The water bottle trend has gone too far

Water bottles. At one point in time, they were a functional tool, a revolutionary invention that allowed you to get this, take water with you everywhere you go. But you may have noticed something different lately. Water bottles have evolved well beyond their original design to be something much more, a status symbol. Water bottle brands now compete in a cutthroat industry to meet your hydration needs, and more so, your need to fit in. You ever seen one of these? This looks like it'll change my life. I got it! Pick your color, your brand, your style, get the holiday edition, collect all ten to match each outfit. What started as a trend towards better wellness and a more sustainable future has turned into the exact opposite. A way to signal belonging and fuel waste. In the process, it's revealed a lot about how trends rise and fall, the many problems with consumerism today, and the small but meaningful ways we can resist it. This video is sponsored by Squarespace. More on them later. So if you're like 60% of Americans, you've got a water bottle. But the real question is, which kind? The water bottle sitting on your desk right now says more about you than you might realize. A rugged, insulated metal bottle might suggest that you're outdoorsy. A large-handed cup with a sippy straw might communicate comfort, coziness, and routine. A sleek, monochrome one might signal that you're an intentional consumer, someone who cares about their things and the environment. Yes, even minimalists have their water bottle of choice. These small details, the color, the size, the shape of the lid, and the logo have all become very important of late. And it's all very, very stupid. I mean, the more that I looked into this trend, the less hope I had for civilization. Like... i don't know how we got to the place where we've turned a reusable water bottle into a collector's item i found videos online where people had walls filled with different colors people who had accumulated hundreds of bottles spending thousands of dollars again on empty round cylinders that hold water or for some people, boxed wine. This is one of the craziest consumer trends that I've ever seen. And at first glance, it doesn't make any sense. But once you start to dig a little bit deeper, it kind of does. In hindsight, it's easy to see why the water bottle trend took off. In the 2010s, we simultaneously started to see the rise of the wellness economy and the importance of sustainability on consumers. Plastics became the enemy. Disposables were shunned. And so this need for these more enduring products. became really important to people. People signaled these virtues in different ways. Instead of wearing jeans and a t-shirt, women started to wear yoga pants and a sports brawl. Instead of shopping purely for price, people gravitated towards brands with minimalist aesthetics and conscious messaging. And of course, instead of grabbing a plastic water bottle, they carried around a reusable one wherever they went. When you kept a reusable water bottle on you, specifically a trendy bottle, it said, I'm healthy, I'm stylish, I hydrate. One of the first trendy water bottle brands to take hold on consumers was Swell. In 2010, their founder, Sarah Kaus, decided to reinvent the way we drink water. Okay, not really. In reality, she just slapped a new design on it. But their mission was altruistic. To save the planet. The mission of Swell is to get single-use, disposable beverage containers out of landfills and out of the ocean. And that mission would not falter. Not for growth, not for profit, not for... Oh wait, a year later, they changed their mind and tried to sell as many water bottles as possible regardless of the environmental impact. Our customers love to collect them. We found that the average customer that has as well at home has five and a half bottles at home. I don't know what's more impressive, the fact that they went from $3 million in revenue to $100 million in just a few years? Or that they sold half bottles? I don't think anyone could have seen what came next. The water bottle wars. As with any breakout trend, one brand breaks through and suddenly everyone wants in. New companies scrambled for market share, legacy brands reinvented themselves, and the category completely shifted. So many of these different brands had their moment. Yeti, Hydro Flask, Frank Green, Stanley, and countless others. Very quickly, reusable water bottles went from being optional to a must-have. Today there is an arsenal of options. It's almost like a status symbol. Yeah, you don't need a BMW anymore, Julie. You just need the right water bottle. Thanks to Uncle Capitalism, it didn't stop at bottles. Brands soon introduced different straws and straw lids, accessories and boots. Yes, those are little protectors to, God forbid, prevent your water bottle from getting dented on the bottom. The fad seemed destined to happen sooner or later, but that didn't stop marketers from doing everything they could to blow up the trend even more to maximize profits, to sell as many bottles, boots and useless accessories as possible. Their favorite strategies included scarcity marketing, hype drops, collabs, seasonal colors. People don't just own one. They have multiples. These strategies, which are common across industries, are designed to create a sense of urgency that drives you to make a purchase. They could make 10,000 bottles, but they choose to make 500 because they know it will trigger your deeply buried psychological triggers to belong, fit in, and secure a scarce resource, even when that resource is actually abundant and completely arbitrary. The real brilliance of their marketing isn't just that it gets you to act with urgency, but also the fact that it gets you to buy the same product over and over again. Levi Hildebrandt has talked at length about the many different cycles of the water bottle trends that have come and gone over the past few years. He pointed out exactly why these companies focus on these same strategies. There's actually a pretty obvious reason why. It costs money to improve a design or add a feature. It costs even more money to release a new bottle or product, but it costs basically nothing to release the same bottle in an infinite number of colors. It's kind of the only way to sell water bottles after somebody has already bought one from you. I bought every Stanley cup ever made. Today, me and my sisters are gonna unbox the first Stanley ever made all the way to the most wanted Stanley that was 15. Now, I know what you're thinking. These people are very dumb and they are making very dumb decisions. But these kinds of design trends are so embedded in our culture that even if you don't think you care about them, you kind of do. To help illustrate this point, let's look at Stanley. For decades, the brand had a clear identity and a loyal customer base. People who wanted rugged, durable gear built for work. But after influencers, social media users, and celebrities like Olivia Rodrigo started carrying these oversized bottles everywhere, the brand pivoted hard to keep up with the trend. Something that's really had been targeted toward outdoorsmen is now being targeted toward young people and parents. So it's really come a long way just leaning into that virality. Now that couldn't