The History Of The Illustrious Red SOLO Cup
Oh, the red SOLO cup: Upon first sight of its fire-engine red hue many are transported back to the barbecues, house parties, and certified ragers of yesteryear. One ironically bro-y op-ed writer at Duke reflected in 2022 about seeing a red SOLO cup at the gym. He commended the gym-goer for their thriftiness and innovative style while waxing poetic on how the red SOLO cup has become a symbol for a particular sort of college dude, namely the guy you'll find around the keg or at the beer pong table.
Nonetheless, there is something about the illustrious red SOLO cup that extends well beyond (and potentially before) those college years. The bright red cup is not just one of the States' most common party guests, but truly has the American spirit at heart. There's just something about the plastic cup that lets us let loose, but why and how is that? Without further ado, here is the truly fascinating history of the illustrious red SOLO cup.
The actual SOLO Cup Company was founded in the '50s
The SOLO cup actually got its start on the heels of another massive drink and cup company. In the '30s, one employee of the giant Dixie Cup Company, Leo Hulseman, ventured out on his own. Hulseman left to create his own company, and much like the founders behind so many other great ventures, began tinkering in his garage.
There remains no definitive source or reason as to why Hulseman left the Dixie Cup Company, but it can perhaps be inferred it was because he had some unique ideas of his own. For example, by the '50s, Hulseman began producing cups with a wax coating. Consumption of soda and other iced fountain drinks became very popular in the '50s, and uncoated paper cups were not able to handle condensation. The cup maker sought to make a cup that could hold these types of drinks without disintegrating.
The first red SOLO cup was designed in the '70s
It would take around 40 years from the company's genesis for the red SOLO to come to be, but, boy, has it stuck around. While Leo Hulesman was a real innovator, it was his son, Robert, who came up with the idea of making red plastic cups.
The original design for the red SOLO cup was made from polystrene, a synthetic polymer. Of course, this made for easier drinking, as the cups wouldn't disintegrate and lose structure no matter how long they were in use. This was a pivotal point for the company and the culture. But it wasn't just structural integrity that gave this cup staying power. This design made for a disposable cup that was not only light and easy to transport, but also cheap (and the opaque cups could be used to surreptitiously drink booze, of course). The dawn of the plastic cup had arrived into the funky and fresh food landscape of the '70s.
The cup was designed to be bold from the jump
Ever innovative, and apparently, playful, founder Robert Hulseman tasked his young children with picking out colors for the new plastic cups, according to Chicago Magazine. The kids came up with a whole slew of colors that debuted on the market simultaneously. Alongside with the now-universal red color, the plastic cup also originally came in blue, peach, and yellow.
As one of Robert Leo's now grown children reflects, not all the colors were winners. In fact, he notes, that peach wasn't a hit at all, while yellow only did really well in Texas. But there are some things that seemed to be great straight out of the gate. People seemed to take to the red-colored SOLO cup almost immediately. There haven't really been any studies as to why red exactly seems to resonate with consumers, but there are some possible reasons. Red is a color that elicits a bold and emotional connection. It's passionate and up-front. Also, now that there are some 50 years of use behind the red cup, a lot of people probably already have a nostalgic or cultural connection to the cup through family parties, college hangs, or even media. Perhaps in the grand scheme of things, the biggest thing to happen to the red SOLO cup, was, well, the red.
It wasn't originally intended to be a party cup
Nowadays, red SOLO cups have all but become synonymous with partying and drinking alcohol. It's not only that the previously mentioned points of durability and general cheapness are major selling points for young people, but also that red SOLO cups have come to be intertwined with house party-staple drinking games like beer pong and flip cup, among others. But while nowadays most of our minds might directly tie the red cup to the frat house, that wasn't the company's original intention. The product's original design was intended to be durable enough to last through a picnic. This is a far cry from how most might use the cups nowadays.
It seems like this may be a bit of a tightrope for the cup manufacturer to walk. The company isn't necessarily opposed to being associated with parties but doesn't want to become the face of binge drinking, which carries many dangers. Furthermore, the company wants to highlight all the occasions one might bring a red SOLO cup to. This culminated in a 2010s ad that featured everything from viewing parties to camping to lively games of flip cup to emphasize all the different occasions that the cup will brighten up.
