A teenage girl has detailed how her parents spent more than $3,000 on her Stanley cup fix.
In comments on The Wall Street Journal16-year-old Amelia Awad revealed that her family has so far footed the bill for 37 of the sect Quenchers, each costing about $50.
Calling the collection an “obsession,” the Alabama teen went on to explain how she, like so many others, first became captivated after seeing the beautiful containers online.
A year later, she now has her own influencer account, where she proudly shows off the fruits of her parents’ efforts to more than 137,000 followers.
She claims she uses every cup she gets, and told the newspaper how she decides which color-coded cup to use based on the look of her outfit.
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The Stanley Quencher collection of 16-year-old Amelia Awad, who revealed on Friday how her family has so far footed the bill for 37 of the cult cups, each costing about $50
Awad (not pictured) called the collection an “obsession” and went on to explain how she, like so many others, first became fascinated after seeing the beautiful containers online.
“I’m obsessed,” Awad said, as the social media craze for the humble jerry cans continues to reach a fever pitch.
Referring to limited edition models that sometimes retail for $60, she said, “If they are rare, I would like to use them more often because I am special for having them.”
That said, she’s not alone in her quest to secure every model of the soft-colored cups, which have emerged as something of a suddenly popular product since the pandemic.
Others, like Michelle Mendoza, have amassed even larger collections, as many find their solace not in the usefulness of the insulated holders, but in their “cool” factor.
“When I see someone in my salon who has a Stanley, it’s an instant conversation starter,” said the 28-year-old Salt Lake City resident, also speaking to the newspaper.
Like Awad, she said she views her Stanleys — all 75 of them — primarily as accessories, the same way she would view a necklace or bracelet.
Like Awad, Mendoza’s collection has also generated a lot of interest on social media, where she uses the name millennial.michelle.
She has around 3,000 followers on TikTok.
A year later, she now has her own influencer account (not pictured) – where she proudly shows off the fruits of her parents’ efforts to over 137,000 followers. Unrelated Stanley influencer Hallesoswag shows off one of the color-coded cups on TikTok
Others, like TikTok’s Michelle Mendoza (pictured), have amassed even larger collections — while promoting the insulated outlets not for their utility, but as accessories.
Like Awad, Mendoza’s collection has also generated a lot of interest on social media, where she uses the name millennial.michelle
Others, including prominent beauty justtkass, have even more followers thanks to Stanley’s content, with the influencer’s following currently at over 3 million.
Others, including prominent beauty TikTokers hallesoswag and justtkass, have even more followers, fueled by Stanley content, and both have more than a million followers.
Another trait they have in common is that they are both young women – as is the case with Awad, Mendoza and so many others who have been fascinated by Stanley’s Quencher, which saw an explosion of interest in 2020.
That said, the craze wasn’t immediate, as the cups actually came about in 2016 – and Stanley himself was already over 110 years old.
Initially there was virtually no interest, media outlets like CNBC reported, but that all changed when former Crocs CEO Terence Reilly took over as president of Stanley and was tasked with righting the company’s sinking ship.
Shortly after coming on board, he was approached by an employee who told him how a blogger had approached them a year earlier with a purchase order for some 5,000 Quenchers, which the company happily shipped.
The influencer, Ashlee LeSueur, co-founder of Buy Guide, moved to sell the Quenchers and sold them within a few days.
When Reilly heard this, he decided to bet big on Quenchers while using the Buyer’s Guide as a partner, while taking note of the primarily LeSueur demographic that attracted interest from young, fashion-oriented girls.
Initially there was virtually no interest in the cups, but that all changed when a new CEO took over and decided to bet big on the young female demographic.
Stanley’s revenues have since multiplied by about 10, from $73 million in 2019 to an estimated $750 million in 2023, with people like Awad (not pictured) – or their parents – making this possible.
Within months he decided to move from primary base colors to more exciting and even feminine ones, with tones like Desert Sage and Cream among the first entries.
Sales quickly skyrocketed, with the company’s revenue increasing from $73 million in 2019 to $94 million in 2020.
The following year, sales more than doubled to $194 million, and in 2022 – following the redesigned Quencher model with a streamlined design and several more colors – sales doubled again to $402 million.
Today, the company is estimated to make around $750 million a year thanks to the revamped Quenchers, with people like Awad – or their parents – making this possible.
“My experience at Crocs told me that these types of influencer opportunities were exactly the magic that Stanley could need,” Reilly told CNBC last month about Stanley’s recent success, which shows no sign of slowing down.
‘And we were right. The Buy Guide turned out to be a great partner and helped us create the Quencher phenomenon.”