For water bottlers, the windfall is quickly disappearing. Just yesterday, it seems, Voss’s cool, cylindrical bottles represented the height of sophistication, B.C.’s glaciers were being bled dry to meet the global demand for $60 water, and the 535 bottled brands sold in the U.S. included Canine Quencher, bottled water for dogs. But as we tut-tut about consumer excess and carbon calculus, tap has come roaring back. In 2008, for the first time in years, dominant players PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Nestlé—which posted double-digit growth every year from 2002 to 2007—reported limp sales in North America. One-time market leader Aquafina was down a stunning 14 per cent.

But when shoppers close a door, they always open a window. A brand-new Manhattan-based start-up, uscanteen, founded by New York-based entrepreneurs Victoria Meakin and Peter Bobley, is offering the eco-guilty a hip alternative to utilitarian bottles. Like Sigg, Switzerland’s century-old, retro-chic aluminum-bottle maker—whose sales have surged past the $100-million mark, up from roughly $1 million a few years ago—uscanteen turned to a past classic for inspiration: the U.S. Army’s one-quart, aluminum M1910 canteen, replaced in 1962 by the olive-green polyethylene plastic version used in Vietnam and thereafter. Their ads on the New York Times website and on MySpace (where they were aimed at a younger audience) feature hip, natural-looking models carrying contoured flasks in holders almost as if they’re toting Jackie Kennedy’s Gucci hobos.

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