Do You Need a Purse for Your Water Bottle? Honestly, Maybe. | Reviews by Wirecutter

By Elissa Sanci

Elissa Sanci is a senior staff writer. She has found that clear ice makes carbonated drinks taste better, and citronella candles don’t work.

Whenever I’m feeling stressed or overwhelmed, I like to lace up my sneakers and go for a walk around the neighborhood. Nothing clears my mind quite like some fresh air and a little exercise—it’s just me, the pavement under my feet, and the breeze in my hair.

And my 30-ounce emotional support water bottle, of course.

Carrying a water bottle by hand on those mental health walks is a real vibe-killer. I adore my high-capacity water bottles and tumblers—I actually drink enough water throughout the day because of them! But my wrists ache after I carry one for a while. They’re cumbersome and heavy, and way too big to fit into a fanny pack or small crossbody bag.

In the past, I’ve threaded the strap of my fanny pack through the handles and loops on my water bottles and tumblers, letting them dangle at my waist to give my wrist a rest. But this proved to be so annoying that I stopped carrying a water bottle on my walks altogether, which was oh-so detrimental to my lofty hydration goals. Unless I wanted to wear a backpack with a bottle pocket on my walks, I’d either have to hold my bottle in my hand or ditch it entirely. There didn’t seem to be a good in-between.

Enter, the internet’s solution to this very specific problem: a water bottle carrier.

These bottle-shaped bags with crossbody straps started popping up on my social media feeds several months ago, around the same time I started leaving my bottle behind when I went on walks. The Calpak Water Bottle Holder was the most prominent, a frilly bottle bag that appeared in video after video as I scrolled through my For You page on TikTok. In these videos, content creators packed 40-ounce Stanley tumblers with handles into their colorful, funky-pattern bags, fitting other essentials (like phones, wallets, and keys) into the additional pockets. I watched in awe, wondering if this could make my walks more enjoyable.

More water bottle carriers started infiltrating my feed when my algorithm clocked my interest in them. From Stanley’s own (which got all the press and sold out instantly before restocking) to drop-shipped cheapie carriers on Amazon, bottle bags seemed to proliferate—and everyone appeared to love them.

Intrigued, I put six of them to the test to see if they were as great as TikTok led me to believe.

I’ve spent the last few years obsessing about reusable tumblers and water bottles for Wirecutter. I wrote our guide to the best tumblers and the best insulated wine tumblers, and reviewed the mega-popular Stanley Quencher and the dupes that came after it—so I feel particularly equipped to assess water bottle and tumbler accessories.

To test the water bottle carriers, I used each bag on two to three walks of varying lengths and carried bottles of different shapes, capacities, and brands. I also ran errands using the carriers as my primary bag, made my husband tote them to the golf course, and took them with me on a trip to Dallas, where a friend and I used them while sightseeing.

I quickly discovered that most of them weren’t very comfortable to use. The majority of water bottle carriers are cylindrical, like the bottles and tumblers they hold, and those rounded sides bounced off my body as I walked, repeatedly banging into my hips and thighs.

But the Corkcicle Crossbody Water Bottle Sling Bag, a neoprene crossbody bag with an attached bottle pocket, is cleverly constructed so that the bag’s zippered pocket lays flat against your body.

It combines everything I love about hands-free fanny packs with everything I wanted to love about water bottle carriers—and now it’s become my go-to bag.

This bottle sling is essentially a crossbody bag outfitted with a bottle pocket. It’s roomy enough to hold all your essentials (and then some), accommodates most water bottles and tumblers, and lays flat against your body as you walk. But it’s pricey and only available in limited colors.

The Corkcicle sling is the only water bottle carrier I tested that laid flat against my body. It was by far the most comfortable carrier to tote around because, unlike the other cylindrical carriers, the Corkcicle sling is similar to a crossbody bag with a bottle pocket sewn onto its front. The carrier is flat along its backside, so it can rest against your hip or thigh as you walk, rather than bounce around.

The water bottle pocket is big enough to accommodate tumblers and bottles up to 32 ounces. Though the pocket isn’t wide enough to fit handled tumblers, it has an adjustable opening that cinches around the necks of smaller bottles to keep them in place.

Its zippered pocket is spacious enough to hold everything you might need on a walk (and then some). The Corkcicle sling easily held more essentials than the other carriers I tested, and I didn’t have to make any sacrifices as I packed the bag. I was able to fit my iPhone 15, a small wallet, my sunglasses, and my car keys into the black-hole bag—and still had room for my Kindle Paperwhite, too.

It has an adjustable strap long enough to accommodate different body types. The wide strap can be extended or shortened, depending on your preference, and it fits comfortably on folks with larger chests.

