- The Yellow Bite
- Posts
- How 3 women turned a dead thermos into $750M
How 3 women turned a dead thermos into $750M
What they did next will change how you think about product launches forever.
Stephen Stanberry
July 17th, 2025
Happy Thursday!!
I've been thinking about who gets to tell your story lately, friend!!!!
This 110-year-old thermos company was dying. Then three women saved it. Now it makes $750M a year.
The company is Stanley. And here's how it happened.
Stanley Tumbler
Founded: 1913, nearly extinct by 2019
The Buy Guide (Ashlee, Taylor, Linley): Turned dead product into cultural phenomenon
Achievement: $750M revenue from story they didn't write
Timeline:
How they started: Stanley made tough thermoses for tough guys. 110 years of camping gear and construction sites. The 40oz Quencher lived in dusty corners until Stanley killed it in 2019.
The pivot risk: Three women found the discontinued cup at Target. Loved it. When Stanley wouldn't respond, they bet everything - googled purchase order terms, emptied bank accounts, bought 5,000 dead cups everyone said they were crazy to touch.
How story scaled them: The women didn't change the product. They changed who it was for. Kitchen counters, not campsites. Everyday luxury for busy women, not camping gear for men. Stanley fought this narrative until sales forced them to surrender.
3 lessons you can steal:
1/ Your customers might tell your story better than you. Stanley saw discontinued camping gear. The Buy Guide saw everyday magic. Sometimes outsiders spot the story you're blind to.
2/ Let proof rewrite your narrative. No PowerPoints convinced Stanley. Sales numbers did. When customers vote with wallets, narratives change fast.
3/ Stories spread faster than products. They sold identity, not cups. "This belongs in your daily life" traveled faster than any marketing campaign.
The most powerful rebrand isn't changing your product - it's letting someone else see what you missed.
This reminded me of my own early days when I was so attached to my original story... I'll share it tomorrow.
Stephen
P.S. Three women saw what a 110-year-old company couldn't see about their own product. They didn't have fancy degrees or million-dollar budgets. They just understood something most brands miss: your customer's story matters more than your company story. That simple insight turned a discontinued thermos into $750M. Imagine what the right story could do for your business. "Love, Learn, and Live Storytelling" shows you exactly how to find it - $7.
Reply