Tag Archives: starbucks

Starbucks x Traveler’s Company Made a Collab Worth Flying to Tokyo For

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As a stationery fiend, I always look forward to the second half of the year because most brands announce their lineups for the next year. I also look forward to the collaborations they create with other related (and sometimes completely unrelated) companies, the kind that make me want to support either brand, depending on how I’ll be able to get my hands on the often limited-edition products.

Some collaborations exist purely for hype. They look good in a press release, generate the right amount of social media noise, and then quietly disappear from shelves and memory. The new Starbucks Reserve Roastery Tokyo x Traveler’s Company collection is not that. It’s the kind of collab that makes sense on paper, and even more sense when you actually hold the pieces in your hands.

Designer: Starbucks x Traveler’s Company

For those not already deep in the cult of Traveler’s Company, let me make the introduction. Founded in Tokyo, Traveler’s Company makes handcrafted leather notebooks and stationery that have earned a devoted following among journalers, designers, travelers, and the kind of people who still believe that writing by hand is an act worth protecting. Their flagship Traveler’s Notebook has become iconic in its own quiet way, a slim leather cover held together by an elastic band, designed to age beautifully and accumulate memories over time. It’s the opposite of disposable. Their annual theme for 2026 is fittingly called “Spirit,” inspired by the excitement of when a journey begins and the pleasure of setting off somewhere completely new.

Then there’s the Starbucks Reserve Roastery Tokyo. Tucked into the leafy streets of Nakameguro, it isn’t your average Starbucks. It’s a flagship experience space housed in a building by renowned architect Kengo Kuma, where the coffee is treated more like a craft than a morning routine. Both brands are, at their core, about the experience of being fully present in a moment. So the partnership makes complete sense.

The 2026 collection arrives with a handful of pieces that feel considered rather than rushed. The canvas tote bag is the showstopper. Designed to mimic the look of a well-traveled suitcase covered in destination stickers, with Roastery Tokyo and Nakameguro as the featured stops, it carries the whole spirit of the collab on its exterior. Inside, there’s a pocket sized specifically to hold a Traveler’s Notebook, plus room for a tumbler or bottle and the rest of your everyday essentials. At 5,000 yen, it’s the kind of bag you’d actually reach for daily without feeling like a walking advertisement. It just looks like you’ve been somewhere interesting.

The cotton drawstring bag at 1,800 yen is smaller in scale but just as thoughtful. Designed to hold a bag of coffee beans, it sounds specific until you realize how often people buy coffee as a souvenir and then have absolutely nothing appropriate to carry it home in. It also doubles as an inner bag organizer, which is the kind of practical thinking that elevates a piece from cute to genuinely useful.

The postcard set is a quiet standout. Six cards featuring original Traveler’s Company illustrations of Roastery Tokyo icons, each printed on a different textured paper. In a moment when even birthday greetings arrive as voice memos, sending something handwritten on paper that was clearly chosen with care feels like a small, intentional act. The collection also includes a notebook set complete with a matching pen, pen loop, and zipper case, the kind of cohesive little kit that looks like it belongs in the bag of someone who has their life meaningfully together.

What makes this collaboration feel different from the average branded merchandise drop is that both parties seem to genuinely understand what the other is about. Traveler’s Company didn’t just place a Starbucks logo on a notebook. The design language is rooted in travel, in coffee as ritual, in the beauty of slow and deliberate moments. Every piece in the collection tells the same story without having to say it outright.

The collection is exclusive to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery Tokyo in Nakameguro, which makes it inherently precious for anyone outside of Japan. The fact that resellers have already picked it up on platforms like Etsy says everything about the demand. For those who can make the trip, the Nakameguro store is worth visiting on its own. That you can leave with a limited-edition collab bag full of coffee and a new notebook is simply a bonus. Some things are made to be used, loved, and carried forward. This collection is exactly that kind of thing.

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Starbucks built a Yeti cooler for your Venti Iced Lattes, but you can’t buy one yet

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You know what’s ‘vertical integration’? Starbucks building its own cooler box for its own beverages. Meet the Yeti-alternative that’s designed not for your Budweisers, but for your venti iced lattes. It’s called the Starbucks Ice Box, and while it looks perfect from top to bottom, it has one problem: it’s only available in South Korea.

The design is deceptively simple but gets every detail right. Four individual cup slots keep drinks stable and separated, eliminating the float-and-tip chaos that happens when you throw tall cups into a standard cooler. A dedicated ice compartment sits at the bottom, isolated from the drinks themselves so you’re not fishing cups out of melted ice water an hour later. The domed lid has ventilation slots that allow air circulation without sacrificing insulation, and those side latches look substantial enough to actually keep everything secure when you hit a pothole. It’s wrapped in Starbucks’ forest green colorway, compact enough to fit behind a car seat or in a trunk corner, and clearly designed by people who have done the group coffee run enough times to know exactly where the pain points are. The proportions feel right in a way that general-purpose coolers never quite nail when you’re dealing with tall, narrow vessels.

Design: Starbucks Korea

This isn’t Starbucks’ first merch attempt. They’ve consistently pushed out loads of accessories over the years, mostly in eastern markets (like these TWS earbuds in collaboration with Samsung, and these $28 retro cameras that they debuted in China) although this one feels way more purposeful than any of their other launches. It’s something people will buy and use for years, rather than becoming just another collectible, and you know that if someone’s buying a Starbucks cooler, they’re a customer for life. Vertical integration for the win!

