Alternate Use-iverse: Starbucks

Wristbands aren’t just for your wrist.

One of our favorite examples of wristband-repurposing comes from a wee little coffee shop known as Starbucks. They’ve turned our wristbands into a useful tool in all of their North American stores. Maybe you’ve even seen them!

Now those are some beautiful wristbands. Wait, what? They’re actually carafe labels? No kidding. How the heck did that happen?

It all started with a problem.

After customers got their beverage, they would walk over to the condiment bar. At this station there were metal carafes that hold milk, cream, sugar… You know… Coffee stuff. Each carafe had a sticker label on the side indicating its contents. The problem was that those sticker labels needed to be replaced constantly due to wear and tear. And the stickers didn’t look appealing, were hard to read, and looked plain-old sloppy.

So how did our wristbands solve the problem? See for yourself:

Wristbands turned carafe labels.

Wristband Bros designed custom silicone molds specifically tailored for Starbucks’ metal carafes. These labels wouldn’t fit on your wrist – They’re significantly larger than even our largest available wristband size. However, they fit nice and snuggly on a carafe. And after several rounds of testing, Starbucks decided they were a cleaner, more cost-effective solution to what had been a sticky little problem.

Moral of the story? If you have an idea for a unique way to use wristbands, reach out to us! We’ll work with you to make it a reality.

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