Why are Stanley cups so popular — and what's the best alternative?

So why are we talking about the Stanley cup (aka the Stanley Quencher or the Stanley tumbler - not the hockey trophy)? Well, to begin with, it’s hard to go online these days and not see the ubiquitous, 40-ounce, €55 water bottles. For a little over a century, the Stanley 1913 company made stainless steel thermoses that were favoured by American industrial workers and wilderness adventurers for both their sturdiness and lifetime guarantee (the original colour isn’t too far off from Concern’s own green). 

However, in the last few years, something began to change. Stanley’s revenue went from $73 million in 2019 to $750 million in 2023. Videos of limited-edition tumbler drops at US retailers look like B-roll from Christmas sales. The cup can also be adorned with a number of unofficial accessories, including a miniature backpack, custom-fit ice cubes, and snack trays. Earlier this year, Forbes reported that the hashtag #StanleyTumbler garnered a collective 6.7 billion views on TikTok. 

And while the trend began in the United States thanks largely to TikTok and Instagram, it has also travelled internationally, including to Ireland - Brown Thomas began selling the cups earlier this year for €55. 

For starters, water is one of the most basic necessities to life. Drinking water is essential for our health, and many of us don’t get enough of it. (The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine recommend that the average male drink 3.7 litres of water each day and that the average woman drink 2.7, with about 20% of that water coming from food.) 

As Kate Demolder writes in the Irish Independent, the Stanley trend in particular timed out with a social media phenomenon she terms “The Great Hydration,” a time when we were told we weren’t drinking enough water and encouraged to “imagine hydration as a goal and…a social joy.” Demolder adds that this mindset was fuelled by the pandemic, both in terms of water’s health benefits and the sense of “control in an uncontrollable time.” 

Among trends like Air Up and an overall push towards reusable bottles over single-use plastics, Stanley’s history as a durable, reliable brand — combined with the aesthetic quality of the tumbler overall and the influence of social media — have led to entire cupboards and even walls devoted to Stanley cup collections.

You may be wondering, What’s the big deal? Aren’t we supposed to be switching to reusable water bottles? This is true, and reusable water bottles are, as the name would imply, a good alternative to buying bottled water. 

However, every water bottle — reusable or otherwise — carries a carbon footprint. An MIT report reveals that it takes between ten and twenty uses of a reusable bottle to make up for its own environmental impact and put it ahead of a plastic water bottle. For those of us who use the same bottle every day, that’s a quick turnaround. But if you own 67 Stanleys, that’s going to be a bigger lift. Assuming the bottle gets refilled twice a day, and estimating conservatively, that would take about two years — and by that point, there may be a whole new water bottle trend. 

This is one of the bigger problems that the Stanley craze represents. Water bottle trends have become more frequent and shorter lived — one article estimates that, in the United States, the Nalgene craze lasted about 30 years, while the Stanley trend only lasted two years. In fact, it’s already been eclipsed by a new It-bottle. Having one or two containers for your beverage makes sense; having enough to fill a wall may mean that some end up in a landfill without ever being used. 

In this sense, access to water has become seen as a privilege rather than a fundamental human right. This image plays into the larger global water crisis, which has likewise made access to clean and safe drinking water a luxury. 

“I walk three kilometres to be able to provide this gallon of water for a family of 15 people,” says Khaled*, a Palestinian who was displaced to Rafah due to the ongoing crisis in Gaza. It’s another three kilometres to get back home, which is enough (especially in the heat) to make Khaled want to drink the entire gallon himself. Even this, however, is a hard-won commodity to Khaled’s family. “I have been standing for over two hours, and my turn has not yet come.” 

The situation in Gaza is just one example of extreme water shortage. Last year, the UN reported that 2 billion people around the world aren’t able to access clean and safe drinking water. That’s just over 25% of the global population. And conflict is only one of the factors that’s making this staple for life a top-shelf item. 

“Water scarcity is becoming endemic as a result of the local impact of physical water stress, coupled with the acceleration and spreading of freshwater pollution,” the report warns, adding that the problem is only going to get worse due to climate change — in both countries with water stress and scarcity, and other areas where water is abundant, such as Central Africa and East Asia.  

