Virality Came For Stanley Cups — Are Stanley Clothes Next? (EXCLUSIVE)
If 2024 was a person, its first waking memory would be of the Stanley cup. Stanley's signature Quencher thermos became arguably the first trend of 2024 and remains red-hot heading into the second month of the year.
In early January, hype for Stanley's Quencher thermos peaked. The silver-tipped mugs were darn-near ubiquitous — though Stanley cup demand was already pretty well-established, viral videos of shoppers clamoring for limited-edition models and collaborative Quenchers redefined the term "Stanley cup." Hockey? Never heard of her.
Stanley is smartly seizing the moment with its first-ever clothing collection, heavily indebted to the Stanley cup hype and presumably intended to at least partially ride that virality.
Will it?
Well, hard to say Stanley cup clothing is clearly not for the new converts but, let's be real: even if Stanley's first-ever clothing collection only sells a single item to each Stanley cup collector, we're talking sold-out drops.
Much like the Stanley cup itself, Stanley clothes are pretty straightforward.
You've got hoodies printed with Stanley's "wingbear" logo, basic graphic T-shirts, and sweaters stitched with a little Quencher patch, for instance, sized for both kids and adults. A press release notes that the fabrication is "organic" and "sustainable."
Standard stuff, though it's interesting that the Stanley cup only really implied.
Presumably, the company figures that anyone wearing its clothes is already clutching a Stanley cup so a matching print would merely be redundant.
It all releases for under $90 on February 6 via Stanley's website from 12pm EST.
I wonder if Stanley's next move is to create clothes that more directly tie in with the Quencher thermos.
How about a jacket fitted with cupholders? A hoodie fitted with straws instead of drawstrings, so you can sip without lifting the cup to your lips? A temperature-changing T-shirt with a Stanley cup to match?
Well, this is just the introductory release from Stanley clothing line, there's plenty of time to innovate down the road.
But remember that Stanley's president, Terence Reilly, was Crocs' chief marketing officer prior to joining Stanley in 2020, so there's a precedence for virality.
All the Stanley clothes need is a Stanley cup moment of their own. It might be a bit too much to expect them to survive a car fire, though.
