It’s a social media sensation, the next big thing in the drinkware boom – and the must-have status symbol of 2023.

Just before Thanksgiving 2023, a viral TikTok video showed the aftermath of a major car fire. In the center console among the destroyed seats, roof debris and water from firefighters’ hoses sat a bright orange tumbler with a handle and straw – blackened with soot, but otherwise unscathed. Miraculously, the ice inside was still intact.

The item was the popular 40-oz. Quencher H2.0 FlowState tumbler from Stanley. It certainly made a great ad for the company; the video garnered millions of views and tens of thousands of comments (many of them indicating they were soon to become first-time customers). Terence Reilly, president of Stanley, offered to replace both the tumbler and the car.

It was also an apt image of both Stanley and the Quencher’s remarkable recent success. Despite fears of a recession, slashed corporate budgets, cash-strapped households and a nearly saturated product category, this $50 tumbler became the must-have status symbol of 2023 in both retail and promo.

What’s even more remarkable is this unlikely resurgence is over a century in the making. Stanley, founded in 1913, was known for decades for its classic steel vacuum bottles and lunch boxes in its signature Hammertone Green, mostly used by the workers who first built the country’s infrastructure. The company’s items and its clientele were both suited to spend time outside in the elements.

That changed in late 2022, when a combination of brand flexibility, new executive faces, image retooling, earnest influencers, savvy affiliate marketing and swoon-worthy lifestyle shots – plus a bit of luck – launched the 40-oz. Quencher into the stratosphere. The tumbler is an object of adoration, lauded by millions of social media users and so worshipped that consumers this holiday season camped out in tents outside Starbucks locations to try to score the special-edition Stanley x Starbucks style, many with plans to resell them online for huge markups.