While many of us look at January 1 as a chance to leave the past behind, one thing carrying over from 2023 is the Internet’s obsession with Stanley Quencher cups.

Stanley stans camped outside and started hitting Target stores in droves starting on New Year’s Eve due to a limited-edition Quencher cup release available only at the Starbucks cafés located inside the big box store chain. The pair of new colorways included Target Red and a Valentines Day-ready Cosmo Pink, and sold out within a few days with the brands involved saying there are no plans to produce or stock any more once this batch was bought up. And, of course, as those cups quickly sold out, they just as quickly started to appear on eBay marked up into the hundreds of dollars.

So what’s the big deal with these big, colorful cups?

The History of The Stanley Quencher Tumbler Cup

While the Stanley company has been making durable drinking vessels since 1913, until 2020, Stanley’s best-selling product was its classic green carafe with a metal cup lid. The company’s bread-and-butter customers were people working on job sites and outdoor enthusiasts headed to the woods for camping or hunting.

The Quencher debuted in 2016 at a time when brands like Yeti and Hydro Flask were also on the water bottle market, still yet to find a trend-launching foothold. But the Quencher wasn’t an instant hit. In fact, CNBC reports that by 2019 the product was no longer being restocked. Around that time, a Stanley tumbler customer and cofounder of the shopping curating site The Buy Guide inquired about more Quenchers becoming available. Stanley responded with an opportunity to have the website buy up and market its own 5,000-unit run of inventory. They sold out within five days.

Following that success, the women behind The Buy Guide continued to encourage Stanley to consider this new, untapped online market of influencers, and as the company leaned in, things really took off. 2021 saw the sold-out Adventure Quencher return to a waiting list of over 30,000 eager buyers. According to CNBC, in 2019 Stanley’s sales sat at around $73 million. Since the Quencher craze has taken hold, it has since ballooned tenfold to $750 million annually. And with that expansion, its demographics have evolved from mostly male to mostly female consumers, taking the product out of just sporting goods stores and putting it into hipper, style-focused retailers.

Why Are Stanley Quencher Cups So Popular?

Aside from the fervor, it also is, by so many satisfied customers’ accounts, a good product. As with other rough-and-tumble tumblers in the category, it features a vacuum-insulated, double-walled stainless steel, keeping hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold for hours. One sad-but-fascinating news story from 2023 featured a woman revealing that despite a fire destroying her car, her Stanley tumbler in the cupholder remained intact and still contained unmelted ice. (Stanley reached out after the video went viral and bought the woman a new car.)

The Quencher’s large, 40-ounce capacity (with smaller and still-larger options available, too) means fewer refills, and was especially primed to take advantage of the recent #WaterTok trend of zhuzhing up one’s H2O with flavors to encourage hydration.

But in addition to its size, there’s one feature that can’t be overstated for so many car owners: It fits in a standard cup holder. (Take it from me, someone who owns a car and has purchased more than a few larger water bottles and tumblers that weren’t so car-friendly and swiftly ended up collecting dust in the closet. It’s a feature.) The tight-sealing lid can be used with a reusable straw or sipped directly, and the cup also features a handle that doesn’t impede its cupholder compatibility. And in 2022, the brand released its updated Quencher H2.0 FlowState Tumbler with an improved lid that can seal completely.

Couple those practical attributes with its sleek aesthetic, the ability to choose dozens of Instagram-friendly colors, plus the option to custom-engrave your cups, it’s no wonder they’ve become a must-have item. And with retail prices anywhere from $40 to $55, they’re a relatively affordable must-have at that.

But the other “why” could be attributed to those aforementioned influencers and Stanley leaning in the affiliate marketing opportunities associated with the onset of social media-based e-commerce. Plus, in 2020, the company brought in Terence Reilly, the former chief marketing officer for Crocs, as its new president. And if you know anything about Crocs, you know that they’re all about colors, customization and limited-edition drops. It would seem the same basic tenets apply to both rubber clogs and vacuum-sealed stainless steel tumblers, thus Stanley was well-poised to harness its viral success.

What Are Some Stanley Quencher Tumbler Alternatives?

If you have your heart set on a certain color, you may experience a bit of heartache if thousands of others share your preference. Quenchers have sold out before and they’ll likely sell out again, especially those limited-run collaborations with designers and retailers. So if you’re looking for that big cup lifestyle without all the fuss, there are many alternatives out there. Here are few that also come in a rich, Cosmo-like pink:

Then again, if you came to the Internet looking for a Stanley Quencher tumbler, perhaps only the real deal will do.

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