possibly impact the loyal Stanley users, those who identify themselves as being rugged outdoorsmen. Would it? Consider this comment on a recent video from Levi about the water bottle trend. My husband has a Stanley Cup he's used for ages. He works in construction. And now he's embarrassed to leave the house with it. It seems that even construction workers care about what their water bottle says about them. Even if it says, hey, I don't care about trends. The whole water bottle fad is a great example of why consumer trends take hold and why it's happening more and more lately. At its core, it's really nothing more than lifestyle branding. Lifestyle branding is a marketing approach where a product is marketed much less on its functional features and more on the feelings, values, and aspirations associated with using it. The product becomes a shortcut for expressing who you are. Luggage brands with muted color palettes. toothbrushes that look like they belong in an Apple store. Even simple home goods, trash bins, fans, kettles, and garden hoses are now built more around aesthetics than function. These products don't succeed because they solve a new problem or introduce groundbreaking technology. They break through the noise because of the way they look and how they allow people to express themselves. Okay, sure, some of the water bottle brands did introduce a sippy straw or a one-handed flip feature, but this wasn't exactly the light bulb. This kind of marketing and specifically a culture that has decided that everything in their home and everything they own needs to fit a certain aesthetic has led to an even bigger problem and one that might hit a little bit too close to home for people who call themselves minimalists. Listen, I know exactly what you're thinking right now. This whole water bottle thing could make me very rich. So if you want to try to disrupt the market yourself, you're going to need some help. Like from an all-in-one tool to build your website, create an online store, grow your audience, and the sponsor of this video, Squarespace. To get started, you go to Squarespace to grab your domain, something like drinkaggressively.com. Because your water bottle isn't basic, it propels water at 60 psi directly into your face via a patented CO2 cartridge. Next, you might choose from one of Squarespace's beautifully designed templates, something that's sleek, minimalist, and just modern enough to justify the $80 price tag. Then, I don't know, you might use their easy drag and drop functionality to showcase your many colorways. Midnight mist, fishy salmon, and Ramadan red. A water bottle for every outfit and every occasion. And finally, you could add an about page explaining how you're on a mission to hydrate mankind one PSI at a time. Or you could just use Squarespace the way that I've been using it for the past 10 years or so. Using it to host my work, collect emails from my newsletter, and running my business in a way that feels good to me. Whether you want to build a brand, a business, or showcase your work, Squarespace is awesome. I highly recommend them. You can go to squarespace.com today to start a free trial. And then when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com slash Matt D'Avella to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Bonus, when you click on the link in the description below, that also supports my channel. So thanks for considering. The more I looked into the water bottle trend, the more one problem stood out. Once a functional item becomes a part of a design trend, it's only a matter of time before the trend fades. And when that happens, instead of a tool, it becomes an outdated accessory. I think this is exactly why we've seen so many water bottle brands come and go. Products that were once meant to be used, beaten up, dented, and even passed down are suddenly being treated as disposable. It's not just about water bottles. We live in a culture that is obsessed with putting together the perfect aesthetic. Since we're letting everyone into our homes with social media, everything we share has to be curated and designed in a way that lets people know that we belong. Look at luggage, coffee mugs, home goods, furniture, garden tools. Everyday items that used to serve a purpose are now caught up in the churn of design trends. When the design becomes just as important as the function, people with the money and desire to fit in will happily toss aside perfectly good things in favor of the latest drop. I'm not claiming to be above any of this. I mean, I've fallen for lifestyle marketing myself. I mean, I call myself a minimalist. How can I not? While minimalism itself is obviously supposed to be about living intentionally and finding meaning and living with less, it's also usually very much about the aesthetics. While I get that some people find it boring, I like this kind of monochrome look. I find the simplicity of it calming, peaceful, and a perfect antidote to how loud our online world has become. But now that I've been practicing minimalism for over 14 years, I've also found another thing to be true. The perfect aesthetic does not hold up. Even items that you cherish and treat with care will eventually wear down. Things are meant to be used. While I've always tried to work on this, I think having kids has definitely helped me embrace this a little bit more. But since kids are expensive and time consuming, and you may not want to have them for yourself, there's another thing that's also helped me, and it's this idea of buy it for life. This growing philosophy that you may have heard about pushes back against trends and fast consumption. It encourages you to make purchases more carefully, sometimes investing more money into your everyday items, choosing products that are well-made, durable, and repairable, and then using them for as long as you possibly can. Not only is choosing buy-it-for-life items better for your wallet long term, not needing to replace these things year over year, but it's better for the environment as well. In a world built on planned obsolescence and endless new options, Buy It For Life is the best way I've found to push back against all of this craziness. At this point, you're probably wondering, hey, Matt, what kind of water bottle do you have? It's this one. It's a trendy water bottle here in Australia. I want to be very clear. My wife bought this for me as a gift after I misplaced my last one. At the time, I didn't realize that it was trendy. I hadn't made this video yet. I hadn't. looked into the topic at all but now that i know a little better i kind of understand what that construction worker was talking about when he said he can't go out in public anymore with his stanley mug because uh how embarrassing by the way nat uh i love the gift it was it's amazing and it was so thoughtful like it's No, but really, I could care less that this is a popular brand. It's a bottle that holds water, and I'm going to continue to use it long after it's no longer trendy. Let this be a reminder. Whether the water bottle on your desk is trendy or a cheap nameless brand, whether it tells the world that you're a minimalist or a construction worker with a huge impact driver, let it also tell the world something else. I've only got one of these.

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