What’s on Your SIGG? A Design Competition Leaves It Up to You

An international design contest could determine the Swiss brand’s next big bottle.

Plastique water is lame, so outmoded that the city of Concord, Massachusetts is seeking a ban on selling it, the Grand Canyon already has and, thus far, dozens of colleges and universities across the nation are restricting the purchase and use of it as well.

That’s bad news for Coke and Pepsi, the manufacturers behind Dasani and Aquafina respectively. Good news for companies like Nalgene and CamelBak – and even better for SIGG, the century old Swiss company that has turned the reusable water bottle into a fashionable and eco-forward accessory due to its reliance on “of-the-moment” design.

Equally au courant, SIGG has moved into crowd-sourcing to determine the next graphical incantation for its brand of aluminum canisters.

The company is collaborating with Talenthouse on an international design competition, which is now open to social voting via Facebook and Twitter. Over 2,000 designs have been entered from all over the world, including Brazil, Egypt and Nepal – appropriate given that so many of our recycled bottles are shipped globally for “downcycling” or straight-up dumping.

Here’s the skinny on the plastic water bottle industry: the water used in plastic water bottles is less regulated than regular tap water; a lot of it is tap water anyway (e.g., Aquafina); the oil that goes into producing the bottles themselves is as vapid as the consumption required to fuel a Suburban; 80 percent of the bottles end up in a landfill or toxin-pumping incinerator.

So knowing what we know, swigging from a bottle of Fiji doesn’t look so Smart, even with Aniston’s endorsement and the added electrolytes.

You’ll look sexier with a SIGG anyhow, and now it’s democratic.

Voting for the SIGG design competition is on now through April 9th, winners will be announced in time for Earth Day.

K. Emily Bond

K. Emily Bond is the Shelter Editor at EcoSalon and currently resides in southern Spain, reporting on trends in art, design, sustainable living and lifestyle.