An unexpected artifact has taken over the nation and may be one of the most perplexing consumer trends yet. A Stanley cup fad has arisen, nearly causing stampedes at Target and overloading everyone’s For You page on TikTok with videos about tumblers.
The unversed on the internet may wonder what a Stanley cup even is. It is not to be confused with the Stanley Cup hockey championship. Instead, it is a line of drinkware that has actually been around for over 100 years. William Stanley invented the Stanley bottle in 1913. Back then, it was a very simple all-steel vacuum bottle that was likely made for the purpose of keeping Mr. Stanley’s coffee hot. For a long time, Stanley specialized in vacuum bottles and thermoses, and they were used mainly by the working class because they were so practical, durable, and long-lasting.
It wasn’t until 2016 that Stanley introduced The Quencher—the tumbler design we’re most familiar with today. These most commonly come in 30–40-ounce styles and are designed to insulate drinks and keep them warm or cold for hours. Initially, this design didn’t take off. Some might enjoy the practicality and longevity of the product, but to others, it just comes across as bulky, oversized, and pricey. The item was so unsuccessful that Stanley stopped marketing it in 2019. In the five years since then, things have changed quite drastically.
Why does everyone suddenly love Stanley cups?
Most of us probably first started noticing the rise of Stanley cups on TikTok. Suddenly, every female influencer seemed to be lugging around a tumbler the size of a small child and gushing about being a “Stanley cup girl.” Out of nowhere, there were Stanley cup unboxings, sharing of Stanley cup accessories, and showcases of all the latest Stanley cup brands. Around Christmas, there was a sharp rise in videos of preteens and teens being overcome with emotion as they unwrapped their Stanleys. In large part, this is exactly how the Stanley cup took off.
The Stanley cup’s success is largely thanks to female bloggers and influencers. The cup’s rise is often attributed to three women: Ashlee LeSueur, Taylor Cannon, and Linley Hutchinson. These Utah influencers ran a blog called The Buy Guide and began featuring the Stanley cup on their site. Anytime they linked to the product, it would quickly sell out on Stanley’s website. Eventually, Stanley and The Buy Guide reached a deal that included The Buy Guide purchasing 5,000 Stanley Quenchers, which quickly sold out.
These women realized what Stanley’s marketing team initially did not: the power of female influencers and mommy bloggers. Content creator Krystle Perkins told The New York Times, “Once you get the Utah mom influencers on board, it spreads like wildfire.” She’s right, as Utah is a hotbed for female content creators, with the most famous family vloggers—Shaytards, The Leroys, The Tannerites, April and Davey, etc—all hailing from the state. Some of these creators are quite controversial, but if one gets on board with a product, it will spread like wildfire to other content creators in the state and quickly make an impression on the rest of the world.
So, the Stanley cup trend is essentially an example of the power of social media and influencers. It’s not necessarily that Stanley Quenchers are a groundbreaking or superior type of tumbler. It’s that a few influencers jumped on board and piqued consumers’ interest. As more and more people get on board, there’s a growing desire to be like these influencers and to be able to get in on what’s considered trendy right now.
Is the Stanley cup craze getting out of hand?
Based on the origins of the Stanley cup craze, it’s likely that these Quenchers are a bit overrated. Overrated or not, consumers are starting to get carried away by the trend. Recently, Target introduced a limited-edition Stanley cup for Valentine’s Day, which is basically just a regular Stanley cup but in “rose-hued” colors. However, customers were so desperate to get their hands on these cups that chaos started breaking out in Target stores across the U.S. Several viral TikToks have circulated showing customers jumping over counters, swarming shelves, nearly trampling others, and in some cases, even brawling each other.
Things have gotten so out of hand that a “marked safe from buying a Stanley cup” meme has begun circling the internet. Aside from the brawls and tramplings, the Stanley cups have become a nauseating example of hyper-consumerism in the United States. So many of those Target customers were walking away with literal armfuls of Stanleys just to add them to already overflowing collections that will sit on the shelf and gain dust before being thrown away when the next thing hits.
Unfortunately, this is often what happens when a product gains hype because of a social media trend rather than sheer quality and usefulness. Everyone suddenly has to have one just for the sake of having one. Then, there are the people who need ten just to have them. There’s nothing wrong with buying and enjoying a Stanley cup, and even posting about it now and then. However, there certainly is something wrong with contributing to massive waste and retail workers’ struggles by greedily buying 20 Stanley cups at once and trampling other customers on your way out the door.
(featured image: danimarielettering/melissa_mariche/victoria_robino_26/TikTok)
