I Love My Stanley Cup—But No, I Won’t be Fighting Anyone for a Limited-Edition Color

The Stanley craze has taken over the lives of parents, tweens, and teens.

Fact checked by Sarah Scott

I spent the first few years of motherhood in a perpetual state of dehydration.

Okay, fine. That’s a little dramatic, but I remember thinking to myself multiple times “I’m definitely not drinking enough water.” In the earliest days of motherhood, I was constantly hunkered down nursing twins (as anyone who has ever breastfed premature multiples will tell you, it’s pretty much a round-the-clock commitment, with few breaks in between feedings). I’d fill up a glass of water every morning, but inevitably I’d take the whole glass down and not be able to go refill it as needed in between feeding two infants.

Drinking enough water remains a challenge even as the days of constant nursing faded away: I can’t tell you how many times one of my kids has thrown a toy into my water glass, or taken a sip from my cup and spewed backwash into it (lovely!) or knocked over a glass I’d just filled.

Eventually, I decided to give in to the hype and do the thing multiple influencers told me would change my life: I bought myself a Stanley cup. If you haven’t checked TikTok in a while and are unfamiliar, no, this particular Stanley cup has nothing to do with hockey. It’s essentially a water tumbler with a straw. It comes in multiple sizes, though the massive 40-ounce version is arguably the most popular iteration. It holds a ton of water, has a lid, and is easy to drink from its attached straw…and yes, it has solved a lot of my hydration problems.

The Stanley tumbler has become something of a must-have accessory. Chalk this up to the item’s wild social media popularity, as well as its wide color selection. Stanley cups are, for lack of a better word, cute, and the range of colors, (combined with the exclusivity of many of these colors), gives them a real cool factor.

That cool factor was on full display recently as Target rolled out a limited-edition Valentine’s Day-inspired collection…and caused total pandemonium at one Arizona store. A TikTok clip captured the scene at the store, where the tumblers reportedly sold out in just four minutes. Of course, that’s just one store; I imagine something similar happened at many, many Target locations immediately after they rolled out these products.

The History of Stanley

The Stanley brand has been around since 1913. Inventor William Stanley, Jr. fused vacuum insulation with steel to create a portable bottle that could keep drinks hot. The thermos became a staple of the outdoors and the workday. Now the company boasts a whole line of products to keep your drinks both hot and cold.

Are Stanleys Worth The Hype?

Look, as a busy mom, I get the appeal. I use mine all the time — for all the reasons I shared above, plus many more, it really does help me drink more water.

I love that, thanks to its tapered design, I can still fit my 40-ounce Stanley in my car’s cup holder, which is perfect for days when I’m shuttling my kids around to multiple activities or running errands.

I love the easy-to-grasp handle on my cup, which makes one-handed drinking while I’m holding a sick kid, working on my computer, or driving somewhere a breeze. I love that I don’t have to mess with a screw-top or a lid or even a flip straw when I want a drink of water in the middle of the night.

I love that it keeps my water nice and cold all day long. And okay, I’ll admit it: I love the cute color offerings and look of my cup…the aesthetic value is one of those things that doesn’t really matter, but also…kind of matters when it comes to the overall enjoyment of a product.

But I can also concede that the Stanley trend has gotten a little out of hand. Multiple influencers have showcased their collections of Stanleys—which is fine, they’re entitled to spend their money the way they choose to. But the hype also feels…a little unnecessary.

A dad shared a video of himself and his daughter camping out all night in 40-degree weather to get a pink cup from their local Target…and shared an image of a long line forming before the store opened.

It’s the type of hype you’d expect from, say, a big, new iPhone release. Or Cabbage Patch Kids for those of us who remember those lines in the 80s.

But it’s for a water cup, one you can get your hands on with relative ease if you’re willing to compromise on the color. Then again, if you don’t get the Stanley cup color of your choosing from the source, you may have to pay a large markup in order to buy it from a reseller…as the kids would say “it’s giving” Eras Tour ticket vibes.

Speaking of the kids, they’re driving this trend too. Teens and tweens seem to actually be in agreement with their moms on this one. They're the biggest Stanley enthusiasts out there, as evidenced by the incredible amount of TikTok content around this cult-favorite item.

It was one of the hottest gifts of the 2023 holiday season. In one TikTok with nearly 24 million views, a little girl starts crying when she opens her Stanley. In a sweet moment, she hugs and thanks her parents so appreciatively. There are so many videos like this on social media.

My own five-year-old has asked for a Stanley to match mommy’s, and ultimately we decided the type of cup I have is too big and heavy for her little hands—but if she wants one in a few years, I think I’ll view it as a harmless ask (and a way to get her drinking more water, to boot!) and indulge it. If she asks for an entire collection of Stanley cups, though? That’s where I’ll draw the line.

The Trend of Over-Consumption

No one needs a whole cabinet full of water tumblers, after all. Ultimately, the people on social media who showcase their Stanley collections aren’t doing anything terribly harmful, but they are setting a standard of over-consumption, which feels par for the course on social media. In the grand scheme of TikTok trends, though this one is fairly benign, at least in my opinion.

Over-consumption aside, I also don’t love that dads are poking fun at women and girls loving these cups. (Although somewhat amusing.) After all, no one shames men for collecting baseball cards or beer cans or rare coins or whatever it is men are collecting these days. Yet when women or girls want to get their hands on something, that thing is automatically deemed frivolous and silly, and their desire to have it is viewed as indulgent or “cringe”.

At the end of the day, I get (some of) the hype. My Stanley (okay, fine—my two Stanleys) have made staying hydrated easier, more convenient, and more fun. As a mom, I know how hard it can be to splurge or do something for yourself—so I also love the idea of this type of low-stakes purchase that can make life a little easier and a little more exciting for moms. And yes, I realize it’s slightly ridiculous to think of a water cup as something that can “spark joy”, so to speak, but it is what it is.

The bottom line? I like my Stanley a lot. It didn’t change my life, but I think it’s a great product for “mom life” and ultimately I’ve got to hand it to the brand for designing a good product and taking it up a notch to really appeal to female consumers. It’s an effective business strategy if I’ve ever seen one. Does anyone need a whole collection of this thing? No, of course not.

But should we be shaming or judging parents who want to buy themselves a few Stanleys, or camp out with their kids to get their hands on this trendy item? Also no. At the end of the day, it’s just not that serious…and that’s more than we can say for a lot of other social media fads. 

For more Parents news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Parents.