It doesn’t tip over when placed on a flat surface. The bag has a wide base that allows it to stand on its own when it’s not slung on your shoulder, which reduces the chances of spills if you set it down on a picnic table or park bench. Some of the cheaper water bottle carriers I tested were made of softer material that curved around the tumbler bottom, which caused them to tip over when I placed them on a flat surface.

It comes in only a handful of colors. At the time of publication, Corkcicle offers the sling in five colors (two of which are sold out). The company also makes a line of Disney-themed carriers, so if you want a bottle sling with mouse ears to bring on your next vacation, you’re in luck.

But boy is it pricey. This roughly $60 bag was among the most expensive carriers we tested. But it qualifies for free shipping, which is a nice perk.

This spacious bottle carrier is the only one we recommend that can fit a handled40-ounce tumbler. It has four pockets for your phone, wallet, and keys, and comes in dozens of fun patterns and colors, but it bangs against your hip as you walk.

The Calpak Water Bottle Holder is big enough to fit an entire 40-ounce tumbler, handle and all. No matter what behemoth tumbler you’re drawn towards, it’ll fit snugly in this spacious bottle carrier.

It has tons of pockets. The cylindrical bag has a zippered front pocket that can easily fit an iPhone 15 or a slim wallet, and three additional open pockets that can store other sundries like a small tube of sunscreen, a pair of sunglasses, keys, and headphones. Just keep in mind that the bigger the bottle, the tighter those pockets become and the less they can fit.

It bangs against your body as you walk. While the Corkcicle carrier lays flat against your body, the Calpak holder is rounder, and the cylindrical shape of the bag causes the bottle to bump against your hip as you walk. And the heavier the water bottle, the harder the bag will bounce.

It’s an aesthetically pleasing bag. The Calpak water bottle holder’s ruffled top gives it a playful, whimsical look, and it’s available in an array of subtle, soothing colors and bold, funky patterns that can appeal to minimalists and maximalists alike.

But cute comes at a cost. The Calpak carrier is about $48—which already feels pricey for a bag meant for your $45 tumbler—and it doesn’t qualify for free shipping. (Calpak only offers free shipping on orders of $75 or more.) After factoring in shipping and tax, the water bottle carrier ends up being closer to $60.

This sleek bottle sling is for folks who want to keep their bottles close by without the (literal) frills. It accommodates bottles and tumblers up to 32 ounces and has a long, adjustable crossbody strap. It’s the slimmest sling we tested, but it fits the least.

Beis’s The Water Bottle Sling is smaller than the Calpak and Corkcicle carriers. The cylindrical carrier is slimmer and more streamlined than the other options we tested, and even though it bounced against my hip as I moved, I didn’t find it as bothersome. It only accommodates water bottles and tumblers up to 32 ounces—and it doesn’t fit handled tumblers of any size.

But it holds only the bare necessities. This water bottle sling is not for the overpacker. It offers only one front pocket for your things, a zippered pouch that has space for a phone or a slim wallet, but not both. It includes an inner pocket where you can tuck away your ID, cards, and cash for safe keeping. Depending on the size of your key ring, you may be able to slip it into the pocket alongside your phone—but if you, like me, have a penchant for souvenir keychains, you might have to clip your keys to one of the strap loops.

It comes in only two colors and costs about as much as the Calpak carrier. And it fits so much less! Shipping and returns are free, though, which is an added perk.

Stanley’s The All Day 40 oz Quencher Carry-All is nicely constructed and comes in dozens of fun colors, but it’s only compatible with 40-ounce, handled tumblers like the Stanley Quencher and tumblers with similar proportions. (The 40-ounce HydroFlask bottle, which is wider and shorter than the Stanley cup, didn’t fit in this carrier.) And unlike the other carriers we tested that accommodated your essentials, the $40 Stanley sling is designed to carry only your tumbler.

The Ochapa Water Bottler Carrier Bag and the Vghnq Water Bottle Carrier were made of the same malleable neoprene material, which caused my bottles and tumblers to topple over whenever I placed them down on flat surfaces. I liked that both of these slings had a handle opening with a Velcro closure to accommodate different types of tumblers, but ultimately, I found them lacking in quality.

I had hoped the REI Co-Op Trail 5 Waist Pack (intended to use while hiking) could be a good alternative to an over-the-shoulder water bottle carrier. Though this fanny pack was incredibly spacious and comfortable to wear, its bottle pocket could only accommodate the smallest of bottles, and it was overall too bulky to wear on casual walks.

This article was edited by Annemarie Conte and Hannah Rimm.

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Elissa Sanci

Senior Staff Writer

I cover a little of everything, from travel gadgets and car-organizing tools to label makers and reusable tumblers. I have an affinity for testing the buzzy products you’ve probably seen clogging your social media feeds—my goal is to figure out which trending items are actually worth your time, and which are a waste of money.