Have you ever found yourself having a great time in the pool but realized, “man, I need to put this drink down!” Maybe you’ve seen the people that look like half-sunken Statues of Liberty holding their drink as a torch? Sure, there are novelty floating cup holders out there that attempt to solve this problem, but how many of them actually work?
In comes Thirst Mate, a 3D printed, eco-responsible drink holder made from recycled material. The Thirst Mate works in the pool, pond, lake, river, ocean, bathtub… wherever (we don’t judge). This beer buoy fits and floats almost any size drink, reduces waste, saves the planet, includes a leash/anchor, is stackable for easy storage, and comes in a plethora of colors. You can even flip this bad boy upside down to use as a coaster and keep your drink out of the sand.
Through their kickstarter campaign, Pete Brinker and the Drinker Toys team are hoping to raise $40,000 by December 12th.
Here’s their story:
The Thirst Mate had a quick inception once the technology tipped in our favor. You see, this summer we bought a Makerbot 3D printer. We started printing out all kinds of useful things we found on the internet: household stuff, office stuff, garden stuff. Dave was getting good at printing other people’s designs, but wanted to do more. Having a strong software and application background but no 3D modeling experience, he designed and printed a few simple pieces and they worked great. THIS WAS OUR “AH-HA!” MOMENT. We could make whatever we wanted! We started brainstorming on a floating drink holder. Fifteen minutes later, Dave was putting our ideas into shape using TINKERCAD and within an hour we had the design for what we now call MK I (Mark 1) of the ‘beer bouy’. He set it up to print and by lunch the next day we had our first prototype and tested it in a ditch full of water behind the office. We looked at each other and said “HOLY HELL! IT WORKS!”
