A woman who has owned a singular Stanley cup for a year says she’s now embarrassed to be seen with it.
TikTok user Isobel’s (@tibobel) embarrassment, she says, is due to the “absolutely bizarre, weird culture that exists around Stanley.”
The popular Stanley tumblers with handles come in a variety of colors and two sizes—30 ounce and 40 ounce. They promise to keep ice in tact and drinks cold for hours.
The tumblers went extremely viral on TikTok in 2023, where users posted about their Stanley cups surviving even the most brutal of conditions like car and house fires. Chaos ensued after Target then released two exclusive Valentine’s Day cups in pink and red. Stanley cup enthusiasts and collectors lined up outside Target locations, before the stores even opened, to get their hands on one of these cups. There were several instances where customers argued with each other over them. Sometimes the arguments turned physical, with one man getting tackled. Stanley cup enthusiasts now have a bad rep, so Isobel fears how people would perceive her if she took her cup with her in public.
“I don’t want to take this to my yoga class and have people think that I have 30 more at home and that I’m trying to coordinate with my workout outfit,” she explained.
“How do we, like, make it stop because I just wanna be able to bring this?” she questioned, holding her Stanley. “I wanna be eco-friendly with my water bottle and not feel like people might that I am the weirdest person on the planet.”
@tibobel Let’s all just be normal about water bottles 💗 #stanleycup #stanley #fyp #trend ♬ Feather sped up – 🪩💌🦋
Isobel’s video was viewed nearly 400,000 times. One viewer pointed out the hypocrisy of those who buy 40 cups, which are reusable, in part, in an effort to be less wasteful. Stanley cup owners validated Isobel’s feelings toward carrying the cup in public.
“I bought a pink one last year at target and now I don’t want people to think I trampled someone for it,” one user stated.
“Yes! im embarrassed but i refuse to give into over consumption by buying a different reusable bottle that will inevitably go out of style,” another said.
Update 3:55pm CT, Feb. 8: During an interview with the Daily Dot, Isobel said, “I love the cup! I just think the culture around it is so weird. I don’t know why you’d need 40 cups of any kind.”