The cup has continued tweaking its design
While the hue of SOLO cup red appears to have more or less stayed the same over the past 50 years or so, the company has made an adjustment or two to its design. The cup has mainly changed in structure. The redesigns happened between 2004 and 2009. The company added grips and eventually a square base for superior support and gripability. As one of the surviving Hulseman children remarks, these seemed to be popular improvements for consumers (via Yahoo! Finance)
That is, except for one writer at Slate, who seemed to be thrown into what can only be described as a very slight emotional crisis. The writer all but despairs about the admittedly minor redesign and argues that even the slightest change in the design has the biggest impact. they even accused the cup's square-base SOLO cup of creating a new drinking landscape for the next generation of collegiate drinkers. While this, of course, is very hyperbolic, it does speak to the very real emotional, and nostalgic, connection that many have with the cup.
The red SOLO Cup started getting its pop culture dues in the 2010s
The red SOLO cup really got its first direct pop-culture due in the 2010s from none other than country singer Toby Keith, who released a song named after the famous drinking vessel. In an interview with The Boot, Keith said he was very much drawn to the playfulness of the song, complimenting it as splendidly stupid. He sought to lean into the song's humor by enlisting a crowd of celebrities like Larry Bird and Ted Nugent to film a music video that showcases the SOLO cup in an environment where most people know it: the house party.
The music video, which has racked in an unbelievable 66 million views on Youtube, almost feels like an advertisement: Keith slurs through the cup's selling points from how they can be used to flirt, make you a man, and even decompose in around 14 years (allegedly). Around him, party-goers fill cups and use them as decorations and toys. The music video cuts to various celebrities using the cups for less than conventional means.
In the video, Keith tearfully confesses that the red SOLO cup isn't even just a thing for parties, it's his fried. As goofy and campy as this may be, it still seems to strike a chord. In 2023, around 12 years after the song's initial debut, one Youtuber commented that they were moved to tears hearing the song and felt understood/ Whether seriously meant or not, there is a lot of sentiment surrounding these cups.
The cup has been used unexpectedly in one major cross-promotion
Those who are seriously into red SOLO cups may know them from a major cross-promotion in 2018: The iconic brand joined up with Star Wars to take a journey into a galaxy, far, far away. In celebration of "Solo: A Star Wars Story," the SOLO brand not only released Star-Wars themed packaging, but even made a Millennium Falcon (Han Solo's ride of choice) out of red SOLO cups to appear at the movie's red carpet debut.
On the surface, it seems like a bit of a weird cross-promotion: What do Star Wars and a red plastic cup have in common? Of course, the movie features a man with the last name Solo, which may be the first thought going into why these two things were brought together. But actually, the connection between the movie and the cup is a bit deeper than that. Red SOLO cups were used to create the original model of the spaceship in the '70s. The cups still hold up as a great way of building models.
It's been marketed as an American house party staple overseas
Despite the red SOLO cup's age, it still remains very present in youth culture, both in and out of the States. Certainly, American party culture is something of an export abroad, given the fervor that goes into organizing great house parties. This has been celebrated by movies across time from "Beach Party" in the '60s to "Dazed and Confused" in the '90s to "Superbad" in the '00s and "Project X" in the 2010s. In a 2022 retrospective, The Sydney Morning Herald featured film stills of the characters in "Project X" gripping red SOLO cups and waxed poetic on the movie and young adult drinking culture.
It seems that art imitates life, and vice versa. One Reddit forum talked about how red SOLO cups had become somewhat of a souvenir for those traveling to the States. Users shared stories of friends and family from overseas looking for cups and America-themed parties abroad specifically featuring the now iconic cups.
Red SOLO cups remain culturally significant despite trends towards sustainability
In 2022, one writer with Plastics Today looked back on Toby Keith's 2011 hit "Red SOLO Cup" with a little bit of wonder and perhaps bitterness. The writer noted that the song marked maybe one of the last times that single us plastic would be celebrated in pop culture. It's true that it seems that in the last decade, when facing the growing question of how to survive climate change, plastic is a recurring waste that needs to be cut down on.
As Keith sings, it should only take 14 years for red SOLO cups to decompose, but in reality, it can take up to 450 years for one SOLO cup to fully break down. Whether 14 or 400, that's simply a lot of time for a plastic cup you're enjoying for a night or two. It could very well be that we're on the brink of the next iteration of the SOLO cup, one that can exist in alignment with current environmental needs. While some competitors like Ball are producing reusable metal cups intended to replace the plastic SOLO cup, only time will tell what will happen to this cultural staple and how it may continue going forward.