you’re still probably saving them from some of the plastic leeching into the water. ( the jury may still be out on the long term effects of that, granted. )
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It sounds familiar. Going back a little further, playing the “bottle flip challenge” with ostensibly reusable bottles did not help their longevity.
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I like my Zojirushi bottle. I have a thermos that keeps ice all day, and sometimes longer if the weather is not too hot. The outer fabric layer has kept the stainless steel body from getting banged up. I have used it on construction sites since 2018, and it is still going strong. The only thing that is a bit worn is the double latch, as it opens more easily than when it was new, but that has not been a problem. Still leak proof.
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I try to take the long view when one of our kid’s bottles is lost. It’s not so much about the wasted plastic and metal now, it’s about establishing the habit of reusables for the rest of their life.
It is damned annoying though. Name bubble stickers help us get them back if they are lost at school or an activity with a static location.
We use Buzio. Durable and easy to clean. But I do love our stainless steel Stanley pitchers. We use those for the cold brew.
These popular ones are kinda ugly with that handle. The colors on the watermelon moonshine are either hideous or photograph badly.
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I have a 30 year old Stanley thermos. I have a Stanley travel mug that is over ten years old. I saw another one on sale recently and said, “Nah, I already have one.”
My gym bottle is a Kleen Kanteen bottle I pulled from a lost and found.
Clearly grumpy middle aged guys are not the target market for these things.
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Obligatory…
It’s complicated to navigate the modern world ethically… And we should all be kind to ourselves and each other…
Except for fascists.
But, also…
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The wave of the Stanley madness is also sweeping Brazil. But there is a schism in the heart of the mug cult. Some people are embracing the Coleman drinkware.
As I can’t even afford the chinese knock-offs, I will keep on drinking my water from the office fountain.
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Very much Boots theory, it’s why we feel we have a responsibility to support local and sustainable products (and make folks aware of them) precisely because we are privileged enough to be able to afford them, in the hopes that our supporting these causes (and advocating for them) will help reduce costs for these choices for everyone in return.
It’s what I meant above about how not all identity consumerism is necessarily bad - if we manage to convince a company to make more sustainable decisions by our purchasing choices and/or getting others who can to do the same, hopefully that will scale to help everyone.
As someone who extensively relied on food banks and social welfare programs to survive in the past, I know these effects all too well 
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I agree, but we do need to understand why consumerism as a social/economic system is a problem, even if it’s not a problem of our own making, since the (limited) choices we make support it. We all are doing the best we can in difficult circumstances… that’s true across history, I think.
I’m sure that’s quite a few of us here, who have depended on social welfare at one time or another, and understands it’s importance. It’s important to describe the problems in our systems and not just accept them at face value.
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And here I was thinking that Yeti was still in vogue.
Just shows how out of touch I am with the cool kids
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My water cup is, um, shiny and blue?
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Oh.
I also have quite a number of Stanleys, never thought they were a thing.
Plus several others…
Never tried to drink from them.
Might be possible from the last one, with some effort (good capacity, though!).
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So, buy yourself good boots. But if they don’t fit you right, donate them instead of listing them on eBay/Poshmark. They can fall into the hands of someone who needs good boots.
And when the Christmas requests for donated jackets and boots come out, give the good stuff. Put the boots onto the feet of those who need them. Every action can be a useful action.
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I like the magnetic attachment. I think that’s yeti that makes those? If I ever replace what I have that’s what I would look for. I really love it when product designers think about cleaning, especially for food and beverage containers.
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My kiddo used to love these little guys.
The original Stanley Thermos was a real work horse!
Actually, the Stanley tool brand (owned by Black and Decker) isn’t affiliated with the company that makes the water bottles and thermos.
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It’s the same brand, but the current owners are a Seattle company, and the manufacturing is in the same country where everything else is made to maximize profits- China. However, I don’t automatically discount it as a crap product, because China has this thing that you pay a certain amount of money, you get a certain level of build quality, just like everywhere else. The problem is that they still don’t fully respect Intellectual property rights, so your fancy design is going to get copied and sold under a few other brand names within a few weeks of your design hitting the market.
I will cheerfully admit that I have something like 4 “Thermoflask” branded containers (purchased from Costco; they are a clone of Hydroflask), a proper Hydroflask, and a YETI bottle. I also have a handful of the Yeti Rambler tumblers, because the insulation is enough to keep my coffee at a reasonable temperature for the bulk of the morning.
I strongly suspect that Hydroflask, Thermoflask, Takeya, and a few other brands that sell similar products are all cranked out by the same factory; I’ve had to buy a couple replacement lids over the past few years, and the Takeya parts fit on both the hydroflask and thermoflask products without problems.
I do like the Yeti tumblers for the fact that the four parts that comprise them are all top-rack safe in the dishwasher, which is why I have a number of them. And yes, the lid for the Ramblers has a magnetic latch, which detaches completely in order to be able to wash it. They are Not Cheap ($35 USD for a 20 ounce tumbler with mag-slider lid) but they are durable and easy to maintain.
As far as filling the flasks with water, I went and bought an under-counter water filtration system a year or two ago- nothing wrong with city tap water except that it occasionally tastes a little strange. The only reason I’ll keep bottled water in the house is if I have contractors coming in to do work, because I consider it rude to not offer water or beverage to the people working on my stuff…
(I don’t put soda in the flasks, because that’s a recipe for a sticky mess on opening. Water, tea, and coffee have all been in mine.)
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Go back even further to an actual Stanely Steamer steam powered car.
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Stanley knife, eh?
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