The ‘Luxury’ Water Rat Race Isn’t as Inexplicable as It Seems

WWD Weekend

Beauty Inc

Fairchild Live

Beauty Inc

site categories

Fragrance

Color Cosmetics

Hair

Beauty Features

Skin Care

Wellness

Body Care

WWD

Click to expand the Mega Menu

Got a Tip?

Beauty Inc

Click to Expand Search Input

Plus Icon

Click to Close Search Input

Newsletters

Account

Welcome

Manage Account

Log Out

Log In

Sign Up

Beauty

Wellness

The ‘Luxury’ Water Rat Race Isn’t as Inexplicable as It Seems

From Loonen to Supergoop founder Holly Thaggard’s newest venture, a cohort of clean and benefit-infused challenger water brands is rising. Category data shows the timing might be just right.

Beauty Editor, News, Features & Social

Water is having a moment.

Not just any water — data from NielsenIQ shows that U.S. sales of standard drinking water actually declined 1.3 percent in 2025 — but a more niche subcategory of “better” water.

Fueled by the hydration boom , which in recent years has catalyzed sales of electrolyte drink powders, as well as mounting consciousness of microplastics and their potential adverse health impacts, a new wave of brands is looking to bring myriad better-for-you approaches to the category.

Related Articles

Color Cosmetics

Beauty Historian Erin Parsons Launches the Makeup Archive She Always Dreamed Of

Beauty

EXCLUSIVE: Lemme Ventures Into Longevity Space With New NAD+ Capsules Made Specifically for Women

Consider the emergents: Loonen, a San Francisco-based, glass-bottled water brand that debuted in December and has garnered influencer buzz for its still and sparkling varieties that are spring-sourced, purified and priced at about $35 for a six-pack.

There’s also WaterOuai, a canned water launched in May by Supergoop founder Holly Thaggard and her son, Will Thaggard. Priced at $48 for a 24-pack, the brand’s water is artesian, sourced from the Edwards Aquifer in Texas. It isn’t purified, meaning it retains its natural mineral profile.

Then there’s oHy, a Michigan-based, sparkling hydrogen water brand that debuted in 2025 and sells $18 12-packs coming in six fruity flavors. The brand uses purified municipal (or tap) water, and adds 30 milligrams of elemental magnesium to each can, which cofounder and chief executive officer Trent Hartwig said “breaks the hydrogen bond and releases hydrogen gas,” purportedly enabling increased antioxidant benefits.

Meanwhile in July, Erewhon teamed with showerhead filter brand Jolie to launch a $12 cup of Sacred Water, which features coconut water, coconut milk, raw honey and a number of other ingredients, and is available in stores through September.

“It’s sort of the wellness -ification of every last thing,” said Allison Collins, cofounder of advisory firm The Consumer Collective, of the boom. “It’s an evolution of something we’ve seen from 2010, where people started going to boutique fitness classes and buying better-for-you snacks or baby food. This is the next iteration of that, in the GLP-1, internet-culture, microplastics era.”

“Water is one of those categories where you’ve got these incumbent players, whether that’s Evian, Perrier [or] Fiji, and people are saying, ‘OK — what’s the next conversation people are having here?’ and that’s microplastics and functional water,” said Nat Campbell, entrepreneur and former CEO of U.K.-based sustainable water company, Belu. “The nuance of where in the world this is happening is important, too; one of the reasons this could take off in the U.S. is because there’s varying water quality from one state to another. If I lived in Austria or Sweden, I might think twice about paying [a premium] for water, because my quality of water is much better.”

Both Loonen and WaterOuai explicitly state reducing microplastics in packaged water as core to their respective missions. Because even canned beverages are required to implement a plastic liner on the inside of the can to prevent metal corrosion, WaterOuai sourced its packaging from a factory in Japan where aluminum sheets are primed with a PET liner before being formed into cans. Thaggard said this reduces the likelihood of the liner “chipping, breaking off or being uneven in its adhesion — it’s just a cleaner way to make a can.”

According to NielsenIQ, bottled water sales reached $19.7 billion in the U.S. in 2025. That’s relatively flat versus 2024, though growth in the last 52 weeks has been led by artesian water, up 6.8 percent, and spring water, up 3.3 percent. Sparkling water, which is not included in NielsenIQ’s definition of bottled water, is also doing well, up 6 percent in the last year.

From a packaging point of view, glass-bottled water is growing fastest, with U.S. sales soaring 48.1 percent during the last 52 weeks. Aluminum-packaged water came in second with 30.3 percent growth, while plastic bottles saw just 0.9 percent growth.

