RTIC Coolers.. Cheap Yeti Alternative

[jaysoda]

Yeti, Orca, Grizzly, RTIC, they're all the exact same thing...except the RTIC is half the price of the other three.

I hope RTIC sells a million coolers, and drives the price of all of them down to a reasonable level.

 

[Trial153]

One thing everyone is forgetting.....so far they haven't sold any coolers yet...and it doesn't even look like they have any coolers to sell yet. It also looks like said they need you deposits to produce the collars that they don't have for sale yet. It's a cheap enough gamble on a deposit ...however when I am supply money as venture capital I expect a return on it, a cooler isn't my idea of return.
We have yet to see if their business model is sustainable.

 

[Ryan Avery]

Except one is made in china!

Looks like the consumer is the winner.

 

[brewer427]

Honestly, after looking at their website, they deserve to be getting sued in my book.

I'm all for a cheaper alternative, but it's pretty clear they are trying to rip off Yeti. Same color scheme, 4 letter name, the word "Yeti" all over their site so they can rank for it when people search it...I mean come on, a little originality would be courteous. Or you can just try to rip off a prominent brand that someone else put the work in to.

Just my opinion....but I'd rather pay extra to someone who didn't steal their idea.

Agreed, I don't care how much more expensive they are. The guys at yeti put in the work to design and get it off the ground and start the evolution of where the coolers are at today. So for somebody to just steal another's idea and design is extremely lazy and selfish. At least coolers like Pelican and K2 put in the work and designed there own cooler and latches and just didn't copy yeti.

Just my 2cents

 

[Travis Bertrand]

Agreed, I don't care how much more expensive they are. The guys at yeti put in the work to design and get it off the ground and start the evolution of where the coolers are at today. So for somebody to just steal another's idea and design is extremely lazy and selfish. At least coolers like Pelican and K2 put in the work and designed there own cooler and latches and just didn't copy yeti.

Just my 2cents

Agreed but have to throw this in, yeti sold out a while ago to a big corporation. So the people at yeti now didn't really design the yeti.

 

[tipsntails7]

Honestly you could consider all of them rip offs at some point, I'm not sure who had the first rotomolded cooler was, icy tek? I know engel has been around awhile as well. The only thing differerent about any of them is the latches. If you took white models all the same size and put them on a truck facing away from you the pelican may be the only one you could pick out.

 

[kodiakfly]

They've got balls for sure. They are Yeti clones, and I can't believe they didn't expect Yeti to take notice. They even advertise the same swirl drain feature. There was another cooler company maybe 4-5 years ago that cloned Yeti and sold for half the price and I can't even remember their name...so I guess we know how that worked out.

I have three Yetis, but I'm not against the other brands out there. I've just had the Yetis for so long that I got them before the cooler market was as large as it is now and options weren't what they are now. But like someone else said, I'm probably not going to ever need another cooler.

 

[brewer427]

I just went to there Facebook page and seen there small cooler with the metal handle looks exactly like yeti's and they said they have a soft side cooler coming out early next year. Guaranty it's going to look just like yeti...

 

[Bmcox86]

To bad they won't ship to Alaska

 

[adirondak5]

Honestly you could consider all of them rip offs at some point, I'm not sure who had the first rotomolded cooler was, icy tek? I know engel has been around awhile as well. The only thing differerent about any of them is the latches. If you took white models all the same size and put them on a truck facing away from you the pelican may be the only one you could pick out.

Pretty hard to find any info on the first rotomolded coolers , the only thing I could find was Pelican had smaller medical coolers out years ago , for organ transport , and those were the basis for today's larger coolers . Don't know if that's true or not but seems plausible . Yeti coolers are pretty nice , their marketing is the best , one of the reasons they get what they get for their coolers . RTIC looks pretty good , not much different than Yeti , hence the infringement lawsuit . Be interesting to see if they survive to ship any coolers .

 

[Travis Bertrand]

Icey-tek was the first according to them...

 

[Shrek]

I'm betting these guys make it off the ground. Somewhere I read that they also own a web based shipping box company so they have some resources and I'm sure they'll tiptoe around any patent issues. More competition is good for the consumer. Sounds like they are making these overseas like Yeti and they're waiting for their containers full of coolers to arrive. Basing that on the preorder shipping dates. Web based direct to consumer is the future imo. I rarely go to a store for anything other than groceries. Shoes , clothes , hunting supplies , loading supplies , rifles , you name it and I'm ordering it. Any company that is depending on retailers needs to start a web based brand for the future. I'm thinking of companies like Sitka or First Lite. They have the knowledge and product pipelines to compete with anyone but have to keep prices high in the web store to allow for retail margins for their wholesale customers. They need separate shadow brands for the web.

 

[blackdog]

Another knockoff to look at is coldecoolers.com. My brother actually just got a 115 a couple weeks ago, just in time to use and abuse it at a 3 days country music festival. Said it worked really well and at $299, way cheaper than an equivalent Yeti. I'll be taking it to Arizona in another couple weeks for further use and abuse and looking forward to seeing how it does but not expecting any issues.

 

[TEmbry]

Speaking of knock offs... has anyone seen the Orca line of coolers in person? I own one (mainly because I got a screaming deal on it), but man alive I can't believe yeti hasn't sued them either. The overall look, the rubber latches, basically everything about them screams Yeti. I bet if you put Yeti emblems on one and set it beside a Yeti 50% of the people out there would guess wrong as to which the real Yeti is.

 

[cornfedkiller]

Speaking of knock offs... has anyone seen the Orca line of coolers in person? I own one (mainly because I got a screaming deal on it), but man alive I can't believe yeti hasn't sued them either. The overall look, the rubber latches, basically everything about them screams Yeti. I bet if you put Yeti emblems on one and set it beside a Yeti 50% of the people out there would guess wrong as to which the real Yeti is.

Just looked them up, and a 58qt is $410..Thats even higher priced than a Yeti!

 

[TEmbry]

Just looked them up, and a 58qt is $410..Thats even higher priced than a Yeti!

They are the new cooler version of Yeti in the Southeast now that Yeti has went mainstream... I got one for 50% off so felt I could justify it.

 

[Jay03]

Orca coolers are made in America, probably why they are spendy.

 

[TNArcher]

I have an Rtic on order and plan on doing a thorough review against a friends equivalent Yeti. I'll post it up if the cooler ever arrives!

 

[cornfedkiller]

I have an Rtic on order and plan on doing a thorough review against a friends equivalent Yeti. I'll post it up if the cooler ever arrives!

Have you heard any updates on when you can expect to get yours? Seems like they havent updated much lately.

 

[TNArcher]

I emailed them and they replied an expected delivery of OCT 31.