- Stanley's "Quencher" insulated cups are a hot status symbol for kids and parents alike.
- One mom's viral TikTok even claims that her daughter was mocked at school for having a cheaper dupe.
Reusable water bottles have become one of the hottest status symbols among millennials, Gen Zs, and Gen As in recent years, whether they're Hydro Flasks, Starbucks tumblers, or Stanley cups.
It's the latter that's in the spotlight at the moment, with huge lines forming outside Target stores as people raced to snap up the limited-edition Stanley Valentine's Day cup. The drop has sparked a lucrative resale market for the magenta and red cups.
The brand's block-colored cups, called Quenchers, were the most-featured item in Gen Z Christmas haul videos on TikTok, Casey Lewis, a youth consumer trends analyst, previously told Business Insider. One mom says that her nine-year-old daughter was even mocked by classmates after she got an off-brand tall plastic cup with a straw for Christmas.
Dayna Motycka said in a TikTok video that she bought her daughter the $9.98 cup from Walmart for Christmas. Her daughter had said it looked cute, Motycka said.
But when her daughter looked upset when she came home from school after the holidays, Motycka said it was due to her off-brand cup.
Many of her classmates had been given Stanley cups for Christmas, and "they made sure to let her know that this is not a real Stanley, that this is fake and it's not as cool," Motycka said.
"Can we afford to buy her a Stanley? Yes. Did I think that she needed one? No," Motycka said. "Apparently I've been proven wrong by the children in our school that are making fun of her for not having a real name-brand Stanley."
Motycka, who herself owns a Stanley cup, said she went on to buy her daughter a $35 30-ounce white Stanley cup.
"If you're a parent and you can do something to keep your child from getting made fun of, to help fit in, you're gonna do it," she said.
Motycka blamed the kids' parents for the teasing.
"This doesn't start with the kids," she said. "We have got to teach our kids to not make other kids feel inferior for not having the things that they have."
In the video's comments, people expressed surprise that Motycka decided to buy a Quencher for her daughter, saying that the mom should be more assertive in showing her daughter that material possessions don't define her self-worth.
Motycka said in a follow-up video that her own desire for name-brand items, like a $90 Bogg bag, may have influenced her daughter's mindset. She said that she herself needed to take responsibility and place less importance on brands if she wanted a mindset change among younger generations.
In a comment on her initial video, which has 3.3 million views, she said that things had been tougher for her daughter since it went viral.