The Stanley Cup, the water bottle that just isn’t worth it. Throughout my transition from middle school to high school, I’ve slowly watched the neon-colored Hydro Flasks fade away and be replaced by big pastel monstrosities known as the Stanley Cup. For some reason, the Stanley Cup always irked me. Maybe it was because whenever someone dropped one, it quite literally made a sound comparable to an atomic bomb and spilled water everywhere. Alternatively, it could have been caused by just seeing so many people toting it around in the hallways and having to swerve to avoid being hit by one, especially the stainless steel kind which could break bones. Whatever the reason for my initial dislike was, the more research I did on the Stanley Cup, the more apparent it was that it was a complete and total waste of money.
For one, deciding to buy a Stanley and just hop on the trend with all the other clean girls is a huge contributor to over-consumerism. The same exact trend happened with brands such as Hydroflask, Yetis, and Lululemon. You get caught up in buying all these new water bottles just because they match your outfit or are popular and suddenly the concept of a reusable water bottle is completely defeated.
“I bought my first Stanley Cup on a resale site for over 100% markup. I don’t know what came over me, but I just had to know what the hype was about and I couldn’t wait for a restock. So I bought one on Poshmark for $104 with shipping,” said Carly Riordan, a popular Instagram mom with a blog.
In addition to people buying them like they’re creating their own personal store, they’re incredibly expensive. Most sell on the site from between $45-$65 but often, as mentioned, they can be resold for up to $100 on resale sites. In my opinion, to pay anything over $30 for a water bottle is way too expensive. Shelling out almost $100 just to be momentarily trendy is honestly equivalent to flushing your money down the toilet.
Some may argue, that this kind of money marketing scheme is not exclusively used for the Stanley so I can’t blame the brand for the entire concept of over-consumerism. While that is true, the entire Stanley cup product is inconvenient and definitely not worth the hype.
When it comes to the Stanley there are three main complaints from customers. For one, it’s too heavy. To carry around a large 40 oz water bottle with you all day, especially if you’re a person who moves around a lot during the day, is quite annoying. Due to the size, it often doesn’t even fit in a backpack pocket either, making it impractical for traveling as well. For me, I already hold enough stuff with my hands during the day (due to a tragic lack of pockets) so I don’t think I would have the capacity to hold a 40 oz water bottle as well. Along with the weight, the Stanley has also been described as “top-heavy” meaning it’s very easy for it to fall over.
When it eventually does fall over, it’s also not leakproof which allows your water to spill everywhere. Being leakproof is one of my very few requirements for a water bottle and personally, I don’t think that wanting a water bottle that won’t spill is asking for a lot. I understand that it would only leak if put on its side or held upside down (apparently the straw hole is too big for the straw) but this means you can’t just throw it in a tote or carry it around in a drawstring bag. If you do, you risk ruining the contents of your bag and incurring even more costs. This makes the Stanley not very sport-friendly nor good for excursions.
Along with such limited scenarios where they would be useful, they’re very pricey. As I said before, they’re between $45-$65 on the site and are often out of stock. People even add onto the cost by buying replacement straws and straw toppers. The straws sell for $15 a pack and people purchase them when their own straws become worn down or stained. The straw toppers are $5-$10 and are used either for purely aesthetic purposes or to make the bottle more hygienic (having an open straw allows dust or bacteria to get in your water).
The Stanley cup, despite all its popularity, will always be a waste of money, a regrettable fad and a major inconvenience. I would do yourself a favor and decide to finally hop off the bandwagon and buy an alternative water bottle for a quarter of the price. All trends eventually fade away and personally, I will not be sad to see the Stanley cup go.