OKAPA in Fast Company: Hardy Steinmann on Engineering a New Category

Some ideas take years to prove right. Hardy Steinmann’s took a decade.

Fast Company recently sat down with OKAPA’s founder to explore the obsessive, decade-long journey behind the bottle and what it means to build a genuine luxury object in a category that has never had one.

Steinmann spent 10 years overseeing 10,000 prototypes, traversing factories across the globe, and securing 71 patents — all in pursuit of a water bottle that could stand alongside the watches, sunglasses, and precision objects he spent his career working on. His background spans director of marketing and sales at Hublot, EVP of Swatch Group USA (CEO Hamilton Watches Worldwide), and CEO of Swiss kitchenware brand Zyliss — a résumé that made him uniquely positioned to ask a question no one else was asking: why hasn’t hydration been elevated the way everything else has?

Twenty years ago, Steinmann told people the water bottle would become a status symbol. They didn’t believe him. He was right.

The Fast Company feature goes deep on the engineering — the German borosilicate 3.3 glass, the medical-grade components, the collaboration with design firm IDEO — but it’s Steinmann’s relentless vision that drives the narrative.

“Hardy is not easy to please. This is his own company, so it was Hardy on turbo.”

— Thomas Overthun, IDEO

It’s a portrait of a founder who refuses to compromise — and a brand built to outlast the moment.

Read the full feature at Fast Company: “This $300 Water Bottle Wants to Make Luxury Hydration a Thing.”