*Drip*
*Drip*
The sound millions of Stanley Cup Quencher users hear as their cups fill up to the top.
And was the one specific things student Yazmine Lopez asked for from her sister this holiday season.
“I thought they were cute, but it was mostly for the hype, if I’m being honest. It’s definitely a conversation starter,” said Lopez.
Why all the social media craze and obsession over this “insulated, stainless-steel bottles,” as advertised on stanley1913.com?
What was so wrong with our stickered Hydro Flasks and ice cold Yetis?
Why buy into a craze — almost a frenzy — for a Stanley Quencher and ditch our other, long-beloved reusable water bottles?
Users began to love the idea of matching their water bottles to their outfits, cars, used as accessories and even their moods as “new” and “rare” colors or “limited edition” cups would come out.
Consumers would post TikToks and pictures raving about the size of the Quencher and ability to keep beverages ice cold.
”I have been wanting it because I like to hold things and just drink from it,” said Delaney Brubaker, a Delta student. “I don’t like the twist top. I’ve been drinking way more water with it. ”
The obsession still didn’t get to Brubaker though. In fact, Brubaker is not going to buy into the “Stanley girlies” hype.
Student Caylen Douangmalalay said that she would not be participating either in the mania because, “I don’t like to associate with that, because personally, it’s a good cup, but like I wouldn’t go bizarre and fight people for the cup… it’s a good cup really besides the fact that it spills.”
The Stanley cup popularity began in 2020, after “The Buy Guide,” a blog and instagram account run by Ashlee LeSueur, Taylor Cannon and Linley Hutchinson was, “largely credited for helping to bring the Quencher back,” according to an article The New York Times published in 2022.
The three bought 5,000 Quechers from the company and agreed to sell them all in hopes that the Stanley company would not discontinue the product.
After careful advertising and marketing by the trio of influencers, a change in different colors to aid in aesthetics, the Stanley Cup Quenchers began to fly off the shelves.
Specifically, millennial women over the course of three years loved the “40-ounce tumbler, which costs $40, comes in 11 colors and occasional limited-edition shades. It features a lid with a removable straw, a handle and an insulated body that is tapered, allowing it to fit in a cup holder,” said The New York Times.
Since then consumers have gotten more and more ridiculous trying to acquire those special, limited edition colors.
More closely to home, buyers were lying up at sunrise waiting for Starbucks and Targets to open for the Valentines Day Stanley Quencher and some just in line to resell the product for more than 150 dollars.
“One TikTok shows a crowd of customers running full speed towards a tower of Valentine’s Day Stanleys. Amid the frenzy, a woman wearing a cream sweatshirt can be seen taking a tumble as other fans race past her,” according to an article posted by delish.com in January.
One sixteen-year-old girl in Alabama, according to FoxBusiness.com, even had her parents spend,“around $3,000 over the last year to help her collect every style and color of Stanley cup available.”
But alas, the craze may be coming to an end.
It has come to light in recent months that the beloved Stanley Quenchers do contain lead pellets that are then covered in stainless steel.
“Stanley cups do contain a lead pellet that seals the vacuum insulation at the base, reportedly a common manufacturing practice for vacuum-insulated water bottles. Not all water cups use lead (Hydro Flask is a notable exception), but using lead is easier, cheaper and more common than not,” said Forbes.com in an article posted at the end of January 2024.
And do to our love of spreading information through social media, many consumers have began testing their own cups with at home lead tests and posting them on social media platforms to warn others.
The Stanley company did issue a statement to consumers according to forbes.com, “Please rest assured that no lead is present on the surface of any Stanley product that comes in contact with you or the contents of your container…The only risk of lead exposure would come from the bottom of the flask being damaged and coming into contact with skin.”
If I’m being honest, these cups look aesthetically pleasing and are cool, but as one person who still to this day has not downloaded TikTok or bought into many hypes from social media and values, possibly never ingesting lead, I will never enter my “Stanley girl” era.
I will, to the end of time, always prefer my stickered indestructible, lead-free hydro flask, and its many benefits of 24-hour ice cold water with the ability to drink it in my bed without spilling.