With Father's Day approaching and the summer season right around the corner, I thought I share with you an ambitious story of a local entrepreneur that is using design and thoughtful engineering to disrupt the drinkware market.

In 2018, a group of consumers brought a class action lawsuit against YETI for their popular Rambler Coalster product line. The company marketed its product as a two-in-one design that keeps both bottled and canned drinks secure and colder for longer. Although, the good times turned bad for some consumers when they realized that wasn't the case. 

With a bottle having a slimmer profile than a can, YETIs product was not designed to properly secure bottles in place. As a result, bottled drinks would rattle against the Coalster walls, easily become warm, and users would risk their drink falling from the Coalster while attempting to take a sip. YETI's confusing marketing message left some consumers wondering why they were paying the premium price for a product that didn't deliver what was promised - "the plaintiffs say that they would not have paid the same amount for the product had they known about its shortcomings," the memorandum states. 

At the time of realizing this gap, our Kelowna-born and raised founder was 22 years old, fresh out of school and kicking his career off in a new city. He quickly decided to set out on a mission to create a product and brand that he could one day enjoy with his closest friends and family. At the start of 2020, the idea for COOLIQ was born and our founder spent the next several months designing, developing, and refining several disruptive technologies geared towards beating the competition with a "better mousetrap". After filling several patents and trademarks to render a competitive edge, we launched our new BevChiller Bottle at the start of May 2021. 

We designed this product to redefine the bottled beverage experience and we want everyone to get out and experience the moment. All COOLIQ products are designed in-house and are built with premium reusable materials. The new BevChiller Bottle is the world's first drink cooler to offer triple-layer vacuum insulation with an optional soft-touch sleeve, universal slim grip, and an intuitive bottle opener. The product is thoughtfully engineered to securely fit a select range of standard 12oz glass bottles, which we welcome customers to view at COOLIQ.COM/fitment. Moreover, the product can be used as a tumbler cup to ensure no one is left risking warm, stale, drinks ever again.

At COOLIQ, we're on a mission to enhance the case-to-consumption journey for adult beverages, and we're doing it one sip at a time. We're just getting started and can't wait to continue designing products that gear customers up for the endless refreshment they deserve.