
So many consumers both creators and commenters became so anxious if what they were drinking was poisonous to the point where Stanley themselves released a statement stating that their bottles all do contain lead, but are completely safe unless the bottom of the Stanley bottles is severely damaged. They assured Stanley consumers and future ones on their website that there is no lead found on the surface of the Stanley bottle, and some people were still speculating so a few asked doctors. A journalist from the US Alex-Abad Santos cross-checked Stanley’s statement with Diane Calello, a medical director in New Jersey in charge of the Poison Control Center at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and she claims that “Used correctly, the bottle does not pose a lead hazard. Accessing the lead pellet in the bottom of the bottle requires doing a lot of damage, and even then it would not be in contact with the liquid inside,”
Many have also been speculating that Stanley uses lead as it is a cheaper alternative and the alternative for lead in this certain product is 6 to 7 times much more expensive, but for a bottle that’s priced at quite a high level, could they have not afforded it? The question is “Is the bottle worth it?”, well it depends, trends are fun and completely fine to follow. It’s also evident that Stanley bottles are sturdy, handy, and look neat. But remember, if you’re simply looking for a good bottle, there are lots of bottles out there that contain no lead at all, have great temperature control and no fight is needed to obtain a bottle.
In conclusion, Stanley is a well-established company that has done a remarkable job of rebranding and changing the direction of their company, they prove that change can be good even if they are just ‘another’ massive trend that’s taken a hit in the entire world. While the States have felt it most, social media has overly enhanced all about The Stanley starting from creators loving the cup to the Great Stanley War, and all the way to lead testing. Thousands of videos, with almost a billion views, circulate this infamous Adult Sippy Cup. Though Stanley seems to take over the world, time will just tell what goes on. But I bet that it’s just another phase that we’ll forget all about in a few months because that’s just how fired up our phones, eyes, and ears are now. My advice on this trend is that if you want it and like it, go for it! Anyone should be allowed to buy things just for the sake of the trend, but just remember there are lots more viable bottle options out there if you’re looking for a bottle that’ll be handy, reusable, and temperature-controlled.