by Minna Yoo
Love Bottle brings love and water together through our beautiful glass water bottles made in the USA. Help us spread the love!
Love Bottle is here to change your relationship to water. Water is vital to our planet and to our bodies. We need to drink it every day in order to survive and have good health. Every sip we take is an opportunity to make this world a better place, and to change the way we feel.
Our beautiful 500 ml, reusable, USA-made glass water bottles allow you to make a stand with your water. By choosing a Love Bottle, you are choosing to support our mission to:
1) Every year, America consumes 50 billion plastic water bottles, and 200 billion are used globally. The majority of these bottles are not recycled and end up in our landfills and our oceans. Our oceans now have floating plastic islands that are leaching microplastics into our ecosystem.
2) Plastic contains Bisphenol A (BPA) a chemical compound known to cause cancer and other health problems. Many companies have switched from BPA to BPA free plastics, but early research indicates that these BPA replacements may be just as dangerous as BPA.
Glass is endlessly recyclable. This means that the bottle you use today, could become the bottle someone else uses 100 years from now.
Glass is made from 3 natural ingredients: Sand, Limestone, and Soda Ash. Glass is the safest choice for our bodies and our planet. Drink from your Love Bottle without worries.
We all have a choice in what we purchase and who we purchase it from. The question is, what does that purchase support?
When you purchase a Love Bottle, you are casting your vote for a brighter tomorrow.
Love Bottle is trying to do something really big, but we need your help to do it. With your support, we can transition to 100% American Made Love Bottles. Love Bottle is dedicated to being a positive force in our communities, both locally and globally. (Please see Love Our Communities). Together, we can create a community that believes in love. Together, we can protect our planet and our bodies. Together, we can be the change we want to see. We thank you, and appreciate any purchase that you place with us today.
When we started Love Bottle in 2008, we had wanted to make our bottles in the US. But, our initial attempts showed us that typical minimum runs for USA glass manufacturing were in the millions. With our limited start up budget, we had to look elsewhere for our first run of 10,000 bottles. We were able to grow our company up to a 50,000 bottle run and never let go of our dream to bring Love Bottle back to the US. In 2014, we revisited the idea with a newfound commitment to bring it back to the US. And serendipitously, things fell into place. We partnered up with Owens Illinois (O-I), the world’s leading glass manufacturer, and together with a shared vision, we designed a beautiful new Love Bottle. In order to reach this next level and bring an improved Love Bottle to you, we need your help. Our next round of manufacturing is a 250,000 bottle run, 5 times the size of our last run. O-I has worked with us to reduce their minimum run size, but for us it is still a big leap. Please support us in helping to make our dream a reality.
American Made Love Bottles have been a challenging undertaking, but usually the best things in life are worth fighting for. There are a number of reasons why we wanted to move manufacturing to the USA:
The new Love Bottles are 500 ml (about 17 oz), and have a raised heart on the chest, as a reminder to share our hearts with the world. There is also a special message at the bottom of the bottle, so that with every sip, you remember that “U R Loved”.
Our new lids have been redesigned to be even better than our old ones. They will be stronger, easier to open and close, and extremely water tight. Our lids are made out of lead free ceramics, food grade silicone, and stainless steel wire.
Our USA made lids are still in the tooling and mold making process, so we only have CAD drawings to share at this moment. When our first samples are ready, we will update you with images of our new lid.
Since our new lids are not ready yet, all of the photos used on this page depict our new USA made Bottles with our old ceramic lid, which was made overseas. Our old lids have our old heart logo (shown on the left). Our new lids will have our new heart logo (shown on the right is a digital mock-up with our new logo). The story behind our new logo is that we are bringing drops of love and water together and creating a heart that embodies our mission.
We have teamed up with The Portland Garment Factory to create our new carrier. The new Love Bottle carrier was created so that you can bring your Love Bottle everywhere. We lovingly refer to the new carrier as the Peek-A-Boo because it holds your bottle snug, but lets the design show through. The above pictures are prototypes, as we are still finalizing all of the materials that will be used for our carrier.
You can’t easily build a house with just one person. You need a team. When we work together amazing things can happen. Impossible feats can be achieved, and you come away feeling refreshed and renewed with the shared energy of community.
We are all here sharing this same moment in time. Technology has made the world much smaller and more connected. We are a global community and across this globe there are so many ways for us to be there for each other. To lend a helping hand. It isn’t only the recipient who benefits. It feels good to be part of something good..
Kickstarter doesn’t allow cash donations to non-profit organizations, but we still wanted to give something back. We are pleased to announce that for every 100 bottles sold during Kickstarter, we will send 10 Love Bottles to an officially certified Oregon Green School. Oregon Green Schools is dedicated to teaching students about the importance of sustainability. Help us teach the next generation about being the change they wish to see in the world.
It’s sad to say goodbye to the old Love Bottle designs, but this creates space for our new inspiring and beautiful designs. If we reach our goal, we will be able to print 8 designs. All of these designs were created to help you connect with your water. If you have a bottle that you love, that makes you feel good when you look at it, then it will make you feel great when you drink from it.
Your support helps us pay for an increased cost of manufacturing, and higher minimums required in the USA. Specifically, your pledges will help with:
1) Expensive Tooling costs for our lid: Ceramic mold, ceramic pieces, silicone and wire forming
2) The actual glass Love Bottles themselves
3) Printing of Love Bottle designs
4) New USA Made Carrier Cost
5) Additional operating costs
By backing our project, you will help us cover these expensive costs.
We were very fortunate to work with singer and songwriter Matthew Price. After hearing about our new bottles and the message we wanted them to convey, he wrote this song for us. We love it and feel that it captures the essence of our bottles and our company.
We are offering a downloadable MP3 of this song as a reward. We hope you enjoy listening to it.
Lyrics: Have I told you today, I can’t remember Well just to be safe, I’m telling you once more Cause I’ll never let you ever forget, no never forget That you, oh you, oh you are loved.
Ooh, what one little drop can do A little love makes the flowers bloom A little wind can give love wings Ooh, love changes everything And you, oh you, oh you are loved.
I see you’ve got your eyes on Those dark clouds on the horizon Don’t worry about what tomorrow may bring Cause love changes everything And you, oh you, oh you are loved, are loved You, oh you, oh you are loved.
There are many different components to a Love Bottle, each requiring a different American manufacturer.
The glass bottle
The ceramic lid
The FDA grade silicone
The stainless steel wire (Creates the swing-top mechanism)
The bottle printing process.
Having so many pieces and companies working together is an intricate dance of coordination. Thankfully, we have teamed up with great partners across the country with extensive experience in their crafts. Although we’re confident in our abilities to create an amazing bottle and aspire to meet deadlines, there is risk for unforeseen delays at each stage. We will keep you up to date with what is happening with our manufacturing process.
Thank you again for your support, and for helping us spread the love!
Love, The Love Bottle Team