The Irony Of The Stanley Cup
They’re everywhere.
They have every social media app in a chokehold.
Everyone seems to own a stainless steel 30-ounce cup with a matching straw.
I am, of course, talking about Stanley cups.
Though the brand has been around since 1913, it has garnered an almost cult-like following in the last year.
Somehow water, a necessity for human survival, has become the center of the latest TikTok trend.
At first, I thought it was great that people were drinking more water and in a sustainable way.
Reusable water bottles are essential to reduce plastic waste. According to Project Clean Water, one reusable water bottle can lead to 156 less plastic bottles.
Yet, I can’t help but laugh at the irony of the Stanley cup mania.
Stanley cups have become so popular that when Starbucks released the Target-exclusive pink cups, groupies flocked to stores in Black Friday-esque chaos.
People camped outside of stores and trampled each other in hopes of acquiring the coveted cup.
In fact, Stanley cups have become so popular that the mother of a nine-year-old shared on TikTok that her daughter was bullied for having a Walmart tumbler cup.
The craze is not limited to children, as adults have posted their collection of cups.
Stanley cups have also experienced markups online, most notably the Target exclusive. I browsed ebay to see how much these $45 cups could be marked up and found one for $345.
The tumbler cups have evolved into a sort of status symbol. It is no longer about owning a water bottle, it’s about owning the water bottle.
Fear of missing out, or FOMO, might be another factor fueling the Stanley cup craze. Everyone is getting one and people don’t want to be excluded from a community that bonds over owning the same brand of stainless steel cups.
I have often fallen under the spell of trends after seeing them on my social media feed.
I have nothing against Stanley as a company or its customers, but I think this absurd hyperconsumption mania is missing the point.
While this is not the first water bottle trend—may the VSCO girl Hydro Flask of 2019 to 2020 rest in peace—it has certainly been the bottle with the highest following.
The point of the reusable cup is to reduce the amount of bottles you buy.
When this Stanley cup trend dies out like all trends eventually do—where will these collections go?
Probably a landfill.
