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How a Thirst for Fashion Is Driving Sales for This Hot Accessory Stylish stainless-steal water bottles have earned celebrities and high-end stores as fans.

By Dina Mishev

This story appears in the January 2016 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

S'well Bottle | Facebook
S'well Bottle

S'well founder and CEO Sarah Kauss likes that Tom Hanks and Ellen DeGeneres are fans of her company's chic stainless-steel water bottles. And that The Big Bang Theory actress Kaley Cuoco regularly Instagrams about the product. (Even when #obsessedwiththisbottle crashed S'well's website.) But what Kauss really enjoys talking about is how one of her bottles survived the Apocalypse. At least, the Hollywood version as seen in the movie The Rover.

"Actor Guy Pearce is such a fan of S'well, he wanted a bottle in his movie," Kauss says. "Of course, it had to be terribly beat-up so that it looked like it survived the end of the world. Even beat-up, its beautiful design was evident."

S'well is not the first company to make insulated, stainless-steel bottles. But it is the first to make them stylish enough to be sold at Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, J.Crew, Shopbop and, recently, Apple's Cupertino, Calif., store. "We like to think of ourselves as a beautiful, well-crafted fashion accessory that does really well staying hot or cold," Kauss says. "Our customers are interested in the environment and in being green, but even more so in being on trend and being fashionable."