The effects that a lack of safe drinking water can have on a community don’t stop at thirst. A water crisis can quickly become a hunger crisis. Turning to unsafe drinking water enables the spread of waterborne illnesses including diarrhoea and cholera. Long treks to get water from a safe source leave the collectors (usually women and girls) vulnerable to attacks by animals or other people. At best, they’re still losing hours — a collective 200 million per day, according to one UNICEF study, which called this “a colossal waste of time.” Limited resources can often develop into community conflict. “I think that water is a real vector for peace when it's available in sufficient quantities,” says Yanfanshije Kahindo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Kaniro village, where Concern worked to rehabilitate the water supply. “In the past, people used to fight to get water from the source.” 

Garward Town is a hamlet in Liberia’s Grand Bassa region, about 50 miles east of the country’s capital, Monrovia. Less than a decade ago, less than 10% of Liberians had access to safely-managed drinking water. Until recently, the residents of Garward were among the 90% who lacked access. Often, the water that Garward Town residents did use wasn’t safe, either. “Every week we had no less than three households affected by stomach aches or some level of diarrhoea,” sayid Retta Bryant, whose home was 15 minutes away from the closest stream. 

In the nearby town of Buegbahn, Abigail David also noted that collecting water could be a deadly task. “The lives of our kids were at risk because they had to cross the motor road to collect water,” says Abigail. “This is a major highway connecting many counties to Monrovia, and cars ply it roughly without caution.” 

Concern has been part of the Liberia WASH Consortium since 2007. Established by a group of international NGOs, the consortium was developed to support a holistic shift in water access and infrastructure across the country. As part of our work with the WASH Consortium, Concern worked with Garward, Buegbahn, and several other communities to establish local hand pumps. The pumps are maintained via locally-established WASH committees, which collect a fee of 50 Liberian dollars (about 0.25€) from each resident to use towards pump repairs and maintenance. 

The difference is stark. “Our nightmares are over,” says Retta. “This year’s rainy season is expected to be less stressful, because we shall have more time to focus on our farming activities instead of treating sickness due to waterborne diseases.” Likewise, Abigail and dozens of other parents have one less thing to worry about as their children grow, while their children have more time to focus on their education and the future.

Like a Stanley, the pumps are made from steel. Villagers bring buckets to the pump to gather what they need for the home. The colours and patterns of these buckets rival any trending water bottle. It’s the sort of collection we like to see.  

€55 may keep you hydrated (until the next water bottle catches your eye), but that’s a drop in the bucket compared to what else it can do. In the DRC, just under €1.50 provides enough water for a family of five living in a displacement site for a month. That means that €55 can keep three families supplied with a year’s worth of water. 

It can also supply two months of water for a family in drought-struck Somalia via water trucking (another way that Concern brings water into water-scarce communities). And it costs only about three Stanley tumblers to provide a family in Bangladesh with limitless clean drinking water through the installation of a rainwater harvesting system. 

Ensuring access to clean water and sanitation and providing hygiene information and training are key aspects of Concern’s work, with active water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programmes in 18 countries. We have dug, drilled, and bored thousands of wells in remote and vulnerable communities across dozens of countries, and built countless latrines in their schools and health centres. The hours saved and the illnesses prevented make it one of the most effective things we do. 

When drought or displacement prevent access to clean water supplies, we do what it takes to connect communities, including trucking water to temporary tanks and installing pumps in camps. We work hand-in-hand with communities to help them assess the longstanding challenges they face, change behaviours, and ensure water and sanitation infrastructure will be maintained for the long term. And we foster a sense of ownership, build sustainable maintenance practices, and create transparent financial management systems that benefit the community.

One example of our approach can be seen in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Concern has been the lead partner in a consortium that has already achieved some extraordinary results. Over the course of six years, our teams worked closely with 600 of the country’s most isolated communities to help them achieve sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene solutions. The programme reached over 650,000 people.