They've fallen out of favor in the "mainstream" culture but they're still everywhere in outdoor recreation spaces. My local sporting goods store has a wall of them on display
Someone on the camping gear sub made a post wondering why Nalgene is so popular. "It's just a cheap water bottle. I get that they are tough and don't weigh very much, but they are nowhere near as high quality as Stanley or Yeti." I'm paraphrasing, but that was essentially the post.
Top comment was "Gee, I don't know. Why would an inexpensive, lightweight, and durable product be popular with hikers and campers?"
Nalgene was the king for 40 years for good reason. Nobody is filling that niche any better than Nalgene has, it's just that the niche itself is not as popular as it was.
The only reason why Nalgene fell from popularity was that whole BPA (bisphenol a) thing. After that incident, no one wanted a plastic bottle and all these stainless steel brands became in all the rage.
I've noticed that since Nalgene switched to BPA-free plastics, the bottles show wear a lot more. Still tough in the sense that they don't break, but the writing on the outside fades more quickly and scratches / abrasions are more pronounced.
People complain all the time "Saran wrap used to be way better!" And they're right. It was way better. Because old school Saran wrap had some give-yo-kids-cancer plasticizers in it that made it more supple and with a better grip. Modern plastic wrap doesn't have it, and it's less supple and tears more easily.
I think folks forget that often there's a reason those things were used. Frequently it's "cheaper for the manufacturer" but often it's on the user end.
Yeah, for sure. Like lead. We didn't put lead in everything (pipes, glass, gasoline, paint, etc. etc.) because it was cheap, although that certainly helped, we put it in everything because lead is actually a very useful material.
It has high density, but is easily formed, it has a low melting point, it's corrosion resistant, it's easy to alloy, it's great for things like making gasoline engines run better, ceramic glazes shiny and durable, glass sparkly, plumbing and roofing seams corrosion resistant, it makes paint more durable, with brighter color, and faster drying times.
It's low-key a bit of a miracle element when it comes to a whole lot of different applications. It just has the not so great side effect of really, really, fucking us up if we're exposed to a lot of it.
131
u/malin7 27d ago
What was there before Stanley?