Stanley to host pop-up event offering custom water bottle engravings and new featured products to Ohio State students

Stanley — a drinkware company best known for its vacuum-insulated water bottles — is set to launch its first-ever college tour, and Ohio State is its second stop.

This pop-up event, titled Stanley Studio H2O, is set to take place 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday-Friday outside of the Ohio Union Plaza West.

Krista Ulatowski, Stanley’s senior brand marketing and public relations manager, said students will have a chance to get free engravings on select Stanley items available for purchase at the pop-up event. Attendees can also win free Stanley prizes and interact with new Stanley products, Ulatowski said.

“We’re really excited to be reaching students, reaching our Gen Z audiences, which are so important to us here at Stanley,” Ulatowski said.

Ulatowski said the pop-up will display numerous Stanley products, including the brand’s latest product, The Stanley Cross-Bottle — a water bottle with a cross-body strap.

“We have a number of different products across the hydration portfolio, including our new cross bottle, which is really exciting,” Ulatowski said. “[It] provides hands-free hydration to carry one less thing.”

Ulatowski said the event is part of the brand’s first-ever college tour, which now spans across 13 universities in the United States, including Penn State, Clemson, Virginia, Florida State and more.

“[We’re] mostly starting in the Midwest, hitting the east coast, running all the way down to Texas where we’ll be closing it out,” Ulatowski said. “We actually just kicked off this week [at] University of Madison in Wisconsin.”

Stephanie Huras, director of global brand partnerships and consumer experience at Stanley, said she has seen the company change and grow tremendously in just the past few years.

“We’ve come from sort of this outdoor to outside [company], and now it’s really lifestyle,” Huras said. “It’s meeting consumers where they are, and what fuels their lives and brings them joy.”

Ulatowski said one of Stanley’s core values is sustainability, and she believes this quality helps the brand appeal to a younger demographic.

“We had this goal set for 2025 where we wanted half of our products to be made with recycled stainless steel,” Ulatowski said. “We hit that goal a full two years early.”

Ulatowski said Stanley has continued to reach college campuses across the nation with their NIL ambassadors — student-athletes who can make a profit off their name, image and likeness — and new student ambassador programs.

The brand chose Ohio State men’s basketball player Meechie Johnson — a recent transfer from the University of South Carolina — as its Ohio State NIL athlete ambassador, Huras said.

“That’s been a real pleasure, to work with students directly like that,” Huras said. “We know that they’ve got such a huge following themselves and so much focus on just sport.”

Ulatowski said with this pop-up event, Stanley is hoping to provide a fun consumer experience and generate excitement around its new product offerings.

“It’s a moment for us to help celebrate the student community, who has been so important to us,” Ulatowski said. “It’s just really a treat for us to be engaged there on-site and meeting our consumers in real life. We know students have very busy lives, but it’s always a joy to interact with them.”

For more information about the Stanley Studio H2O college tour visit the brand’s website .