Drink Up

Premium-priced, high-tech, fashion-forward drinkware aimed primarily at an adult consumer base interested in fitness and sustainability has been trending for close to a decade, with individual brands taking turns hitting it big on Tiktok and attracting crowds for new releases at retail. Most of the leading players have relied heavily on collaborations as a strategy to generate publicity and virality, to give themselves an advantage in a very competitive market, and to pique consumers’ interest and provide them with an incentive to purchase multiple bottles. 

Each brand has its own approach to how it handles licensing and collaboration activity, for example specializing in different property types, sometimes leaning into fashion or sports and sometimes going for variety. The companies also vary in the sheer number of partnerships they do, and their preferred partnership models, from custom-branded limited-edition wraps sponsored by the licensors, to collaborative capsule collections, to traditional longer-term licensing deals. 

The following examples, which represent a not-comprehensive slice of the many brands and partnerships that have been active in the space, illustrate some of the possibilities: 

• Stanley is known for going viral after one of its bottles was found intact (with ice cubes still viable) in a car that was otherwise consumed by fire, as well as for the huge crowds at Target and Starbucks when new exclusive designs have been released. Just in 2024, it has introduced a floral-patterned LoveShackFancy collection, three bottles tied to Target’s exclusive Magnolia brand with Chip and Joanna Gaines, and a Barbie collection of eight bottles commemorating the brand’s 65th anniversary, along with editions for singer Olivia Rodrigo, Dick’s proprietary Calia brand, artist Stevie Chao, streetwear label FRGMT, and the NBA’s Utah Jazz. Other collaborations over the years have ranged from Pendleton to AMBUSH.

• Yeti has focused its collaboration strategy on sports, with some of the collections including coolers and other insulated products, as well as water bottles. Just this fall, it signed a licensing deal with the NFL and with Louisiana State University, following previous agreements with Tottenham Hotspur, Nascar, Major League Baseball, and the World Surf League. 

• S’well has worked with a number of different partners across property types. In 2023 and 2024, its collections have included initiatives with Crayola (seven bottles inspired by nostalgic crayon designs) and artists Steffi Lynn and Timothy Goodman. Past efforts have ranged from Liberty of London and Lilly Pulitzer to BBC Earth, among others, with some offered exclusively through Starbucks. Many of its collaborative bottles feature all-over floral or other prints.

• Owala has entered into a handful of inbound collaborations. This year, for example, it worked with the Dutch Bros. coffee shop chain on a special-edition bottle (which dropped last Friday), and it has an ongoing and wide-ranging alliance with Disney that has included a limited Pocahontas bottle and an “emotional support bottle” based on Inside Out 2 (with Uber Eats), as well as Star Wars bottles. 

• Sigg’s water bottles have featured a variety of custom designs, with partners ranging from the classic Moomin characters to the Roland Garros stadium in France. It has especially focused on luxury fashion labels, including Zegna, Y-3, Mulberry, Yves Saint Laurent, Supreme, and MCM, which did its first water bottle collaboration with the company earlier this year. 

• Hydro Flask’s collaborations have ranged from Vans to Burley, the bike trailer and stroller brand, and it serves as the official hydration partner for the USA Snowboard Team and USA Surfing. It has also sold exclusive collections of its limited-edition, non-licensed flasks in Whole Foods stores.

• Nalgene’s partners over the years have included entertainment properties (e.g. Marvel’s The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, along with the TV property Unsolved Mysteries), fashion labels (Brain Dead, Supreme), artists (Native artist Jaden Redhair), athletes (the NBA’s Devin Booker), corporate IPs (skincare brand F. Miller, cannabis accessories brand Studio A-OK, Playboy), celebrities (self-care influencer Sarita Walsh), and more. The company continues to issue limited editions regularly, but its pace of collaboration with outside brands has slowed a bit since 2022.

• BKR’s limited-edition water bottle capsules have been achieved through pairings with companies ranging from Reimagination Incorporated (Re-Inc), a soccer-player founded apparel brand with activist messaging, to Too Faced, the skincare and cosmetics brand, to Swarovski for a bejeweled collection. 

• Soma has worked with the likes of New York whiskey distillery Great Jones, wellness and sustainability-rooted developer One Circle Co., and the nonprofit Parley for the Oceans. One of its most high-profile collaborations has been with Evian and the late designer Virgil Abloh, at the time creative director of Louis Vuitton, which received a lot of coverage in the fashion press and elsewhere. 

Most of these and other key players’ primary involvement with licensing is as licensees, but some have worked to extend their brands outbound into adjacent categories as well. Revelyst, a division of Vista Outdoor, licensed its CamelBak insulated drinkware brand to 5 Horizons in September 2024 for a line of CamelBak Pro hydration products geared to workers at job sites, including hydration backpacks, waist packs, and tool belts. Meanwhile, Owala partnered with Clove for a limited-edition sneaker for healthcare professionals (simultaneously offering a bottle in the same pattern), and this fall it worked with Fitmonkie on an activewear capsule.

Stanley recently launched its inaugural apparel collection, sold through its website, consisting of t-shirts, hats, crewnecks, and hoodies, for kids and adults. In-house-managed collections like Stanley’s can sometimes serve as stepping stones to outbound collaborations with other companies.