WHAT IT IS:
A premium-grade 304 stainless steel bottle for water, smoothies or that powdered stuff we drink because we're on scurvy's doorstep. These babies are BPA-free, made of 50-percent recycled steel and are, themselves, 100-percent recyclable. Sustainability has been built into them from the start.

Courtesy of ALEX ALEX is Gretchen Bleiler and hubby Chris Hotell's brainchild, and a family-run affair.

We also like that medal collector Gretchen Bleiler is a co-founder of ALEX and that it's a family-owned affair headed up by her hombre, Chris Hotell of NeoProto fame. "We're all very passionate about our cause," explains Bleiler. "Ultimately, we're trying to make sustainability easy in order for people to get off using single-serving plastic water bottles which are filling up our landfills and devastating our waterways."

WHY IT RULES:
This is where ALEX makes most water bottles look like empty vessels. The mid-body split, aka "clean-seam tech," means your bottle is dead easy to clean by hand or machine. As ALEX -- an acronym for Always Live Extraordinarily -- puts it: "Cleanable; Compackable. Customsizeable." If you've ever filled up your supposedly "clean" water bottle with, you know, water only to find that your little sister left orange juice in it for a frickin' week, you'll see why the patent-pending "clean seam" has helped ALEX win five design awards after only a year in the market. It's deceptively simple but brilliant. Build a better mousetrap, right?

Because the bottle is made of two screwed-together halves, it knocks down a size for shipping or travel. This also makes it possible to combo different bottles sizes, making it easy to schlep the perfect amount of liquid (20oz., 26oz., 32oz.) on your mellow sidecountry treck or assault on El Cap. (You can swap colors, too.)

WHERE TO FIND IT:
Buy one straight from their site, your favorite specialty retailer, or even select Bed, Bath & Beyond stores come September. Big time? Damn straight. $25.95/20oz. or $29.95 for the 32oz. Support snowboarders supporting snowboarders.