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My favorite part about managing the Bivo customization program is hearing the stories of the people who want to get custom bottles (and working with them to make their visions come to life is pretty cool too…)

Early this winter, the New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA) reached out to Bivo and told us it was their 30th anniversary and they wanted custom Bivos to celebrate the milestone. This was big for me on multiple levels: not only had I grown up skiing in NENSA programs from kindergarten through my senior year of high school, but one of the people who reached out about this project babysat me when I was a child.  

Carina also has deep roots with NENSA, she grew up skiing in their programming as well, and I found out recently that her mom was the board chair for NENSA’s youth program right as NENSA started! Her kids now ski in all the same NENSA events that we both did so long ago.

Part of the NENSA newsletter from February 2025 and part of the NENSA newsletter from October 1995. See any familiar authors in the 1995 article?

I like to think that Bivo was chosen for this milestone because they knew me as a baby, not because they wanted to work with a local brand that made a product they believed in or because of Carina’s connections… But IDK I guess it could go either way. 

NENSA wasn’t sure what design they wanted on the bottle, so I got to do what I love to do and make a few versions of a design for them to use in their 30th anniversary, both on this bottle and for all their branding needs. Over the course of a few meetings, we narrowed in on a design and put the final choice between variations to the public. Once the winner was selected, I got to watch as the logo that I had helped create was added to their Instagram, website, emails, etc. It was a really cool feeling. 

The next step was to get their bottles laser engraved, which takes me to another part of the process that I really enjoy. The bottle production is pretty easy, I enter in an order, have the bottles sent to our partner in Pennsylvania, and typically that’s the end of the process for me unless the recipient sends an image of them with the bottles. I dream of Bivo getting our own laser machine so that we can do some projects in house, and I can see what it really takes to get them engraved. Even though we don’t do the engraving ourselves, I still feel a sense of pride in creating a high-quality product that I know people will love.

Look at that collection!

For these NENSA bottles, the plan was to sell them on our website so after production, they got shipped back to our office and I got to be the first to lay eyes on them. Perfectly engraved, as usual. I snapped a quick picture and sent it to NENSA and much to my relief (but not surprise) they were thrilled with the final product.

We are now proudly selling these NENSA bottles on our site, and it makes me so happy that I was able to help give back to the organization that I grew up loving!

Interested in getting custom bottles for your team or organization? I would love to work with you (even if I didn’t know you when I was six…)!

Learn more here!