The Rise of the Stanley Cup
Stanley cups were founded in 1913 and were originally marketed as a product towards outdoor lovers and workers as a dependable cup to keep their drinks hot or cold. However, their cups blew up into popularity because of social media and it started the newest trend.
Hyper Consumerism with Stanley Reusable Cups
Because of the hype the cups got from social media, there are now “collectors” of them. Let’s stop for a second and think about how each cup sells for around $60 in most places. Now, let’s think about how there is a large group on social media that are collecting every color of each drop that Stanley does. Each drop is incredibly limited which creates a sense of pride and status if you have these special edition cups.
This leads to more hype of everyone trying to get these limited-edition cups, which turns people crazy. As seen on social media, when Stanley did the Valentine’s Day drop at Target, people were lining up outside and physically fighting each other and employees for these cups. This doesn’t even include the insane resell market where some cups are being resold for upwards of $250. And let’s not forget to mention the bullying that many children are going through at school for not having the Stanley cup and being deemed as uncool.
The Hypocrisy of the “New, Cool, Water Bottle” Trends
Going back in time, the original purpose of the reusable water bottle was to limit the amount of plastic waste that was going into landfills and to keep water at the desired temperature longer.
So why is it that we have trends, such as the Stanley, coming out every few years leading to people throwing out their perfectly usable “out of trend” bottle just so they can spend their money to seem cool and on-trend on social media.
I mean, we had the Hydro Flask trendy bottle in 2019 and 2020 and the Owala bottle from 2021 and 2022 but at least neither of those are sealed with lead.
Influencers on TikTok and other platforms have contributed to the mania by posting catchy videos of the tumblers and showing off all the different colors and launches that they have. Or videos such as the TikTok video of a woman’s car that caught fire where her Stanley cup not only survived but kept her beverage cold.
Safe to say the Stanley cup is a good cup (lead issues ignored) and the issue isn’t with the cup itself or even the brand itself, but rather with the hyper consumerism that is fueled by social media and the harm that trend cycles are doing on our environment.
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