I recently bought a 32 ounce Owala bottle in “shy marshmallow” after discovering it on nurse TikTok. Spoiler alert: it’s fantastic. The Owala’s claim to fame is a spout that lets you both sip and slurp your (cold) beverage of choice—through an integrated straw. It’s also double walled and can be fully cleaned in the dishwasher. I’ve already given one as a gift, to a friend in the medical field no less!
Perhaps more interestingly, the Owala is the latest in a long lineage of trendy water bottles, an evolution I can personally trace back to the early aughts, when I purchased my first Nalgene bottle as an awkward 8th grader—this is back when they still contained BPAs! As I write this, fond memories flood back of spilling water all over myself in English Honors; those wide mouth openings were great for cleaning, less so for avoiding embarrassment.
How did we get from the Nalgene to the Owala? I present to you this unified theory of water bottle culture (I have owned almost all of these):
Over time, water bottles have become fancier as well as aesthetically suburbanized and driven by influencer culture. Functionally, ever since the Hydro Flask and Swell debuted in the early 2010s, double insulation and multifunction lids have quickly become the new norm. It’s hard to imagine going back to a world where your water gets warm after sitting in the car for a few hours. Aesthetically, we now just want something that looks good on endless Zoom calls and at the gym—no need to be reminded of the outdoors that we spend so little time in! The impact of influencer culture is also real—other than its ability to fit in a standard car cup holder, there is no other explanation for the immense popularity of the Stanley Adventure Quencher. Every trendy bottle now comes in dozens of colors. I am deliberately not even going to discuss those garish plastic jugs with motivational markers on them—I have to draw the line somewhere!
Where does water bottle culture go from here? I don’t know, but like most things, the pendulum will eventually swing back around to value simplicity and adventurism. In the meantime, I expect to see more limited-edition Owala color drops, more self-cleaning tech, and ever-shortening trend cycles driven by the TikTok algorithm.
The freesip spout is incredible! I have a 32oz but am thinking about getting a 40oz if I like a future color drop.
The irony of reading about water bottle culture with two different types of water bottles on my desk...my wife's claim to fame is being quick to the Stanley Bottle trend...