Innovation isn’t a retooled water bottle contour or a slick new cap. Innovation is turning the bottle on its head.

And that’s just what Cool Gear has done with its latest reusable water bottle, the EZ FREEZE FREE.

The Cool Gear brand is all about shaking things up – straying from the conventional to give consumers solutions they want, with a little something extra. This signature element of the company’s design philosophy is best found in its patented freezable gel stick technology which can be frozen prior to water bottle use and provides 2-4 hours of cool liquid refreshment.

With the use of Eastman Tritan™ copolyester, Cool Gear has taken its knack for innovative product design one step further. The new material gives the company’s latest line of water bottles unparalleled dishwasher durability and design flexibility – so much so that the new line could be manufactured in the same molds as previous bottles made with polycarbonate. And best of all, it’s free of bisphenol-A (BPA).

Says Hank Roth of Cool Gear: “Our original design of the EZ FREEZE line was made using polycarbonate, but the recent swing in market demand toward BPA-free alternatives prompted us to seek out a partner that could give us similar – or better – product attributes bolstered with the marketing power of the BPA-free stamp of approval. What we got with Tritan™ was a solution with the same functional benefits as polycarbonate plus so much more.”

Roth adds: “Our core audience uses our reusable water bottles in many different settings, from fairly tame uses in the home and office to high impact outdoor activities. Design flexibility and clarity are benefits that were crucial with any new material, but so is durability. With Tritan™, we found toughness to spare.”

A striking feature of the design is a rubber grip overmolded onto Tritan™ to provide better ergonomics as well as a visual cue on where to hold the bottle.

In addition to design flexibility, Tritan™ provides Cool Gear impressive chemical resistance characteristics and low residual stress compared to polycarbonate. “When comparing Tritan™ to polycarbonate – apples to apples – we saw so many clear advantages to Tritan™, there was no contest,” Roth says

And even if there was, the BPA issue would have tipped the scales. “In the reusable water bottle market, the BPA-free label has marketing muscle,” Roth concedes.

In fact, Cool Gear likes the BPA-free characteristics of Tritan™ so much that it has incorporated the attribute into a new tagline that is featured on the home page of its website: “The best things in life are BPA free.”