meltie Is The Summer Accessory You Didn’t Know You Needed

We’ve all been there: You’re listening to your favorite summer playlist at the beach, watching your friends marvel at every expertly-planned needle drop, when all of a sudden, the music cuts out. Your phone is overheating, and you don’t have much time before the vibes hit a point of no return. Preventing such faux pas from happening are a top concern now that summer is on the way, but thankfully, we may have just found a solution.

meltie, the new high-end insulated accessories line by Madeleine Frank Reeves, launches on May 18, just in time for your first beachside getaway of the season. Designed to protect your most precious items from extreme heat, the cooling insulated sleeve (and its luxuriously stylish genuine leather exterior) is about to be the summer storage solution that didn’t know you needed. Your overly-expensive protein bar is oozing in your purse? Put it in a meltie. Your phone feels like it just came out of a tanning booth? meltie. Your lipstick is turning to mush? Yup, meltie can help with that, too.

“When I tell people what it is, the response is almost always why doesn’t that already exist? Followed quickly by, when can I buy one?,” Reeves tells NYLON. “I feel really proud of having made something that solves a tangible need.” We tapped in with the founder of this summer’s buzziest accessory on how the product came to life and her hopes for the future of meltie.

What did the process of developing meltie look like? Did you face any challenges regarding the production or design?

I’ve had a lot of product ideas before, and the “how do I actually get this made?” question was usually the thing that stopped me. With meltie, I knew it was the right idea to pursue because I was coming at it from a place of really wanting to make this, even if just for me and my friends, whether or not it turns into a business.

I started working on the product in earnest late last summer, dreaming it up and going through many design iterations. There [was] so much about insulation and the pure physicality of products that I had to learn. How different layers work together, what can make things bulkier, how different closures behave. The design process has essentially been to shoot for the moon, then figure out what can and physically can’t happen.

The other challenge was product testing. Building something designed for summer heat and tropical travel in the middle of fall and winter in New York meant getting creative. I went to Othership and took it into the 186-degree sauna to make sure it would hold up, and was so impressed by how solid the chocolate stayed after an hour. I also took it on a trip to Costa Rica in March for some real-world stress testing in the heat.

What’s your favorite thing about meltie?

That it solves a really clear need. I find that deeply satisfying. When you look at the products that excite consumers the most — Rhode’s lip gloss case for example — they’re often designed with a hyper-specific purpose in mind. There’s something so satisfying to my little Virgo brain about a product being for one purpose, specifically and unapologetically.

My other favorite thing about meltie is the packaging, which I was really intentional in designing. Each pocket arrives in a beautiful cobalt box that you can keep forever and use as a storage solution in and of itself. Inside, there’s a holographic ticket that invites you into the meltie universe with some really fun messaging. I love a surprise and delight moment, and the tickets have some hidden codes and easter eggs that relate to future drops.

What do you hope consumers take away from using meltie?

I hope they understand it as not just a product, but a ticket into a funhouse luxury universe. As a longtime magazine editor, I got hundreds of emails every single day, constantly being pitched products. I learned a lot about the marketplace, and what cuts through and what doesn’t. It’s almost never just the product. It’s the world around it. I wanted meltie to be a world from day one.

I want people to feel like they’re in on something when they buy a meltie product. I hope this summer people will spot each other’s meltie pockets in the wild and have a little IYKYK moment.

There’s also something powerful about being prepared, and meltie is for people who want to feel ready for anything while still operating from a frequency of fun. And in a moment when so much of life is happening on screens and through algorithms, I wanted to build something that pulls people toward each other. Toward parties, toward festivals, toward shared inside jokes. It’s a small, physical object that’s really about being present.

And watch this space. I'm working on more drops to come soon, everything from a smaller card-sized pouch designed for just a few gummies to a fully insulated crossbody bag.

The meltie debut drop is available now in three colorways —Slate Gray, Ivory, and Cobalt Blue — with each product arriving in a cobalt keepsake box for added protection.