This elegant straw filters the dirtiest water—but also looks good on a restaurant table

Water filter straws were a breakthrough when LifeStraw released its first commercial model in 2005, enabling people to take a sip from a stream without fear of also consuming bacteria or parasites like giardia .



When LifeStraw straws became widely available in 2012, they were a hit with hikers and preppers. But international travelers began using them, too, in locations where the water wasn’t reliably safe to drink. Yet because they looked like pieces of camping gear, it was awkward to pull one out at restaurants.



LifeStraw just addressed that.



Its new product, LifeStraw Sip, looks like a larger version of the metal straw that’s become a common sight in recent years in response to concerns about plastic pollution . And yet it contains the company’s powerful filter.



[Photo: Lifestraw]



“The product is sort of a legend internally,” says Tara Lundy, chief brand officer at the Baltimore, Maryland-based LifeStraw. “We’ve been talking about it for so long.”



Her colleague Jean-Luc Madier, the company’s director of engineering, estimates that they’ve been working on the Sip for about six to seven years. “The key point was to shrink everything to be able to fit inside this tube without compromising the flow rate,” he says. 



A narrow path



LifeStraw began making straw-like filters in the 1990s. It first released a noncommercial device made in conjunction with the Carter Center that was focused on stopping the parasitic Guinea worm. (The company donated more than one million of those filters last year.)



Today, the company, a certified B Corp since 2019, makes various filters and purifiers, along with some that take a straw form. Those plastic devices , which measure about an inch in diameter, have camping-trip vibes. The new metal Sip looks like a regular metal straw and is sleeker, measuring just half an inch across. 



That’s where the challenge arose. “When you reach this size, everything has to be perfectly optimized,” Madier says. Hidden inside all of LifeStraw’s straws is a membrane made of a material called polysulfone. That membrane has tiny pores in it, measuring .2 microns in size, that physically prevent bacteria or parasites from getting through. (To filter out viruses, you need a water purifier .)



[Photo: Lifestraw]



Madier says that while developing the Sip, they had to tweak variables such as the hydrophilicity of the membrane—that’s how easily it absorbs water—and the distribution of the pores. “We had to reach the right balance between flow rate and microorganism retention.”



The result looks like the metal straw from Oxo Good Grips , just a bit thicker. And because of the membrane within it, Lundy says it has “a little stronger draw, but it feels very similar to the other straws we have.” 



Now streaming



LifeStraw launched the Sip quietly in April on REI’s website and plans to launch it officially—at retailers including its own website, Amazon, and independent shops—starting May 17.



Although the company declines to share how the product is selling thus far, Lundy will say that “our head of supply chain is very stressed. Our sales team keeps upping their forecast.”



Part of the appeal for consumers seems to stem from the product’s versatility. “Traditionally, our products have been tucked in the camping section,” Lundy says, but “we’re seeing this is more of an impulse buy. This is travel. This is lifestyle.”



The straws currently cost $35 on REI’s site, or three for $90, and come with individual plastic carrying cases.