By VeVe Staff · August 23, 2025
Every era of collecting has its icons, and for more than a century, none have been more recognizable than the Coca-Cola bottle. A familiar curve. A hiss of carbonation. A brand that turned packaging into pop culture.
The Coca-Cola bottle is more than a container. It is one of the most recognizable silhouettes in the world. A design so simplistic, yet successful, that it became shorthand for refreshment itself. For collectors, it has also become a treasure chest of Coca-Colacoke history. Each variation tells a story: a shift in glassmaking technology, a wartime shortage, a regional bottler trying to put its stamp on the world.
With the launch of Coca-Cola Vintage Bottles on VeVe, those stories move beyond archives and glass cabinets. They now live in the digital space, ready to be collected and preserved by fans around the world.
Explore the drop → Coca-Cola Vintage Bottles on VeVe
The Coca-Cola bottle carries with it more than a century of innovation and cultural significance. Each iteration, from the earliest straight-sided designs to the iconic curves of the contour bottle, reflects changing times.
“Obviously we’ve all had Coke in our lives,” said Devin Hart, Head of Production at VeVe. He and his team modeled and created the Coke bottles for the release on VeVe. “Especially being from Africa, we had really large glass bottles. I can remember as a young kid running around collecting them and taking them back to dairies to get 10 cents per bottle. That’s kind of how we bought lolly.”
For many collectors, bottles like these were not simply packaging. They were part of childhood memory and community life. Whether redeemed for change or swapped among friends, they became some of the earliest coke collectibles worth chasing.
Some of the most compelling stories in Coke history come from designs that never reached shelves. Among them is the Hobbleskirt prototype, an early attempt at what would later evolve into the famous contour bottle.
“This was meant to replace the bottles they had, because at that time the bottles were basically straight,” Hart explained. “They wanted to have this beautiful curved version, which had a really round shape. But as they were going through the bottling machines, they were exploding with the size and the shape. So there’s only two of these things in existence at the moment. One is with Coke and one is with the actual glass manufacturing company.”
To honor that rarity, VeVe aligned digital scarcity with real-world scarcity. Each bottle in the Coca-Cola Vintage set appears in two forms: a standard full version and an empty “chaser” bottle, awarded at random with a small chance upon purchase. For the Hobbleskirt prototype, however, the chaser is a true one-of-one.
Only two physical bottles survive in the world, and now only a single empty digital version exists on VeVe. By mirroring reality in digital form, the drop allows collectors to chase the same thrill that has defined coke collectibles for over a century while preserving the history and spirit of the original design.
Coca-Cola memorabilia has inspired a global community of collectors. Bottles, in particular, carry a unique significance, with enthusiasts chasing regional bottler marks, slight variations in glass, and limited production runs.
“I had no idea there were people that collected so much Coke stuff,” Hart admitted. “Especially in the U.S., people would travel across states to collect the different bottlings. Being in New Zealand, it was always the same one. We had no idea that there were so many different bottlers and distribution hubs, and they all were branded on the bottles themselves.”
For collectors, these details transform an everyday object into a cultural artifact. Each stamp and each contour variation tells a local story within a global brand, enriching the legacy of Coca-Cola history.
To recreate the bottles in digital form, VeVe’s Devin Hart worked closely with Coca-Cola’s own archival team, one of the most comprehensive brand archives in the world.
“Coke has got amazing databases, full of references and historic things that they’ve kept over the years,” Hart said. “Everything is in super high-quality detail. And it was great. Everything we suggested, they either had already, or they could supply it to us.”
The archive revealed not only the evolution of the bottle’s design but also the history behind it. Wartime shortages changed glass color. Labels shifted with branding trends. Each decision reflected a moment in Coke history, now preserved both physically and digitally.
While glass defines much of Coke history, the aluminum bottle points to the brand’s modern ethos.
“With the introduction of the aluminium bottle, it was to reduce plastic in the world, and it’s something that Coke really takes seriously,” Hart explained.
That commitment aligns naturally with VeVe’s own mission. “One of the amazing things about all of our digital collectibles is that they are carbon free,” said Corey Truax, Head of Content at VeVe. “Carbon neutrality has always been at the core of everything we do. That’s the beauty of digital collecting: there is no byproduct, no shipping, no packaging, no manufacturing. Nothing was made, but the story is preserved.”
Together, aluminum and digital design represent sustainability, carrying tradition forward without sacrificing the future.
Digitization allows coke collectibles to endure beyond the fragility of glass.
“As we digitize a product like that, we’re preserving history,” Truax said. “With one of these bottles, there are only two in the world. And one of the awesome things we get to do at VeVe is tell that story, but also create a time capsule for this piece of history and release it.”
Hart added, “This is another way of preserving that legacy and preserving the fine detail of how everything looked and felt and the story behind it. In a hundred years’ time, at least there’ll be a story about this. And that’s something historic.”
For collectors, this means more than digital ownership. It is the chance to interact with, and safeguard, cultural memory.
For collectors, the small touches often mean the most. A subtle curve, a shimmer of glass, or even the suggestion of use can elevate an object from a model to a memory. When the VeVe team recreated these bottles, they focused on details that would bring Coke collectibles to life in the digital space.
“With the aluminium bottle, we added fine condensation on the outside to show that there is liquid inside and it’s been in a cold refrigerator,” Hart explained. “We also built liquid inside the clear bottles, which moves back and forth if you tilt the bottle in AR. It was a fun way to make the experience feel real.”
The team also connected the bottles to a piece of VeVe history: the 1980s Coca-Cola Vending Machine. Released in a previous drop, the vending machine quickly became a fan favorite, allowing collectors to interact with Coke in a nostalgic new way.
“The other thing is the vending machine,” Hart said. “If you press the Coke label on the machine, it will light up and your Coke bottle will fall through with all the noises that it makes”.
By linking the bottles to the earlier drop, VeVe created a playful sense of continuity. Collectors who already own the vending machine gain a new layer of interactivity, while those discovering VeVe through this set get a glimpse of how Coke collectibles continue to build on one another.
Coca-Cola bottles are more than glass or aluminum. They are milestones of design, pop culture icons, and vessels of memory. For more than a century, collectors have sought them out, displayed them proudly, and preserved them as tangible connections to the past.
Now, VeVe extends that tradition into the digital space. Each Coca-Cola Vintage Bottle is both a tribute to the brand’s history and a promise to its future.
When a digital Coke bottle tilts in the VeVe app, when condensation beads on its surface, when a vending machine lights up and drops a promise to quench your thirst and curiosity, you are not simply engaging with an app. You are holding more than 100 years of Coke history in the palm of your hand.
Icons evolve, but their stories endure. On VeVe, Coke collectibles are honored, preserved, and shared in a new way. Discover the Coca-Cola Vintage Bottles on VeVe and collect your piece of digital history today.
Founded in 2018, VeVe was created for collectors by collectors to bring premium licensed digital collectibles to the mass market. With over 8 million NFTs sold, VeVe is the largest carbon neutral digital collectibles platform, and one of the top grossing Entertainment Apps in the Google Play and Apple stores. #CollectorsAtHeart
