A STORY OF INNOVATION, PERSISTENCE, EXCITEMENT – AND IT’S THE JUST THE BEGINNING.

Our Story

COLDEST was founded by a team of Engineers in 2014 with the one goal to create the COLDEST products. Founded in the hottest state of Florida, we wanted to build something to keep us COLD. It started with a water bottle and has since grown into so much more.

Here at COLDEST, our motto is "We build things to help you stay colder, longer", but what if you also could make the social media colder, cooler...revolutionary stuff, right? With a loyal community of people that love having the coldest things, we have amassed over 500,000 followers across all platforms. We got there by being a brand that knows what the people want: Tons of giveaways and cool photos that make you go, "wow, those are cool photos". So what are you waiting for, join the COLDEST family today!

THE MAGIC OF THE COLDEST

Our history starts at the present, and as you scroll down, you’ll travel back in time, to where it all began.

State of Coldest

November 18th, 2022

Coldest is now almost 8 years old. Time flies - what happennned!? We started in 2015 as a hydration company but today it's become the Coldest Everything Store. 3 years ago, in the midst of covid, we were battling the biggest waves as a business that we had ever faced - We went from 8 employees to 1 employee (me doing fulfilment) then all the way to 80 employees. And let's reiterate that - all in 3 years. Not only that we, had sales crash to nearly 0 per day. We were headed to 0.  

Yesterday was a huge milestone for us and it's worth noting. It full loops into what I wrote 3 years ago in our state of Coldest -"Yesterday I was visiting several warehouses in search of our first main distribution hub with a min of 15,000 sq ft. In comparison, our current warehouse is 2400 sq ft.. This will likely require internal Coldest Trucks, manned by coldest team members who will drive them. We will do everything internally, just like Elon would do."

Today, we have over 15,000 sqft of warehouse space. And just yesterday- we got our first Coldest Truck - seen pictured below! I'm mindblown. This is literally going to be huge for us as we can restock our store at Coastland center here in Naples, but also expand to a second warehouse as we're starting to outgrow our existing 15,000 sqft warehouse! What!?? 


I think one takeaway to learn from all this is - baby steps is the key to where you want to go. There is no way to jump from 0 to a 15,000sqft warehouse. We worked out of my backyard prior. Or to go from 0 to a truck. These things take very serious overhead. We slowly and continuously reinvested everything back into Coldest with the belief we would one day get Coldest Truck(s). Today we find ourselves in a much different position. Our products are continuously getting becoming more superior than the rest (in my opinion/and in our fairly scientific *but not scientific* disclaimer cold tests against Yeti/Hydro/xyz)  and we're finding delightful advancements in engineering in all areas. We are still absolutely obsessed with our current products and- Everything to this point, is still focused on products that I and Joe (my twin /COO) use and love every day- which I think is in partwhat is helping us grow (Insight - #2). From the Coldest Bottle, to now Coldest Dog Bowls for my dogs (Simba, Keywei, Dobei, Nala) - to less sweaty nights sleeping with the Coldest Bedsheets, Pillow, and Comforter, to ice packs that I use for recovering from soccer injuries - You can see where I'm going with this. So what's next?The universal bottle just released. It's our new, minimalist triple lid, multi-compatible super insulated bottle that fits in 99% of cupholders, and soft landings, fully insulated and custom to the market.It's the first of its kind because of what it is - there is more than meets the eye. Most things you see out there are generic's/copies of others. We went our own path and combined everything we had for the past 7 years into a super bottle. Maybe we should've called it that--hmmmm... Anyways - There are currently 5 colors available, but you will see way more over the next 365.

More innovations are coming in Coldest Bedding. We know some of you are firm pillow sleepers. And we know the Coldest Pillow can keep getting better. So you will see more bedding!

