The love affair was brief. It barely lasted two weeks. But first, some context.
My 10-year-old is at that age where she thinks her mother isn’t cool enough, so she decided to up my street cred with strategic accessorisation. The starting point: a Stanley cup, the reusable tumbler that has found the kind of internet virality every 21st-century brand can only dream of. While the company makes all kinds of drinkware, the aforementioned ‘Stanley cup’ that has caught the whole world’s fancy is the brand’s Flowstate Quencher H2.0 Tumbler with a 40oz capacity that comes in many IG-grid-friendly colours. Mine was...hot pink. (The original ‘Stanley Cup’ is a trophy awarded to the champion of the National Hockey League in North America, but what’s sporting glory in front of capitalism and gushing tweens?)
Our Stanley cup is a rather voluminous insulated bottle with a handle, and a very lean bottom that perfectly fits in a car’s cup holder, and promises to keep your beverage hot or cold for over 10 hours. It has a removable straw and now a hundred other accessories to embellish it—a silicon base to soften the alarming clank of the metal when you’re putting it down on your desk, daisy-shaped lids for the straw, charms for the handle... The 40oz tumbler is also known for its durability. An early launchpad to fame came in 2023, when a woman shared a video on TikTok of her Stanley cup sitting amidst the wreckage of her burnt car—ice cubes still happily clinking inside. Recent viral videos have shown the Stanley cup withstand natural disasters, including the LA fires.
The 110-year-old American company known for its thermoses went viral in 2019 but really solidified its presence in 2022, when The New York Times decided to do a deep dive on the ‘The Sisterhood of the Stanley Tumbler.’ It was seen in countless #WaterTok reels on TikTok, and, like a word-of-mouth fashion accessory, its popularity soared when the bottle became a constant companion to the likes of Alia Bhatt, Ananya Panday, Olivia Rodrigo and Adele, to name a few. Its marketing playbook has been praised in countless case studies (there’s even a Harvard Business Review podcast discussing the Stanley effect) and sell-out collaborations with brands as diverse as Starbucks and Love Shack Fancy have proved to be perfect fodder for this Instagram era.
Even today, tweens carry it to school, young women carry it to their workouts, and millennial moms shove it in the car holder, hoping to hydrate between work, birthday parties and school pick-ups. And so, in a bid for Gen-Z approval, I started taking my cup with me—to Pilates, to edit meetings with The Nod’s cool young team, to swimming classes for my five-year-old. On the days I was on Zoom or writing, I’d place it on my desk, it’s brightly hued presence enough of a reminder to keep hydrating.
My hydration game was sorted. But that was also the beginning of the end.
What no one tells you about this much-hyped tumbler is that it’s really not nice to carry. There are Reddit threads dedicated to discussing its crushing weight and why it’s not favoured by the hiking community. And while climbing mountains didn’t feature on my agenda, within a few days my shoulders started to sag, and my already problematic posture turned to worse. Try juggling a 2kg water bottle with your work tote, your child’s school bag and the paraphernalia that most moms seem to cart around everyday, and tell me it isn’t a strain. Oh, and did I mention that it always needs to remain upright? As most Indian users would agree, the cup works only with certain car cup holders (maybe American super-sized ones?), guaranteeing a nice puddle in your car (thank god I filled mine with water and not iced latte) every time you grab a sip between traffic signals. And you’d think it would have pretty privilege? The sight of a 40-something (me) carting a pink monstrosity with a sippy straw just started feeling a little silly.
So, for the sake of my shoulders and my self-respect, the Stanley cup is now being replaced by a more practical option (scroll below if you can relate). They are lighter, fit in your bag, don’t leak like a doomed pirate’s boat, and are definitely more discreet. The cool mom has left the building but so has the burden threatening her wrists. My hydration’s still up, and the physical therapist and I are so much happier.
Here are some reliable swaps to the internet’s favourite water bottle:
