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Originally posted by BamaJeepster:

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Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
Made in the same plant as the Walmart version!

I work with a guy who had an identical 30 oz tumbler except mine was the Ozark Trail and his was the Yeti. I paid $8 for mine and he paid $35. I kept ragging him and he kept insisting that the Yeti would keep ice longer. We finally did a test - put the same number of ice cubes and filled with water and left them 2 ft apart on the break room table. My Ozark Trail held ice for almost 8 hours after his last cube disappeared!

Several tests on Youtube bear it out - they are either identical or the Ozark Trail beats the Yeti in every test I've seen.

I'm with you I have a couple of Ozark Trail from Walmart and laugh at the people that paid for that Yeti name.

For the record the tundras (coolers) are made in The US and the Philippines.

I spent a fair amount of time about a year ago trying to find an American-made equivalent to the 30 oz. Yeti Ramblers. I could not find one single U.S. manufacturer offering the same type of stainless steel, vacuum insulated containers. If anyone has run across such a beast, please post it.

I did come across these bottles that claim to be U.S. made. But no ramblers/cups.

I find it interesting that the “made in China” is being replaced with “made in PRC” to fool people

My yeti was given to me so I don't care about the price.

There is a ton of assembly and manufacturing in the us, especially in the automotive business. Many foreign companies are starting to require their suppliers to be within 200 miles of their factories now so many cars will become more American every year.

WalMart has the Yeti type coolers now for half the price of the real Yeti. They must be paying a royality to Yeti since the Ozark Trail Coolers look so much alike. Yeti and Rtic got into Patent Infringement Suit:

Yeti-Rtic suit proves importance of patents
Both companies should be stronger because of settlement

By Chris Tomlinson Updated 9:15 am, Tuesday, February 7, 2017


Yeti and Rtic have settled their differences.

Local cooler company Rtic will stop selling their Yeti knockoffs by May 1, according to a settlement agreement.

Yeti, based in Austin, said Thursday it had settled a patent and trademark infringement lawsuit against Rtic, headquartered in Webster. And Saturday, Rtic announced a new product line.

Bravo for both companies. May the true competition begin, and may consumers reap the rewards.

Yeti started in 2006 and offered what can only be called a pro-am cooler for those who take their outdoors living seriously. Brothers Roy and Ryan Seiders recognized a lack of high-quality alternatives in the food preservation market and filled the gap with coolers and other containers made from high-quality, long-lasting materials and the latest manufacturing processes.

My only regret is that I didn't move to fill the market myself. I experienced the problem while living in Africa. I'd frequently go on 10-day safaris and lamented the fact I couldn't find a cooler that would keep food cold and survive in tough environments. I needed something with some heft, and I couldn't find it.

The Seiders solved my problem. In addition to choosing excellent materials, Yeti also spent a lot of time on the design factor, hence the patents and trademarks.

Yeti coolers are ten times more expensive than a regular cooler, but the market loved the durable products and the company's upcoming initial public offering could bring in $5 billion. Yeti has also turned itself into a lifestyle brand, their logo now associated with serious outdoors living. And like any luxury logo, you have to pay to brandish it.

Enter twin brothers John and Jim Jacobsen in 2015. They looked at Yeti's success and saw the 10-fold price gap between Yeti and brands like Coleman and Igloo. There, they saw an opportunity in the market for a midpriced product. So far, so good, this is the way markets are supposed to work.

Where the Jacobsen boys got into trouble is in product design. Their coolers and cups look almost exactly like Yeti coolers, right down to the rubber hatch closures. Adding insult to injury, their slogan is "Over Built, not Over Priced." The Rtic website also features Yeti's list prices.

If that wasn't an invitation for Yeti to sue them, I don't know what would be.

Perhaps the Jacobsens thought the Seiders wouldn't care or notice that their intellectual property, the design they spent years perfecting, had been stolen. Maybe they thought a few tiny differences could save them in a court of law. But based on the settlement, they thought wrong and have returned to the drawing board.

Every entrepreneur who invents a new product to fill a hole in the market deserves a reward for their efforts. That's the idea behind patents and trademarks, and it's what makes the United States the most innovative country in the world. You can have a good idea here, and the law will protect you.

More importantly, though, it forces companies like Rtic to go out and design a better mousetrap, or in this case, a better cooler in the $100-$200 range. If they can do that, then they deserve their reward, but they don't deserve to get rich knocking off someone else's idea and then selling it for 50 percent less.

Soon we'll see if the Jacobsens can stand on their own two feet, and I suspect they will. Because honest competition is what ultimately benefits consumers the most.

Not everyone can afford a Yeti, and many of them want something better than a Styrofoam box from a convenience store. Rtic has a chance to address that market segment, and I say good luck to them.

http://www.chron.com/business/...patents-10912102.php

As was mentioned, Yeti coolers are made in a couple different places. One of mine is made in the US. The other is made somewhere else. I forget where, but it wasn't china. My cups are made in China.

I've compared the Yeti cups to the Walmart cups. They do the same thing. There's basically no difference at all.

Having said that, I buy Yeti products. Why? Because I think it's BS that we support companies who blatantly rip off the business ideas of another. I'll pay my money for the original guy who took the chance, not the copy cat who coat tailed off his idea.

As for the coolers, I've tested plenty of other coolers. Yeti destroys almost all of them. It wasn't even close. They are simply better.

The RTIC coolers work just as well, but again, I won't give my money to some some lame company who tries to steal IP from another company.

Stainless steel tumblers have been around for a long time. So how could Yeti have a patent??

Coleman had some of the first ones marketed under PEAK 1. They stopped making them because the vacuum was leaking out which resulted in them loosing their insulation properties. It is thought that the Vacuum Cleaner Companies were involved and they were stealing the vacuum.

I see WalMart is also being sued by Yeti. If Yeti wouldn't have been so greedy with their prices, they could have captured the whole market. Just an example of poor marketing.

2 years ago I was in a frenzy researching 'the best cooler for MY needs' and spent 6 months reading/looking/talking with owners of all manner of coolers.

I settled on a Yeti 50qt model. While I hated spending the bux$$$ I have never had even ONE complaint about its performance. Granted I might well have met 80% of my needs with some other choice. There remained that crucial 20% on which the Yeti has earned its cost.

Leaping to the intense drive to 'save a few buck' the lure of WallyWorld version of the 18 oz coffee cup enticed me to give it a try. Initial few months it worked well, until the plastic lid shape morphed into something that sealed neither thermal nor liquid contents.

Since no receipt was available for refund cash, WallyWorld traded me for a new one.

It has worked well for a few months. Then 'well enough' for a few more weeks. Now we're at the "this sumbitch is WRONG" stage. For initial $7 cost, 2 FAILS in such a short time means 'yer outta here'......

Looking at even the Yeti $29 gear, the 2 lid designs don't inspire. Maybe the '3 finger handle' screw on is the solution....IF I decide $29 is the answer to my continued saga of traveling insulated coffee cup' adventure.

I've shopped other also-rans in the stainless steel market place. Few real contenders for my needs.

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Originally posted by 41:
Coleman had some of the first ones marketed under PEAK 1. They stopped making them because the vacuum was leaking out which resulted in them loosing their insulation properties.

Coleman is guilty of using cheap materials and taking short-cuts in their manufacturing process. They gave it a rest for awhile then Yeti came along and re-established the market, Coleman was envious. Coleman whined to their parent company, Newell Brands, that they wanted back into that category and forced sister company Avex, (who was doing well albeit at a smaller scale) to give up their IP and liquidate their employees. Coleman released this year their 'new' insulated cups/tumblers category and predictably, their quality and design is no better than price-point, big-box focused sister company Contigo.

I was a Avex rep and was there when it all went down.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: corsair,

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Originally posted by signewt:
I settled on a Yeti 50qt model. While I hated spending the bux$$$ I have never had even ONE complaint about its performance. Granted I might well have met 80% of my needs with some other choice. There remained that crucial 20% on which the Yeti has earned its cost.

How exactly did it do that? Not jumping on you, I'm genuinely curious what it is about a $350+ cooler that makes it better than my $40 Coleman Xtreme that'll keep ice frozen for days.

I'm not one to normally throw stones, as I can piss away money with the best of them and am known to do so routinely, but sometimes it just don't make no sense. Yeah, there's the "buy once cry once" thing, but I've also got an old green metal Coleman that my dad bought in the 50s that still works like a champ, and he probably spent about $20 on it back then, so that argument really doesn't fly.

As I said earlier in the thread, if I'm going to spend that much on a cooler I'll just buy a fridge.

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That "Designed in Texas" shtick always made me laugh. Or snort is more like it.

A hearty guffaw, even.

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an old green metal Coleman that my dad bought in the 50s that still works like a champ, and he probably spent about $20 on it back then, so that argument really doesn't fly.

my grannies model of the same era failed me after several generations of heavy use; a misplaced sense of Scrooge McDuck nostalgia kept me from replacing it for years. And sustained use in my own camping journeys over the last 40 has shown plenty of other ways to save or squander a bundle.

The auxiliary cheapo coolers I used for a decade or so also failed, as was their job considering their econo price point.

I take periodic jaunts into areas with limited access to pavement, let alone electricity, and decided to give modern science/marketing a whirl. The concept of 'auto refer' from my camping days is not new; what is of consideration is the break point of whether I wanted to jump into that or go for frozen water.

Similar choice on some level between butane/charcoal grill. I choose charcoal.

Yes, I looked longingly at those 40-60-$80 plastic fantastics. Got a few smaller ones cluttering up the back room in fact. They do not serve my intended use, part of which is keeping a couple grand kids hydrated & fed on our fishing trip in the Idaho Outback. I was pleased last year to make it thru 6 days in 100+ temps & 3 forest fire sites before having to replenish the cold stuff.

Good luck with your choices.
My buddy wired his Jeep special to use his portable refer. Amazing how his use differs mine, yet we both seem satisfied.