What’s the point of a water bottle?
To keep your water on hand until the time it vacates said bottle and trickles down your throat, quenching your thirst and fueling your body.
If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it, right?
How about fossil fuels, incandescent light bulbs, 3.5” floppy disks? Those worked fine. Why change them?
Because they could be re-imagined and deconstructed to form something new, something better, something sleeker that would also perform the task with greater efficiency.
That’s the spirit that inspired the Square
The Square is the latest 20oz water bottle from the folks at Clean Bottle — and both are the brainchild of Dave Mayer, the founder of Clean Bottle. The Square is in its last couple of days in its Kickstarter campaign (it ends October 11, 2012 at 2:27pm EDT).
Dave and his crew were kind enough to send me an early prototype of the Square to test and review and at first glance, it was, a water bottle. A chic one, no doubt, but it was a water bottle. I didn’t think it was anything special.
When I learned the retail price was slated for $40, I thought it was simply eco-snobbery in the form of the “green tax“. So I emailed Dave to ask him about that price point.
What I discovered, is that the Square, while appearing to simply be a good looking water bottle, is actually quite special in a myriad of subtle ways — which are my personal favorite.
What makes the Square so special?
I didn’t pull any punches with Dave. I asked him point blank to explain the price point because it smelled very possibly like eco-snobbery to me. He said,
In terms of pricing yes I could write a book on this. For a simple metal bottle there are 2 pieces – the body and the cap. So it can be made very cheaply.
For us, there are 16 pieces because of the double end nature, the plastic lip that prevents the metal taste, the wide handle, etc. There is also a 65 step assembly process. The smudge proof coating, for example, cost $2 alone to add — which is more than the TOTAL cost of most other bottles.
Dave went on to say that “$40 is a lot for a bottle, but people pay a lot of money to get great shoes, sunglasses, iPhone cases, etc — they pay more because they want to buy the best. This is our hope with the Square.”
What makes the Square subtly special?
- Easy to clean: Unscrews at both ends for and bottle body is dishwasher safe. (Without this feature, you need a special brush to keep your bottles free of nasty bacteria.)
- Won’t roll away: Ever dropped your water bottle and chased it across the parking lot? Not a problem with the square shape.
- Guaranteed for life: If you’re unhappy with your Square for any reason at any time, or if anything breaks — ever — you will receive a full refund or a replacement.
- No metallic aftertaste: Neck is lined with BPA-free plastic so your water always tastes fresh.
- Anatomically correct: The handle fits naturally into your hand and the shape of the bottle neck is designed to fit perfectly to your lips for dribble-proof thirst quenching.
- Fits into cup holders: Finally!
- Leak proof: Despite having both a bottom and a top that unscrew, the thick rubber washers and bayonet locks click into place so the caps will never come accidentally unscrewed.
- Precision engineering: Designed from 16 different parts and requires the aforementioned 65 separate steps to manufacture. Made with 304 food grade stainless steel and contains a clear coat that makes it smudge-proof.
The Square’s Kickstarter $20,000 campaign goal was smashed very early on, and now Clean Bottle is trying to reach the $100,000 (or even the $150,000) mark in the next couple of days.
And they’re only $1,000 away from the $100k goal (at the time of this writing).
If you dig what the folks at Clean Bottle are trying to create with the new Square — the best looking, highest quality, easiest to clean water bottle ever — then consider popping over to the Kickstarter campaign and pledging support. A $40 pledge will get you a Square bottle by December.
In the meantime, check out the video showing the Square’s awesomeness.
About Jeffrey Davis
