Ashlee LeSueur always knew Stanley cups would become a phenomenon. "It's wild, but not surprising," the influencer, who's been largely credited for the tumbler's craze , tells PS. "The waitlist for Stanley cups has been over 30,000 people strong since 2021, and before then, there was not another hydration solution on the market.

" To be fair, the world was not deprived of reusable water bottles , but something about the Stanley cup captured people's (and TikTok's) hearts. So much so that in January, fans camped outside Target stores to snag the brand's Valentine's Day limited-edition cups , fighting tooth and nail to get their hands on a hot pink tumbler. "We expected this, but we did not expect grown women fighting over a cup," the 44-year-old says.

But before the viral sensation, LeSueur went to bat for the cup's existence. She discovered the tumbler in 2017 and knew it was special. "It's a unicorn," she says.

It fits in a cup holder, there's a handle and straw, it's dishwasher safe, and it keeps things cold for over a day. LeSueur and her co-founders Taylor Cannon and Linley Hutchinson, who together run the beloved Instagram account, The Buy Guide , began posting about the cup and everyone loved it. Then, in 2019, Stanley halted production with no plan to restock.

"We were devastated, so we kept tagging Stanley on Instagram and reaching out to the company," LeSueur tells PS. Luckily, The Buy Guide had previously gifted a Stanley to Emily Maynard , who posted about the cup a.