Vessyl facts for kids
Vessyl was a special "smart" drinking glass that was planned to be released in 2014. It was designed by a company called Mark One. This cup was meant to have tiny sensors inside it. These sensors could connect to a smartphone and tell you all sorts of things about what you were drinking. For example, it could tell you the nutrition facts of your drink! The people who created Vessyl hoped it would help users make healthier choices about what they drank every day.
The Vessyl cup was supposed to charge wirelessly using a special base that came with it. A famous designer named Yves Béhar and his company, Fuseproject, helped create the look of the Vessyl.
What Was Vessyl?
When Vessyl was first shown to the public in June 2014, many journalists were very impressed by live demonstrations. A magazine called Wired said it was a "fascinating milestone." CNN called it "groundbreaking," meaning it was a big new idea.
At first, Vessyl was expected to be sent out to people in "Early 2015." However, in March 2015, Mark One announced that they needed more time. They said the shipping date would move to "Q4 2015" (the last three months of 2015) because they wanted to make sure the cup worked perfectly.
In May 2015, Mark One got more money from investors to help their business grow. Soon after, in June 2015, the co-founder and CEO, Justin Lee, decided to step down from his role. He handed the CEO job to someone with more experience. After this, Justin Lee was no longer involved in the daily work at Mark One.
In October 2015, Mark One announced a new product called Pryme Vessyl. This was a simpler smart cup that mainly focused on tracking how much water you drank, a feature called Pryme. At the same time, Mark One also announced that the original Vessyl would be delayed even more.
Pryme Vessyl became available to buy in November 2015. You could find it in Apple Stores across North America.
In April 2016, Mark One gave a new update for Vessyl. They estimated it would be finished in "late 2017," using updated sensor technology.
By July 2017, if you emailed the company about Vessyl, they would reply saying they had "isolated the existing issues and have completed a plan to move forward with and that we are confident in." This meant they thought they had fixed the problems.
However, by December 22, 2017, the company's website (www.myvessyl.com) was still working, but people who had pre-ordered Vessyl could no longer log into their accounts. Before the end of that month, the website stopped working completely.
By 2018, Mark One, the company that made Vessyl, was no longer in business. When the company closed, many people who had pre-ordered Vessyl did not receive any official message about the shutdown. The company stopped replying to their questions, and the money they had paid for their pre-orders was lost.
Pryme Vessyl
In October 2015, Mark One introduced a new product called Pryme Vessyl. This smart cup was mainly designed to track how much you drank, focusing on Vessyl's automatic hydration feature called Pryme.
When they introduced Pryme Vessyl in October 2015, Mark One also announced that the original Vessyl would be delayed again. They said this was because of challenges with setting up the sensors and to make sure the product was of good quality.
Vessyl Pre-Order Customer Issues
In October 2015, the company said they would give refunds to people who did not want to wait for the delayed Vessyl. However, many customers who asked for refunds never got their money back. Others had to wait for many months, and only received their refunds after sending many emails to the company.
Mark One also offered Pryme Vessyl for free to customers who had pre-ordered the original Vessyl and decided to keep waiting for it. This was meant as a thank you for their patience.
Pryme Vessyl was released to the public in November 2015. The company promised that early supporters who chose not to ask for a refund could get a free Pryme Vessyl. This was a reward for being patient and continuing to support the company.
Sadly, many of these free Pryme Vessyl orders were never sent out. The company chose to send products to stores instead of fulfilling their promise to their early supporters.
