Sorry, Stanley: The 'world's most comfortable' cup is made in Brunswick County

Michael Schultz was never much of a coffee drinker but working from home at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he began drinking coffee every morning.

“I don’t know if it was just a more stressful time or just spending more time at home and trying to stay awake while working at home instead of being in an office environment,” Schultz said.

Schultz quickly ran into a problem as he began using his wife’s traditional coffee mugs.

“She has smaller hands than me and a lot of times it just wasn’t comfortable, I’d have to cram my finders into a smaller handle,” Schultz said. “Or I’d get my hands full with a bowl of cereal and a notebook and try to walk to my desk and the mug would inevitably slip down and then start burning my fingers and knuckles.”

Schultz, who has a background in engineering, got to work designing a handle that would be more comfortable to hold and less likely to slip. He 3-D printed his idea.

That was over two years ago, and what started as a solution to a personal problem has now grown into a patent-pending mug that is being shipped from Brunswick County across the country.

The Momnt Mug has a uniquely designed handle that allows a user to insert their pointer and middle fingers into the handle while their ring and pinky fingers press into a curve along the outside of the handle, preventing the mug from slipping. A banner across the product's market booth touts it as the "World's Most Comfortable Coffee Mug."

“It also reduces the amount of pressure that you feel because we widened out that bottom part of the mug,” Schultz added. “I did a test and there was actually about five times more surface area between your finger on the handle compared to a regular mug.”

While it doesn't have quite the buzz of the Stanley cup craze, a recent social media post garnered hundreds of comments and jumpstarted orders.

Schultz is originally from Georgia and his wife grew up in Virginia. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, the couple was living in Colorado and, unable to easily fly home to visit family, decided to move within driving distance of both states, landing in Brunswick County in 2022.

While the idea for the Momnt Mug sparked while the couple was living in Colorado, Schultz revisited the idea and made a few tweaks about a year ago, beginning production shortly after that. The couple began selling the mug at local markets in Southport, Oak Island, Sunset Beach and Holden Beach.

Over the summer, Momnt Mugs was placed in its first retail location – Café Ahora in Holden Beach. Schultz said the local business “really helped us” by putting the product on shelves.

The couple recently opened a storefront location in Supply, near Holden Beach. The store, Artisan Tide, is located at 2852 Old Ferry Road, Unit B in Supply, and offers art and artisan products created by local makers and encourages art and entrepreneurship in the area.

The mug was designed with comfort in mind and for anyone to use, Schultz said, but he’s found the unique design has also provided accessibility benefits to individuals with arthritis and weaker hands.

This is not the couple’s first business venture – while living out west, Schultz designed and manufactured a cup holder adapter, meant to better hold bottles with larger diameters, such as HydroFlasks. Momnt Mugs, Schultz said, is patent pending.

The public reaction, he said, has been largely positive but people usually come to his booth with some skepticism.

“Everyone has used regular mugs their whole lives, so when you come up to them and show them something that’s completely different, not everyone’s going to jump on board,” Schultz said. “But when people try it and compare it to a traditional mug, you can see on their faces they’re convinced.”

Even without physically holding it, the mug is convincing a large online audience of its benefits. A post on Instagram received lots of attention early this year, garnering more than 400,000 views and nearly 70,000 likes. The viral post led to a rush of online orders, Schultz said.

“The vast majority of comments have been positive and people seem excited to try it,” Schultz said. “We’re almost at that stage where a lot of these initial customers that we’ve been busy sending product to should be receiving mugs and hopefully we’ll get some feedback.”

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Whether the creator will ever go on Shark Tank remains unknown. Schultz said the team is currently focused on filling orders and continuing the momentum the product is currently experiencing.

Jamey Cross covers Brunswick County for the StarNews. Reach her at jbcross@gannett.com or message her on Twitter/X @jameybcross.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Not Stanley: Brunswick man makes 'world's most comfortable coffee mug'