Target's Valentine's Day Stanley Collection Is So Popular Some Stores Are Limiting How Many You Can Buy

Stanley cups are pretty cute, I won't lie. I can see how it would keep girlies hydrated at work or school. The question is, why is Stanley's demographic mostly women?

Target and Stanley recently collaborated to release the limited edition Stanley Valentine's Day collection. This week, a viral video showed numerous women in Ugg boots grabbing the pink cups at Target just after they were neatly stocked. 

The item is so on-demand that some stores have placed limits. One sign read, "All Stanley Cups: limit is 2 per guest." 

Understandably, the uninitiated on social media are awfully confused about the Stanley craze, a phenomenon that actually isn’t new. 

How Three Women Created the Stanley Renaissance

Ashlee LeSueur bought the latest Adventure Quencher by Stanley, an insulated water bottle originally marketed to outdoorsmen, campers, and hikers. She loved it so much that she gifted it to her business partners, Taylor Cannon and Linley Hutchinson. They featured the Stanley Cup on their blog, The Buy Guide (a website that promotes “purchases that make life a little better”), in 2017.

According to The New York Times, the cups would be sold out anytime Stanley was listed on their blog. “We got so many pictures from teachers who all have them in their classrooms and from nurses stations with cups overflowing in different colors," LeSueur said. 

Stanley eventually stopped restocking the tumbler on their website, and the women wondered if their beloved Quencher could be reintroduced to a "more passionate demographic."

So, in 2019, LeSueur and her co-founders connected with Lauren Solomon, the national sales manager at Stanley. Solomon had reached out to the women after spotting an influencer post about the Quencher on Instagram, which she got from The Buy Guide. Solomon and LeSueur worked together, and The Buy Guide's founders purchased 5,000 Quenchers at wholesale cost in mid-2019. They sold out within five days. 

One year later, Solomon invited The Buy Guide's founders to meet the chief executive of Stanley's parent company, Bob Keller, and the Stanley leadership team members. The women were viewed by some in attendance as "blogger girls." But they weren't just "blogger girls" – they were women with a vision and a strong entrepreneurial spirit. They told the group that The Buy Guide and influencers could utilize affiliate marketing to bring the Quencher and the Stanley brand "to an entirely different market." 

LeSueur told them: “We promise you, it will sell. We will introduce this cup to an army of other influencers on Instagram, and it will blow your mind what women selling to women looks like." They all struck a deal, and LeSueur credits Keller's involvement. On its website, Stanley resumed selling the Quencher and offered the water bottle in different colors. The Buy Guide continued to promote the products and received a portion of all sales. However, this is just one of the many reasons why Stanley is so popular. We have a more in-depth article on why they’re a hit, which you can read here. 

Terence Reilly, the global president of Stanley, described Quencher's revival as a story “about listening to female voices." Reilly learned some women have become die-hard Stanley fans, adding, “I got a note this week that somebody wanted their ashes placed in their favorite Stanley.” 

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