We drop a lot of secrets and free drops in VIP. It's where our most loyal community members and customers hang out. I also for whatever reason just love seeing our stuff in the wild - and so does Joe, Kaira, Maria, and everyone else on our team. It gets me excited every day and wanting to push COLDEST even further. I highly, highly recommend you join it if you're not in there already. And more EPIC innovations are coming.  Today, we have a world-class team helping achieve these innovations, and products that will see the light of day for the first time. Imagine a baby chicklet cracking through an egg for the first time - that is the image I imagine - lol

I will say the same as I said in last year's State of Coldest because it stays it's truer than ever - This rollercoaster is just beginning so get ready. It’s getting absolutely crazy and it is truly a pleasure to serve you all, every day, especially through the hard times.

David Stark
Founder of Coldest / Lead Engineer of Coldest

Our first COLDEST Truck 11.30.2022

MAY 2022: OUR NEW OFFICES CONNECTING TO OUR WAREHOUSE

7 Years in, and we’ve finally have official offices. 

2021: THE COLDEST WATER HITS #480 ON INC 5000 FASTEST GROWING CO.

During Covid, we dreamed of getting our bigger space. We finally made the move to our new HQ at approximately 15,000 sqft in Ft Myers.

We are already near max capacity! 

August 20, 2021 – Recognizing the team behind the scenes that makes everything happen. 

COLDEST RETAIL EXPERIENCE 1 OPENS TO THE PUBLIC - MARCH 2021

JUNE 2021 TO PRESENT - COLDEST HQ 3

After years in the making, we have a new HQ 3! 

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LOOKING BACK ON THE PANDEMIC, AND MORE.

It’ll now be a total of 16 months since the pandemic first started, and 8 months ago since I last wrote The State of The Coldest (you can read about that at the world ending at the bottom lol). But I believe many of us saw the silver lining emerging. After writing that previous email below, many of you wrote back describing your struggles through it, but also the encouragement meant to push through it. Your words encouraged me as much as mine may have.

So one of the biggest secrets I’ve kept till now, was that The Coldest for the past 6 years, STILL worked out of my backyard. Literally my backyard! Initially, it was out of a 1 car garage in Naples Park. But when I ran out of space and we grew some more, we moved to a bigger property in the outskirts of Naples, that was pretty much in the boonies (for cheap land), but it gave us more land and space to operate. I had employees using my bathrooms, kitchen. The second bedroom was converted into an office.  I’d wake up, and walk 10 feet right into a bustling business with 13 employees working at full pace packing orders, organizing the warehouse, doing customer support and sometimes just hanging out after work. It was non-stop.

As it grew, created a semi-truck entrance on the far side of the property because 53′ foot truck trailers couldn’t fit on the regular driveway. This allowed us to get way more inventory in versus smaller box trucks.

But keep in mind it was residential. So over the next few years and into 2021, my backyard ended up having over 20 forty-foot storage containers. (Good thing I’m not married lol)  This strategy was genius in my eyes at the time because it would save us so much money storing goods. The land is insanely expensive here. However, by December of 2021, my neighbors complained, and the show was over. Collier County code enforcement was not happy about 20 containers in the backyard. For good reason. Can’t complain. I tried, I tried. 

This is literally from Google Maps.

Meet The Team
COLDEST founder, David at our factory. David and fellow engineers traveled the world recently to figure out what the people want!

How did you hide 20 containers in your backyard though?
I had set up defenses, lines of areca trees (native Floridian hedge trees) that grow up to 20 feet tall and they surrounded the entire property so densely, you could barely see-through. Think of Harry Potter Movie 5, the maze in Goblet of Fire….you can’t see through. The neighbors, who are snowbirds who live next door for 2 months of the year – shouldn’t have complained (lol). (Its’ all for a reason -I keep telling myself)

So in December, We were being forced to move headquarters, else face significant fines.. ($500/day in fines) and I went through the whole process of business bank loans. What a headache. We got denied by 3 banks. Bank of America, Synovus, and a local bank all said no. They don’t like “risky businesses”. Frustrated, but not defeated – we went back to the drawing board, 

As March turns the corner, we get wind of a crazy idea. 

We launched our first store at Coastland Center, here in Naples, Florida. (It really happened as abruptly as that)

Why would you open a physical store when there is a Pandemic going on and no one is shopping?
It wasn’t crazy, IT WAS MADNESS! This is Sparta!!! (terrible joke if you haven’t watched the movie 300) In all seriousness, mall stores have been always out of reach for us. A corporate store that was there won’t say their name (jk, Sketchers) had just left and we thought it was a good idea. 