The design is as simple as it gets. The insulated walls keep the insides whatever temperature you want. Although built for iced drinks, you can put your hot beverages in too and have them piping even after hours. For iced drinks, you can also add ice packs into the cooler to chill them down further – just be careful they don’t drip or the cups could get soggy. A lift-out tray holds four venti drinks, because if you’re the kind to drink regulars, you probably wouldn’t be keeping them for hours. The clamp-lid ensures everything is locked in tight, and a Starbucks-branded handle sits flush against the top, giving the entire thing a gorgeously monolithic design.

The only place you can grab this right now is on obscure sites online. A Japanese website has it listed for ¥26,530 or $169 USD, not including shipping. If anyone in Starbucks’ global team is reading this, consider it your sign to manufacture this for the American and European audiences too, trust me, your annual turnover will thank you!

The post Starbucks built a Yeti cooler for your Venti Iced Lattes, but you can’t buy one yet first appeared on Yanko Design.

Starbucks China Is Selling a $28 Camera With Dual Sensors and Y2K Filters

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Starbucks wants you to photograph your coffee so badly that they’ve started selling you the camera to do it with. The Seattle coffee chain has ventured into digital imaging with a retro-styled camera that’s generating buzz for being surprisingly functional rather than just another piece of logo-plastered merchandise.

Released in China for the 2025 holiday season, the Starbucks Retro Digital Camera comes with dual sensors, vintage filters, and a design aesthetic borrowed from classic rangefinder cameras. At 198 yuan (roughly $28), it undercuts almost every digital camera on the market while offering features like proper selfie framing through its rear sensor and Y2K photo overlays. The metal-and-leather construction in burgundy-gold or green-silver colorways suggests Starbucks contracted with an established camera manufacturer rather than creating novelty electronics from scratch.

Designer: Starbucks

Look, Starbucks absolutely did not design this camera from the ground up. That $28 price point screams white-label collaboration with one of China’s numerous budget camera OEMs, and honestly, why wouldn’t they? The country has an entire ecosystem of manufacturers churning out retro-inspired digital cameras for the nostalgia market. You’d be an idiot to build camera R&D infrastructure when you’re a coffee company. Slap your logo on proven hardware, customize the leather colors, engrave “EVERY MOMENT MATTERS” around the lens ring, and call it a day. Starbucks already did this dance with LOMO on an instant camera in 2024, so they know the playbook. Partner with people who actually understand imaging sensors and leave the coffee roasting to yourself.

What actually matters here is that dual-sensor setup, because it solves a problem that every budget camera has ignored for decades. Taking selfies with a traditional camera means holding it at arm’s length, pressing the shutter, and praying you’re somewhere in the frame. Maybe your face is cut off. Maybe you captured mostly ceiling. Who knows? Starbucks stuck a second sensor where the viewfinder would normally sit, turning decorative nonsense into a functional front-facing camera. You frame yourself on the rear LCD exactly like using a smartphone, which means the target audience (people who want filtered photos for Instagram) can actually use this thing without wanting to throw it against a wall. Those nine Y2K photo frame overlays and retro filters are pure nostalgia bait, but we’re drowning in millennium aesthetics right now anyway. Fashion’s doing it, UI design’s doing it, why shouldn’t cameras?

Resale prices jumped to $72 almost immediately, which tells you everything about actual demand. Triple the original price means people want these as functional devices, not just collectors hoarding Starbucks merch. The lychee leather texture and metal construction feel surprisingly premium when you hold one. Those decorative dials on top are completely useless, sure, but they nail the vintage rangefinder look well enough that you’d need to inspect closely to realize this costs less than a week of lattes. At some point, perceived quality matters as much as actual specs, especially when you’re targeting casual photographers who care more about vibes than aperture settings.

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Starbucks Japan lets you put a barista apron on customizable tumblers

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Whenever I see the latest Starbucks merch that drops in Japan, I kind of regret not living there so I can get easy access to these cute collectibles. Eventually they become available in various online stores in my country but they’re more expensive of course, even for a semi-collector like me. The Starbucks Japan online store is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and they released a customizable tumbler that you can customize and make look like a cute inanimate barista.

Designer: Starbucks

The My Custom Stainless Steel Bottle Barista is an online store exclusive product that you can customize and order with a possible 343 combinations. When you take a look at the basic tumbler, it just looks like any other regular tumbler but the joy comes in creating one according to your color preference and then dressing it up with other accessories to make it more like you. This is supposedly like how you would customize your drink if you’re that kind of Starbucks drinker.

When you place your order online, you can choose what color your cap, drinking rim, and bottle will be. There are seven color options – black, white, light green, green, pink, blue, and gradated pink-yellow. But the cutest customization here is that you can dress up the tumbler in a barista apron in its iconic green color. The apron is not just decorative but also functional as it can help you hold your drink if it’s too warm or too cold. There’s also a pocket where you can place notes, cards, or the beverage ticket that comes with your online order that lets you enjoy a free refill when you go to your Starbucks.

They also want you to add even more personalized touches to your tumbler like ribbons, patches, pins, and stickers, although they don’t seem to be selling things like that. Maybe they’ll do so eventually, like how Crocs sells things like Jibbitz charms. I’m still hoping someone from Japan will send me one of these cool steel bottles, no matter what the color combinations are.

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