As Senior Product Designer at Great American Products, I had the opportunity to address the usability of not only our digital products, but of our entire line of hydration ware, as well.
As a major supplier of licensed sports drinkware to retailers like Walmart, Target and Kohl's, the challenge Great American faced was a remarkable selection of team-decorated cups, mugs and tumblers, but little to differentiate our offering from those of our competitors. I was asked to develop a line of drinkware that would provide a compelling reason for our retail partners to buy.
At the time, YETI®, not yet a competitor in the licensed sports drinkware arena, was blazing trails in the vacuum insulated space. While copycats faced fierce trade dress litigation, I began designing an entirely unique look and feel for our groundbreaking collection.
The smaller diameter and ergonomic finger grip of our coffee tumbler drew praise at its debut at The Sports Licensing & Tailgate Show, and set the benchmark for our entire Dynasty Drinkware vacuum insulated line.
Like the finger grip on the coffee tumbler, I designed the silicone comfort grips on our beverage tumblers for maximum hold, along with a recessed grip area of the vessel to lock them in place.
Interchangeable comfort grips brought the new dynamic of color to the vacuum insulated drinkware space, along with the ability to accessorize our product line.
In addition to the hand cast metal emblems that made Great American famous, I designed our larger vessels with ample real estate for custom graphics, providing yet another method of decoration for the company.
In the four years since its debut, sales of the drinkware I designed have increased revenue by 40% for Great American Products.
