3 Reasons why you SHOULDN'T Buy a Hydro Flask, YETI, or Stanley

3/18/2023

Content Overview:

Intro - Hype Articles
Link to our Video Review
Reason #1 - Affiliate Marketing
Reason #2 - Cost
Reason #3 - Environmental Cost
Summary and Link to our Store (Thank You!)

Products Mentioned in this Post:

Counterpoint - Why you should Think Twice before Buying a Hydro Flask, YETI, or Stanley Water Bottle

YETI recently released a new bottle with a straw lid, and it’s their answer to Stanley’s Adventure Quencher bottles that took the internet by storm. You may have noticed articles like these predicting that the new YETI straw tumbler will go viral. These kinds of articles come up seemingly every week describing the next big Hydro Flask, YETI, or Stanley product that you should buy.

YETI Hype Article NY Post

YETI Hype Article Yahoo

YETI Hype Article SF Gate

But we’re here to give the counterpoint with three reasons why you shouldn’t buy a Hydro Flask, YETI, or Stanley.

Our Video Review

Our YouTube video covers the same information in this post, so click the link if you'd rather see the video. Otherwise, keep reading the full post below!

Reason #1 Why You Shouldn't Buy a Hydro Flask, YETI, or Stanley - Affiliate Marketers

Here’s the deal. The people and companies writing these articles are affiliate marketers. They get paid if you click a link and make a purchase, so it’s in their best interest to promote the most popular and expensive items.

Example of Affiliate Marketing (bottlepro.net)

And look, we’re fine with people giving reviews and recommendations, and in fact that’s mostly what we do on this channel. These reviews and summaries by experts and knowledgeable consumers can save you a lot of time so you don’t have to sift through all the junk on Amazon’s bloated marketplace.

The problem is that many of these affiliate marketers don’t really have your best interests in mind. They’re just trying to ride the hype train with the most popular, expensive products that they can post links to and earn their cut. Many don’t care about giving you a true all-around representation of the product they’re promoting.

Always remember that there is no such thing as a perfect product for every person and situation. Every single product has a drawback or something that can be critiqued. If the article you’re reading doesn’t list at least one negative to be aware of, then you might want to get a second opinion elsewhere.

Reason #2 Why You Shouldn't Buy a Hydro Flask, YETI, or Stanley - You're Mostly Paying for the Logo

We run a business selling products on Amazon and ordering items from China. Our manufacturing and shipping volumes are obviously not nearly as high as Hydro Flask, YETI, or Stanley, but we can take what we’ve learned and use that to take our best guess at what kinds of costs they have.

Our Estimates for Hydro Flask's Costs (click to see Amazon listing)

For this analysis, we’re going to look specifically at a 40-ounce Hydro Flask. The standard retail price is $49.95, so that’s what we’ll base this analysis on. Manufacturing costs are probably around $4 per unit. This includes the bottle, printed inserts, and the label wrap. Freight costs have been more difficult to predict within the last few years since COVID, but bulk sea freight from China to the west coast of America probably comes out to around $1 per bottle. Amazon usually has a 12% referral fee for sales on their platform so that’s what we’ll use here, though we wouldn’t be surprised if Hydro Flask has negotiated that down or partnered with Amazon somehow. The Amazon fulfillment charge, which is separate from the referral fee, is probably around $7.

Together, these costs total $17.99, which gives a gross profit per unit of $31.96. That’s a 64% profit margin, which is pretty high.

Now obviously there are many other costs that will bring down Hydro Flask’s true net profit, including customer service, marketing, facilities costs, and employee wages. We’re not going to try to guess what Hydro Flask’s costs are in these categories, but it’s clear to see that a minority of what you pay for with a Hydro Flask bottle is in the bottle itself. If you think of customer service, marketing, the facilities, and the employees as essentially being the brand, then this little logo basically costs you around $30 per bottle.

Most of the price you pay is for the brand, not the bottle.

And though there are surely some differences between brands, we wouldn't be surprised if YETI and Stanley bottles are in this same ballpark.

Let’s compare these costs with Iron Flask, which is a well-established knockoff brand on Amazon. They were close on our insulation test, and they’re almost exactly the same size and shape.

Our Estimates for Iron Flask's Costs (click to see Amazon listing)

You can get a 40-ounce Iron Flask for $28.95, or $21 dollars less than a comparable Hydro Flask. Iron Flask’s direct product costs will be a little lower on the Amazon referral fee since it’s tied to the price point, but they will have mostly similar costs compared to Hydro Flask, including manufacturing, freight, and the Amazon fulfillment fee.

Our best guess is that Iron Flask’s total direct product costs are around $15 per 40-ounce bottle, leaving ~$13 profit, or 45% margins.

You'll spend less money overall, and most of the price you pay is for the bottle, not the brand. And considering that you get 3 lids instead of just 1 and that they have ~30 color options, it seems like an even better deal. We've used Iron Flasks quite a bit, and honestly we can't tell much of a difference between them and Hydro Flasks.

Now some of Hydro Flask’s higher costs are well worth it. They have great customer service, and they make really good products that last a long time. But in our opinion, it’s still a lot to fork over for the logo and we’d rather have a greater percentage of the price we spend go into the product, not the company. YETI’s branding-related costs are possibly even more excessive. Stanleys aren’t quite as extreme, but you're definitely still paying for the logo.

Reason #3 Why You Shouldn't Buy a Hydro Flask, YETI, or Stanley - The Environment

It's a little counter-intuitive at first because one of the most important reasons why you should get a reusable bottle is for the environment. Disposable water bottles are terrible, and upgrading to a reusable bottle is one of the best things you can do on an individual level to reduce plastic consumption.

But the reality is that most people only really need one or two bottles to get them through the day. This why we really don’t like how viral bottles and excessive marketing budgets always push customers to get the next best bottle or color. It's one thing if you if you want a different type of bottle for specific reason, like a smaller one with a sip lid for coffee. But do you really need a 6th color of a 40-ounce bottle when you already have 5 similar bottles?

Diminishing Returns with Plastic Reduction and # of Bottles

There’s a type of diminishing returns when it comes to the number of bottles you own and how much you’re helping reduce overall environmental waste. The first bottle you get cuts down a lot of your plastic consumption, but each additional bottle you buy doesn’t help as much.

And every bottle has an environmental cost related to manufacturing and shipping the product. And remember that shipping doesn't just mean from the warehouse to your door. Shipping also includes getting supplies and materials to the factory, and then freighting the finished products in bulk to a fulfillment warehouse.

Sooner or later, the total environmental cost related to manufacturing and shipping your next reusable bottle will be greater than the environmental benefit from the reduction to your plastic consumption.

So before you buy your next reusable bottle, take a second to think about whether you really need it.

And that’s it! You might find it a little weird for our company to tell you to not buy a water bottle given that we’re in the business of making accessories for these bottles. But like always, we try to give our honest thoughts and recommendations that will actually help. And we know we railed on affiliate marketers before, but we did include links to the products we talked about. If you make a purchase after clicking one of the links, then we get a small commission. It helps our small business out, and we appreciate the support so we can continue making unbiased posts and videos like this one. Keep BottlePro in mind for accessories for your large bottles, and happy hydrating!

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