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Que is the collapsible water bottle you’ll want for your next hike

Whether you’re a fitness fanatic or a frequent traveler, a high-quality reusable water bottle is a must-have.

Fortunately, that’s where Jean and Kevin Wu come in. They’ve created a stylish, innovative liquid container called the Que bottle, which is not only environmentally friendly and 100 percent plastic-free, but also collapsible — courtesy of its smart spiral design.

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“Que bottle can shrink to half its size, which makes it very convenient,” Jean told Digital Trends. “You can easily carry it around with you and it won’t take up much space. It’s also very high-quality. There are other collapsible bottles out there, but the problem is that they’re not really durable. They’re no better made than regular disposable bottles; it’s just not a long-term solution for people.”

Jean and Kevin aren’t necessarily the people you’d associate with an innovative new plastic bottle. They’re the entrepreneurs behind a music ticket company called queueIn. However, Jean Wu explained that the two concepts very much fit together.

“My husband and I are big music fans,” Jean said. “We go to a lot of music festivals. At these events, we noticed that there’s a real problem with plastic bottles. There’s always a big waste problem afterwards, with bottles left everywhere. We came up with the idea of the Que bottle because we just thought it was so bad for the environment that people were buying all these bottles of water and then just throwing them away.”

Close to a year of R&D later, the pair had created their first Que bottle prototypes — which is set to launch as a Kickstarter project early next month. They’re also set to attend a variety of upcoming trade shows and are currently speaking with distributors.

The bottles themselves come in two sizes: 20 fluid ounces and 12 fluid ounces, as well as in a variety of colors. They’re rugged in design and, in addition to the environmentally friendly design, boast leak-proof stainless steel seals.

“I’m really proud of what we’ve created,” Wu said. “I think this is going to be something a lot of people will find exciting.”

With upwards of 60 million plastic bottles ending up in landfills every single day, if it can help cut down on this kind of waste, it could prove to be a whole lot more than just exciting.

Luke Dormehl
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
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