“There are so many parallels between what we did at Supergoop, in delivering innovation and education first, and what needs to be done in the water category today,” Holly Thaggard said. “Very few people, 25 years ago, were talking about SPF. Fortunately, today people are cognizant of microplastics and that’s putting the wind in our sales.”

Data from Spate shows that TikTok hashtags, Instagram posts and Google searches mentioning “microplastic-free” reach a combined monthly volume of 841,000, indicating it is still an emerging conversation, but is growing year-over-year, particularly via social media.

Martin Riese, a water sommelier, said that “there is no ‘best’ water,” and rather, people should select water based on their needs at a given point. “It’s like white wine versus red wine; there are waters that are very light in minerality, and those are like the lighter white wines that are great alongside sushi, but if you’re going to the gym, you want the exact opposite because you’re sweating and want a lot of electrolytes.”

He said as more premium water brands enter the arena, he’d like to see these players publish their water quality reports — which detail composition and lab test results — online so consumers can better understand what they’re drinking. “When I don’t see a water quality report on a homepage, that’s [a red flag]. A lot of water companies are talking about everything besides the water.”

In terms of distribution for WaterOuai, Thaggard is focused specifically on college campuses and hospitality partners like hotels and aviation companies.

“We are not interested in tackling the grocery store shelves right now. We’re thinking about, who are those partners that we can come out of the gates with that can make a big change in their community, and can influence their network and guest experience,” she said.

Loonen, which was cofounded by longtime venture capital investor Clara Sieg and former Spindrift executive, David Kimmel, so far sells in more than 2,000 doors. It launched nationwide at Sprouts in May, and otherwise sells in local grocers and cafés around New York and Los Angeles including gourmet grocer Meadow Lane, Erewhon, Ralph’s Coffee and more.

Ohy similarly sells in Sprouts and on Amazon, and is gearing up for its biggest retail expansion into Target this fall.

“We are focused on the health-conscious, natural-leaning consumer; they shop at Sprouts, they shop at Whole Foods, they buy products with natural ingredients, and they read labels,” Hartwig said.

With wellness becoming the latest darling of M&A — there have been numerous $1 billion-plus acquisitions in the space in the last year or so, including Procter & Gamble’s acquisition of Thorne, Danone’s acquisition of Huel and PepsiCo’s purchase of Poppi — there is potential for challenger water brands to follow a similar path, experts say.

“In a sexy package, this market can be huge, particularly because the margins on tap water — which some of these brands are using — are brilliant,” Campbell said.

Added Collins: “It’s going to depend on the players and the price points, because you look at a Loonen and that is expensive water, right? You can’t be so casual about that unless you have a certain level of wealth,” she said. “But if we see [the trend] trickle a little bit more thoroughly into a mass or masstige water place, if you will, price-point wise, then I think the category can really grow.”

Newsletters

Sign up for beauty news straight to your inbox every day

PMC Logo

Most Popular

Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos Set $200 Million Fund to Recover Endangered Species

Perez Hilton Hospitalized After Appearing to Harm Himself on Livestream

Brad Pitt Is Allegedly 'Bracing Himself' For His Kids' Next Move Which Sources Say Is His 'Worst Possible Nightmare'

Method Man Drops Limited-Edition Hat Collection with TWNTY-TWO and TICAL Athletics

You May Also Like

Fresh Fashion Styles and ‘Great Start’ to Back-to-School Spur Optimism at August FFANY

3 days ago

Fashion Loves Food 2025

10 months ago

This B2B Company Wants To Supply Live Sellers with Wholesale Branded Fashion

5 hrs ago

Buffalo Bills to ‘Refine’ $2.2B Stadium After Viral Sightline Chatter

5 hrs ago

Looted Ivorian “Talking Drum” Arrives at Its Home Village After More Than a Century

7 hrs ago

Subscribe

Customer Service

Customer Service

WWD

About Us

Advertising

Subscribe

WWD FAQ

Digital Daily FAQ

Accessibility

Legal

Privacy Policy

AdChoices

EU Privacy Preferences

Terms of Use

California Privacy Rights

Your Privacy Choices

Follow Us

Facebook

Facebook

Instagram

Instagram

LinkedIn

LinkedIn

X

X

Newsletter Sign Up

Your Email

Subscribe

Subscribe

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy . We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Have a Tip?

Send us a tip using our anonymous form.

WWD and Women's Wear Daily are part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Fairchild Publishing, LLC. All Rights Reserved.