Stand up pouches were used commercially for the first time during the early 1960s. A heath drinks manufacturer, Capri Sun, experimented with stand up packaging by shipping its fruit flavored drinks in these pouch bags. The Capri Sun experiment failed to incite interest from other large companies. There was a dearth of manufacturers in the United States who could produce pouch-making machines. It was expensive to import from other countries. Together these bottlenecks kept commercial use of stand up pouches strangled for three decades.

The situation in the United States has changed drastically after three decades. The mid-1990s witnessed a strong environmental protection movement in the country. Protecting the environment was the new fad. Eager to capitalize, many manufacturers started digging for alternative methods to package their goods to appear environment friendly.

Coincidentally, many companies had outsourced manufacturing to mainland China by then, so importing stand up pouch machines was not as expensive as before. At the same time a few domestic manufacturers had also sprung up.

Manufacturers who had started using stand up pouches during the heightened public concern about the environment continued to use them. They soon discovered stand up pouches are not only environment friendly, but they are also cheaper to produce and they are more consumer friendly.