Stanley’s big, brightly colored reusable water bottles have amassed a dedicated fanbase on TikTok, where unboxings, product reviews and videos of customers storming the shelves to purchase the newest cups garner millions of views—and help the company make millions of dollars.
The hashtag #stanleycup has 6.7 billion views. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
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Key Facts
Stanley reusable water bottles, known as “Quenchers,” are TikTok’s latest product craze, coming in a variety of colors and ranging from $20 for a 14-ounce bottle to $60 for a 64-ounce cup.
Fans of the water tumblers typically post videos reviewing and unboxing these products—many of which went viral during the holidays, like one young girl who screamed, and another who cried, after receiving a Stanley cup as a Christmas present.
Some TikTok users have amassed huge collections of Stanley cups and post videos to show them off: One user posted a video of her desk completely covered with Stanley cups, stating she has a bottle to match any outfit, and another showed off an entire cabinet dedicated to just her water tumblers.
TikTok users also rack up millions of views decorating their Stanleys, including one user who made a little backpack for her water tumbler which can also hold her lip gloss and a lock for her gym locker, and another who sells custom nametags that attach to the Stanley cup straws.
Stanley also went viral for its exclusive cups sold at Starbucks, and some TikTok users gained notoriety for camping out outside Starbucks stores in anticipation of the cup release.
The TikTok craze has led to a huge uptick in revenue for Stanley: The company’s revenue jumped from $74 million in 2019 to $750 million in 2023, CNBC reported, largely thanks to the success of the Stanley “Quencher” line.
News Peg
A video of a flock of customers taking Stanley cups off the shelves in a Target store went viral across social media this week, racking up 16 million views on TikTok and 21 million views on X. The video depicts customers purchasing limited edition Valentine’s Day Stanley cups, which Target limited to two per customer, according to a sign on the shelf. Many users expressed confusion about the Stanley craze in the comment section: “I still can’t wrap my head around paying that much for a cup,” one user commented, garnering more than 100,000 likes. “They’re nice cups but I don’t get it,” another said. Some customers are re-selling the pink and red Valentine’s Day Stanley cups on eBay for more than $200 for a two-pack, despite the 40-ounce tumblers selling for just $45 each at Target.
Chief Critics
Some users have criticized others for their massive collections of Stanley cups, claiming that purchasing so many amounts to overconsumption and defeats the purpose of using a reusable water bottle. One user went viral for showing off their wall of reusable cups, many of which are Stanley tumblers, resulting in many critical comments. “The point was to only have one because it’s reusable,” one of the top comments states. “These are all gonna collect so much dust in a year,” another user stated. One X user garnered 15,000 likes criticizing those who collect Stanley bottles: “I love my Stanley cup but the collecting of $50 cups that are specifically designed to be reusable is WILD to me.”
Big Number
6.7 billion. That’s how many views the TikTok hashtag #stanleycup has—most of which are about the reusable cups, though some are about the hockey championship of the same name.
Surprising Fact
A woman’s Stanley cup was the only item that survived when her car caught fire in November—and the cup still had ice inside. The woman posted about the incident on TikTok and went hugely viral, garnering 92 million views and 9 million likes. Stanley president Terence Reilly stitched the TikTok video, stating the ordeal showed the product is “built for life,” and offered the woman free Stanleys and a new car.
Tangent
Some TikTok users who post Stanley content are also involved with the “WaterTok” trend, a phenomenon that went viral in 2023 in which participants use powders and syrups to create flavors like “birthday cake water” or “piña colada water.” The #watertok hashtag has nearly one billion views. Some users have said they create flavored waters to up their water intake, though some critics have alleged these concoctions may not really be considered water.
Key Background
Long before it launched the Quencher line, Stanley found success with its classic green reusable water bottle line, which found a loyal consumer base among outdoorsmen and blue-collar workers, CNBC reported. Stanley didn’t launch the Quencher bottles until 2016, more than a century after the company was founded in 1913. The Quenchers saw little success at first, but after Terence Reilly left Crocs to become Stanley’s president in 2020, he leaned into influencer marketing to sell Quenchers, which replaced the classic Stanley bottles as the company’s best-selling product that same year.
Further Reading
How a 40-ounce cup turned Stanley into a $750 million a year business (CNBC)
Starbucks customers are camping out for red Stanley cups and selling them for hundreds of dollars (TODAY)
Stanley cups are just giant water bottles. Young people want one anyway. (Business Insider)
Divisive TikTok Trend ‘WaterTok’: Why Some Experts Warn Against It And Others Encourage It (Forbes)
This post originally appeared on Forbes.com
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