In December Tiktok user Maddy Ryan posted a video of her using a piece of plumbing pipe as an adapter to fit her one-litre Frank Green water bottle into her car’s much smaller cup holder.
What started as another questionable life hack and somewhat of a joke has amassed 3.5 million views and counting. The “genius” solution has spawned a wave of copycats, with people even going as far as to paint the pipe to match their bottle.
Some Bunnings stores have jumped on the trend, labelling the particular pipe as “cup holder” after being repeatedly asked by customers what aisle it was in. The result? Bunnings and Mitre 10 stores across Australia and New Zealand have been experiencing shortages of the 100 x 65mm PVC DWV taper level invert.
“We’ve seen plenty of customers try the clever water bottle holder hack using our PVC fitting with some of our store teams even getting in on the trend and creating in-store displays to make sure customers can easily find it,” says Henry Fudge, national plumbing buyer at Bunnings. “For customers who are keen to give the hack a go themselves, we’ve got additional stock that landed in stores nationally last week.”
Generally bought for sewer and vent use, the PVC pipe has received five-star reviews online for its ability to hold drinks. “Great product perfect to hold my drink bottle,” Frank from Christchurch wrote on the product page.
This isn’t the first time Frank Green water bottles have gone viral in the past few months. Rising to fame during the age of Hot Girl Walks in Covid lockdowns, #emotionalsupportwaterbottle has 121.9 million views on Tiktok at time of publishing. And the Frank Green bottles are front and centre of this trend.
From carefully curating the lid and bottle colour combination to opting for custom monogramming, the brand’s 595-millilitre, one-litre and two-litre bottles have become a cult item for Gen Z and Millennials.
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