You finish your first round in the sauna and walk out soaked. You grab your water bottle, the big one that gets you through the day, and drink half of it in one go.
Then you walk back in for round two, your stomach sloshing.
We assumed we were just designing a water bottle. A water bottle holds water. That’s the job. We hadn’t given much thought to everything else a bottle does in there: how much it holds, how you drink from it, where it sits when you put it down.
Some of it we got right from day one. Jack drew the first sketch with a mason jar in front of him. Wide base, sturdy, the kind of thing that stays put when someone sits down next to it. Not some tall bottle waiting to get knocked off the bench.
Then Loveit sent their first deck. Before a single drawing, material or factory, there was a page called “Hydration is a Ritual.” Their research said:
Arrive hydrated. Don’t chug right before.
In the sauna: sip, don’t gulp.
After: replace what you lost, and don’t rush it.
That changed how we looked at the whole thing. If you only need a few sips at a time, you don’t need a jug. You need something you can open, drink from like a glass, and set back down on the bench without a second thought.
Every water bottle you own is built to get you through a day. 20, 30, 40 ounces. The deck went the other way. The next page was called “Sip Sized.” 12 oz, short and wide, shaped like a glass of water.
“I do think that this looks a little small,” Jack said.
Size does matter, apparently. Too big and it’s a jug. Too small and you’re refilling between rounds.
Your typical deli bottle of water is 500 ml. Grab one from the fridge, pour it in, and it fits. Same reason it feels good to pour a beer into a pint glass.
So that’s the size. About two cups. You’re not trying to get through a day. You’re trying to give yourself twenty minutes.
Besides, it’s also how you use it.