Key Takeaways:
• Shift Toward Smaller Drinkware: Starbucks’ summer collection suggests a move away from bulky 40 oz. tumblers toward more compact, portable options.
• Emphasis on Accessories & Personalization: The collection includes items like carrying cases and decorative charms, indicating a trend toward customizable and collectible drinkware accessories that enhance user engagement and branding opportunities.
• Market Trends & Economic Factors: The popularity of large tumblers may decline due to cyclical consumer trends and other factors, such as potential tariff-related price increases.
Could the days of 40 oz. tumbler dominance be behind us?
If Starbucks’ summer drinkware collection is any indication, consumers might be looking for more manageable drinkware options – especially when on the go.
The Starbucks seasonal drinkware collection is typically a good look into what sort of designs end-users want for things like tumblers, cups and bottles. The colors reflect the season, with the summer collection full of bright yellows, blues and greens. But what stands out the most in the collection is the relatively small size of all the pieces.
Recently, 40 oz. tumblers inspired by the “Stanley Cup” were all the rage, and drinkware suppliers created their own answers to the piece after it became a social media sensation. Now, however, Starbucks is betting on end-users looking at smaller drinkware pieces – and also accessories for them.
Take, for example, the Cold Cup & Carry Case from this collection. It’s only 24 oz., and it comes with a carrying case and strap that matches the lid of the cup. This bridges the gap between tote bag and water bottle, creating another opportunity for branding with the carrying strap and bag.
Elsewhere in the collection, there’s a 24 oz. cold cup with a flower charm that fits around the straw. The idea of a drinkware accessory is something that makes sense for a 40 oz. tumbler, where you can attach a “tumbler backpack” for carrying small items. But the charm idea creates an opportunity for end-users to collect or trade their charms like they might do with trading cards or even other accessories of this ilk. Look at the “Labubu” collectibles that are currently all the rage for people to put on their purses and bags. (The idea of merchandise specifically for the Labubu dolls is a topic for another day.)
It’s simple, but something like that adds a layer of branding and creates engagement among end-users, and possibly even additional business if the customers can go back to get different varieties.
Whether the Stanley Cup era is truly over remains to be seen, though data on product searches in ASI’s ESP platform suggests the brand/style may be losing ground to competitors.
Some suppliers and distributors have also predicted that the tariff situation could make it difficult, or at least not as cost-effective as other drinkware choices. “Prices are going to go up on stainless steel and on ceramics, so maybe it goes back to USA-made water bottles,” Mark Kindberg, CEO of Nordic Co (asi/74245), told ASI Media at the ASI Show in Orlando this year.
The change could also just be that trends are cyclical, and end-users fluctuate between two ends of product spectrums. Baggy pants give way to skinny jeans, and then we go back to baggy. Hard goods are not exempt to these swings in consumer trends. At one point, everyone wanted their cell phone to be as small as possible, and then smartphone manufacturers offered products that double as tablets.
The drinkware got bigger, and now it might get smaller when end-users want something easier to carry.
