The S’Well bottle, a new “beautifully crafted bottle that keeps drinks cold for 24 hours and hot for 12″ is the hottest bottle on the market, selling out of online inventory days before christmas and successfully launching new sizes and designs constantly in the recent weeks and months. As a proud carrier of a $5 Nalgene watrbottle from REI, the $35 price tag on a new S’well bottle felt somewhat steep to me; If I were to shell out an extra $30, what extra features could I receive? After talking to many proud owners of the S’well bottle, I feel like I can successfully conclude that for someone like me, the S’well bottle provides no beneficial features. Almost everyone I have spoken to about the bottle starts with their favorite feature about the bottle: its incredible insulation that keeps hot hot and cold cold for hours on end. While initially I agree this claim seems impressive, I can’t remember the last time I filled my bottle with anything I needed being kept at temperature for more than an hour. S’well markets this features as a completely reimagined carrying container technology. In reality however, they have just given a thermos a facelift. Scrolling through the S’well website, look-books and testimonials with flashy images consume the screen space. The lifestyle S’well has worked to create almost seems to contradict the product they are selling. Where as one might expect the thermos like qualities of S’well to be most desirable to those interested in nature or always on the move, images on the site depict fashion models and young professionals, none of whom seem desperate for a hot coffee 12 hours after having poured it into the mug. At the end of the day, S’well seems to be marketing a lifestyle more than anything else. Although their “hydration magic” might be persuasive to some, I’m gonna go ahead a stick to my Nalgene for now and save my $30 for something else.
