Will Owala Replace the Stanley Tumbler Craze?

News

By RC Staff

06 February 2024

Trouble is brewing in the kingdom of sippy cups. While Stanley has been the bird of word lately, people have started to catch onto Owala, which seems to be angling for their spot. We’ve already seen a few of their drops start to resell, and accusations of lead contamination in Stanley’s products are putting cracks in their otherwise pristine and thoroughly market researched façade. Let’s take a look at Owala and see if there’s any fire to this smoke.

Stanley Tumbler Drama

So we’re all well aware of Stanley tumblers at this point, right? If you’ve been following our blog you might have been getting annoyed with us lately. We’ve been covering the latest major drops from Stanley, sometimes two or even three in a week.

The fact is that these tumblers are bizarrely popular. While the average person really only needs one big-ass drink receptacle, the world is not really inhabited by average persons any more.

Stanley collecting is absolutely a thing, and consumerism is more in vogue than it’s ever been. Got a tumbler that you love, but you like the new design even more? Gotta buy it. They’re only making a limited number of these? Gotta buy it. Your favorite country star is doing a crossover with Stanley?

@niesha.b

Unbox my #stanleytumbler with me 🩷 #simplymoderntumbler #watertok #stanleycupcollection #unboxwithme

♬ Barbie World (with Aqua) [From Barbie The Album] – Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice & Aqua

Gotta buy it! For $200!

Naturally, these tumblers have been great for resellers. Huge markets, frequent production, and unabashed consumption equate to lots of sales and lots of profits.

And while Stanley has been enjoying positive reception for the last few months, a new backlash is emerging. Social media has picked up on their popularity and Stanley owners have been mercilessly teased over their innocent hobby, and sometimes interrogated over why they’re spending so much damn money on tumblers they don’t need.

Worse yet, a viral story about Stanley tumblers containing lead is also gaining ground. Because of Stanley’s double-walled construction, small amounts of lead are used, but only to seal in between the tumbler’s stainless steel walls. Unless your Stanley takes a bullet or the walls are somehow breached, the lead should be a non-issue.

But social media posts showed potential lead contamination in Stanley tumblers using at-home lead testing kits. Usually this came up in older, heavily used tumblers, and the reliability of these tests is questionable. Facts don’t really matter on the internet though, and the virally popular Stanley tumblers poisoning their obsessed fans with lead is pretty funny.

Point being, there’s an opportunity here for competitors in the market. Hydro Flask already jumped in with a sassy Instagram post, and other companies have been taking the chance to clarify the amount of lead in their products.

Stanley VS Owala

One of these is the tumbler manufacturer Owala. They make tumblers. And cups. You drink out of them, and before 2024 that really wouldn’t be a market we’d consider writing about.

Aside from having some of the most obnoxious, millennial-coded marketing copy ever written on a website, we can’t really find any faults with the product. Owala has already updated their FAQ to assure customers their products are completely lead-free.

Owala are also clearly aware of the value of scarcity. They sell a wide range of standard, mass-produced items, but also have a separate line of “Color Drops“, limited edition colors and designs meant to tap into FOMO.

They’ve made collectable tumblers for holidays, seasons, or just particular combinations of colors. Owala also maintains a page on their website showcasing upcoming Color Drops.

Owala Valentine's Day Tumbler

But enough exposition. Let’s talk money.

While Owala is still building their brand, we can confirm that at least one of their products has been reselling. Ahead of the holiday, Owala produced a Valentine’s Day-themed tumbler.

For $43, you get a 40 oz tumbler with a pink heart on it. Yes, it keeps your cold drinks cold. Yes, it keeps your warm drinks warm. No, it doesn’t have any lead in it.

These were sold in late January as a Color Drop. Whether or it was the new panic over lead in Stanleys, plain contrarianism, or Owala’s clever (to some) marketing, these tumblers sold out fast.

Resellers began flipping them for a profit within days. Right now, Owala Valentine’s Day tumblers are reselling for about $100. With decent volume and generous returns, these bottles were an easy, safe flip to net a quick $50+ in profit.

$50 is enough for a Valentine’s Day date, right? The point is that Owala tumblers have proven to resell. Not every product can make that claim, and it’s worth keeping track of.

So will Owala replace Stanley? Does the lead matter? Will the new Reich of big-hatted suburban women adopt these tumblers as their weapons of choice? Maybe, probably not.

Chances are the current wave of Stanleyism will chill out a bit now that it’s under the social media microscope. Owala definitely seems poised to snatch up at least a little of the market, especially if they continue to produce limited edition drops to farm FOMO.

Keep an eye on both in the future. Just like Stanley, not every Owala is worth buying, but some of them clearly are. Subscribe to our newsletter to hear our thoughts on upcoming releases, or just to hear us tease people for wasting money on dumb shit.