ZULU Shorty Kids Tritan Plastic Water with Silicone Sleeve

I bought a 3-pack package of these water bottles at Costco for around $18. So I am not reviewing the seller, just the product. And I am the mom of 4 year old twins. Therefore I will be focusing this review on both how it works for exercise/long walks and how it works for my kids.First, this is a 16oz (2 cups) plastic water bottle. The bad reviews I saw on other posts come from people that thought it was glass. I actually prefer the idea of glass (no worry about chemicals, etc.), but glass is heavy!! And because of the weight of glass I keep going back to plastic bottles.Here is why I think this particular bottle is better than the others out there:1) I like the rubber exterior - it makes it more 'grippy' and therefore easier to handle on my walks.2) The bottle has a little rubber loop attached to the lid area. At first I carried the bottle by the loop, but the bottle swung around too much. I then put my middle finger in the loop (see the photo) in addition to holding the bottle. Here is what I learned - by putting your middle finger in the loop, it disperses the weight, which means that it feels less heavy to carry the bottle and more stable in your hand. There is much less effort and I love that! This bottle is much easier to carry on long walks because of that little rubber loop!3) The width of the rim is perfect - not too big, not too small - it feels nice to drink from this bottle.4) The lid is hinged and stays open. Therefore the lid does not swing back down on you when drinking.5) So far it has not leaked!!! And the button and clasp are both easy to open and close.6) Dishwasher safe (on the top rack) with no need to take apart any parts before sticking it in the dishwasher.Now - KIDS: They love it! They love the open and close mechanism. They like the colors. It is easy for them to hold. And here is what I like... The kids are used to sippy-type cups, which they can throw around and not worry about leaking. So when I give them other water bottles (especially the type with lids that you open and close the spout), they will forget to close the spout, lay the bottle down, forget about it, and of course it leaks! But with this type, it is obvious when the bottle is open or closed, so they never throw the bottle around without closing it first. Consequently, at this point we have had zero leaks. In addition, there is a little base on the bottle, which helps keep the bottle upright and less tippy.Cons: It isn't big. 2 cups is perfect to for the kids when we are out and about. But it is a little small for my exercise walks. Therefore I suppose the fix for that is for me to get the larger capacity Zulu bottle... :) And the lock/unlock symbols aren't super easy to read, I wish they were a little clearer. But really, that isn't a big deal.Summary - These bottles aren't super cheap. But then again they don't feel cheap. This is a well designed bottle. And I will gladly pay a dollar or two more for something that is used every day, is comfortable, and doesn't leak. I will update this review in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, I hope this review is helpful to you!UPDATE: We have now been using these bottle for 10 months. My kids have taken them over and they love them. We clean them by putting them on the top rack of the dishwasher, and have had no issues. And the lids are still in great shape: they don't leak and the mechanism to open/close the lid works just as good as the day we bought them. In sum, these are great bottles and I totally recommend them!

Fantastic product. We are always looking for water bottles that TRULY don't leak. Everyone says theirs don't... until they do. This one has not leaked yet & we've had it a long time. It's sturdy but pretty, easy to open, easy to lock, cleans well & has been dropped quite a few times & is still working great. Thanks!!

I bought it for my almost five year old son to replace another, different water bottle that broke after about six months. This appears to be well made and I like the fact that it has a locking lid, so the lid cannot accidentally open in a backpack or in the car. So far, it has held up and my son likes it. I wish it came in more colors and my only concern is that there do not appear to be that many threads for the top to screw on. Maybe that's intentional, but once you align the top to the body, you only need to screw it down with about half a turn. I think that should be sufficient to hold it on tightly, but I will wait to see. I like the grippy rubber material.

These water bottles are great for little ones. A couple things on the lid: It is a wide mouth lid which makes it easy to not only fill, but clean as well. The lid locks preventing accidental spills. The lid is also simple which means less to clean. The body of the bottle has a nonslip rubber sleeve that helps with grip. This can be seen as a good and bad thing. When your cleaning the water bottle, you have to make sure that water doesn't get between the sleeve and the bottle so as to prevent any sort of bacteria from building up or any unwanted smells. I haven't seen this yet because the sleeve is pretty tight on there. I tried to remove it and it is not as easy as it would seem. The good side to the sleeve is that it provides that extra grip for kids. Overall, I am completely satisfied with this product and it does exactly what I wanted it to do, which is give my kids a water bottle that fits in their hand, hydrates them, and is spill proof and lockable. Highly recommend it for anyone looking for the same.

The media could not be loaded.  My girls love it! I already washed thoroughly before I decided to make video.They use it only for water to school and they love it because it’s like drinking from a cup!Washing it is so easy. I just put little soap inside and shake while covered then I let the water run through it till all the soap is gone. I scrub the covers!I personally have dropped both bottles twice and nothing happened. I don’t know if they have dropped it in school.Lasted the whole school year and will definitely be used for next school year!!!

This is a very nice water bottle! It's exactly what I expected when I purchased it. A nice rugged plastic water bottle for my 7 year old son. There is one major flaw, though. There's a rubber stopper inside the lid to seal off the opening when you close it to keep it from leaking. Well that stopper is not attached to the lid. It just slides on and off. So when my son is rough with this water bottle, the rubber stopper falls off and sometimes falls into the water bottle.

I rarely leave reviews, but am so happy I found these. I have tried numerous other brands, but never really found one that stuck until ZULU. I bought these for my 1st grader and have loved them so much that I doubled her collection. These are inexpensive, only have two pieces (I hated having to clean 3 or 4 parts), have a lid that locks, they don’t leak....and best of all- are completely dishwasher safe (top rack). When I recommended these to a friend, she told me they had been using them for some time. My daughters friends love the pink color and have been asking her where she got them. As long as they don’t change their product design, I’ll be a loyal customer.

Bought these for the school year in August. I was skeptical because I read comments about how some have broken. My kid is in 2nd grade and is not careful with things. So far I was so pleased with this water bottle that I bought a second one. It doesn't leak, it's easy to clean and it has a lock feature. I would recommend this.

It's great, bought it for my son to replace many broken water bottles, so far outlasted every one of them. It's also easy to open, fill and wash.

It doesn’t leak even when my son store it upside down in his school most of the time.

Me hubiera gustado que fuera en vidrio. El tamaño es muy cómodo y la presentación no sólo le gustó a mi si no a todos lo que lo ven. Lo recomiendo. Compre otro pero en vidrio anteriormente y más grande la base de este es más gruesa en comparación con el de vidrio.

Esta marca tiene productos de calidad y este no es la excepción. Lo recomiendo completamente

Kids love the bottle and it is verry durable. Easy to clean also.