👜 Pinching pennies? Play pretend

Drinking water, doctors unanimously agree, is fundamental to life. But there’s less consensus when it comes to this: Has one truly lived without drinking supercharged water out of a ~$400 electrolyzing bottle?

We’re oh-so-close to getting that answer.

Florida-based startup Weo, which self-identifies as “revolutionizing the way the world drinks water,” recently secured a $15m investment round, suggesting we’ll soon get a chance to see what all that even means.

What we’ve picked up so far

A solid 4.6B years after ice melted from the interstellar dust cloud from which our sun and planets formed, thereby giving us H2O, we have arrived here: at “Precision Water,” Weo’s core offering.

Precision Water is:

• Enhanced water designed as a “perfect therapeutic complement” to a healthier life.
• … Enhanced how? Weo “uses diamond coated silicon to activate all the biomolecules present in water.”
• With its natural properties “boosted,” the water “better support[s] immunity, vitality, gut and skin health.”
• In summary: Weo can “amplify water at the molecular level, making it more biologically adaptable.”

Naturally, the lone vessel befitting Precision Water is Weo, The Bottle — “the first-ever water bottle backed by the power of diamond” — priced at $390 before taxes and shipping.

If we sound skeptical…

… that’s a fair takeaway. We’re never rooting against anyone; this is all just a little jarring.

Reading about a company’s “deep-tech” effort to transform water can give one the wettest of willies.

Plus, we’re admittedly jaded by the cyclical nature of businesses trying to upsell the world on augmented water, typically done without broad scientific backing.

• To that end, Weo’s site doesn’t readily offer its team’s scientific credentials.
• The most solid background info we turned up on the company was a paper from Weo’s “chief health officer” showing how its tech can help mice with eczema, and a patent application for the word “hydraceutical.”

Despite our dubiousness, we’re clearly still intrigued. Just maybe not enough to shell out ~$400 for a water bottle yet.

What’s that phrase? Imitation is the sincerest form of… frugality?

TikTok data suggests that sentiment is now shared across Gen Z — and in a world where you can either buy a genuine Chanel flap bag for $10.2k (up from $4.4k in 2012), or a $55 “dupe” on Chinese site DHgate, can you blame them?

Counterfeits: The real deal

Last year, an EU survey found that 37% of 15- to 24-year-olds purchased at least one fake product in the prior year — mostly accessories, footwear, electronics, and cosmetics — up from 14% in 2019.

• There was also a 6% jump in young shoppers who said they were influenced to make such a purchase.

Among the bogus-buying group, 48% said they did so because of price, 27% just didn’t give a damn about a product being fake, and 24% didn’t believe there was even a material difference from a genuine item.

Are you faux real?

Despite efforts to discourage counterfeit sales, TikTok appears to be the prime breeding ground for this behavior — and it happens to coincide with the platform’s expansion of its shopping functionality.

• This month, The Guardian reported that nine out of the first 12 results for “perfume” in TikTok Shop appeared to be fake.

The younger generation’s buy-in to thrifting, bargain-hunting, and, uh, “frugal flexing,” is readily on display on TikTok, with hashtags #reps (often meaning “replicas”) and #bougieonabudget up to 1.9B and 473m views, respectively.

One faux pas: Not everyone is on board with this trend, based on the drama that ensued when a popular TikToker and Hermès enthusiast was accused of trying to resell fake Birkin handbags (which start at $9k and sometimes go for six figures). The accuser was The Fake Birkin Slayer, a burgeoning whistleblowing Instagram account.