Identity is not something we have, but something we do, enacted through the choices we make in public. Plainly speaking, we’re all performative in our purchases, whether we realize it or not. And while the theory applies broadly to consumer culture, one category makes it more literal than any other. 

Water. 

It’s a product you use more publicly than almost any other. You carry it to meetings, chug it at the gym, leave it on your desk and in your cup holders, and tote it around the airport. It is the most precise example of a badging product, one whose value lies substantially in what it communicates to others about the person holding it.