Joe, Kaira and I~

[Joe’s my twin, also head of Marketing for the Coldest,
and Kaira (who was the second employee who joined during COVID)]

would travel to the mall almost every day bringing inventory, designing the layout, installing signage, setting up products, adding shelving, tables, setting up point of sale etc,  the list goes on. Knowing what we know now… we probably wouldn’t have done it. I think you just have to be completely naive about what you’re getting yourself into. You can watch opening day here.

And so the first COLDEST store was born. 

DECEMBER 2019:

It is 2020, which means improvements. Pictured below is our newest addition -ENGRAVINGS! 

Headquarters located. Every once in a while The Team will go on an   adventure into the Gulf and brain storm. What better   environment for The Coldest Water Team than to be  surrounded by water. 

SEPTEMBER 2019:

GALLONS, GALLONS, AND …GALLONS! Almost the whole color palate of gallons have arrived!

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A WAR WAGING FOR YEARS

The war has been waging for years against our one true enemy, hot. There is no end in sight. We have lost much. Pictured above is our ambassadors riding valiantly into battle.

FEBRUARY 2019:

Behind the scenes, we work tirelessly to get our operations optimized. Pictured below, Madison fulfiling 2 day shipping.

AUGUST 13TH, 2018 – CATAPULT TECHNOLOGY

GALLON RE-INVENTED – JULY 26TH, 2018

The Coldest 1 gallon finally arrives after being in development for over 2 years. Pre-orders shipped same day we received the first batch. Pictured in video are team members Ashley and Sergio.

JUNE 4TH, 2018:

The Armies of the North have heard our call and taken up arms!  Pictured with some of our crazy ambassadors enjoying a day out in the sun, Marco Island, Florida.

FEBRUARY 2018 – BUILDING OF THE COLDEST CITY

As engineers, We’re huge fans of Elon Musk. From Tesla to Spacex. Pictured right, we are painting our new fulfilment center like Teslas!

MARCH 2018 – FLAG HAS PLANTED

WAR CRYFLAGS PLANTED. WE’RE NOT HERE TO TAKE PART. WE’RE HERE TO TAKE OVER. JOIN THE MOVEMENT.Good vibes, always. Merica’

DAVID FLIES OVERSEAS & BEYOND TO GET PRODUCTION ON POINT.

FEBRUARY 2017 – THE FIRST WAREHOUSE, IN HIS BACKYARD

David’s face on the day we got our first warehouse. This was February 2017, and with all our resources pooled, we put a down payment to bring design, engineering, development, and fulfillment under one roof.  Previous to this, (2014-2017) we had barely scraped through using 3 storage units around Naples, and driving back and forth to the 1 car garage for fulfillment. Most days were just spent loading and unloading a trailer. It’s how David got into such good shape.

Best Water Bottle

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2015 – THE STONE AGES – A YOUNG BOY

Our story begins in a 1 car garage in Naples, Florida.  658 108TH AVE, Naples Florida to be exact. These were the very rough years. Every day was a struggle to make it happen. The company, though built on fundamentals of high quality engineering, and the most superior products, was bootstrapped and under-financed. I used every piece of savings I had and it was never enough. David had quit his engineering career with Collier County and The Coldest Water had been born with $14,000. 

Fulfillment and Shipping was was all done out of our 1 car garage. Not everything could fit so we used multiple storage units to haul inventory back and forth. Lets just say, at this time in the war against hot, we were barely holding on.

Throwback to when we palatalized in a single car garage and squeezed every spare inch.(Funny looking back) Now we have multiple warehouses.

Everyday, David would travel back and forth from storage units to fulfil the 1 car garage as it was too tight.

A PLANET IN NEED OF OUR HELP.

If the average person  needs to drinks four plastic bottles per day,  by switching to a reusable water bottle, you would be saving 1,460 plastic bottles per year by using a reusable bottle. 

Beyond plastic bottles, we created green initiatives like The Coldest Beach Cleanup . Learn more here: