Winter is by far my favorite season of the year, as the temperature drops, my excitement rises! Chilly nights followed by frosty morning, cozy naps in bed with blankets wrapped around me, and cups of hot cocoa – it all sounds like heaven to me. As blissful and beautiful as winter can be, it can also be harsh on our bodies and our lifestyles, if we don’t equip ourselves for it. So, we’ve curated a bunch of super interesting and handy designs to get you through this winter season…in style! From a coffee table that holds an electric fireplace to a super cute cup warmer that heats your drink, and charges your smartphone – these innovative product designs are the ultimate winter essentials for you. They’ll transform this winter season into a breeze!
1. The Noori V02 AIRY
Boasting an enameled steel construction, the Noori V02 AIRY is a multifunctional outdoor grill, pizza oven, rocket stove, and a fire pit – all in one! Not to mention, it’s probably one of the best-looking grills I’ve seen in a long time, it’ll be the perfect visual accessory to your backyard. The grill consists of six refractory concrete internal plates. These plates + an AIRY cylinder make up the grill’s innovative AIRY system (which also gives the product its name). This basically means that to set up an open fire, you simply need to remove a few refractory plates from within the AIRY cylinder, which instantly exposes the flames, creating the mesmerizing flame dance we all love to watch in an open fire! Much like its predecessor the Noori V02 AIRY also features a pizza disc, allowing you to not only bake up some pizzas but bread as well.
2. Hearth
Designer Max Burton designed a coffee table appropriately named “Hearth.” At first glance, it looks like a stylish but normal table with a black tabletop and a shuttered base. Even in this dormant state, it already functions as a beautiful centerpiece for people to gather, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Twist that tabletop clockwise like a giant dial, and the slanted fins at the base open up, revealing the electric heater inside. The twisting motion might remind some of a more advanced thermostat, and it almost offers the same capability. Once opened, the Hearth sucks in air from hidden ducts on its underside and then blows heated air out the fins, warming the entire room evenly in all directions.
3. Mujjo’s Touchscreen Gloves
Designed to match the aesthetic seen on Mujjo’s leather iPhone cases, the gloves sport a similar all-leather look along with a fold-over closure that’s marked with the brand’s familiar slant line, created by Mujjo co-founder Remy Nagelmaeker. The gloves sport a design that’s an instant classic, thanks to its use of full-grain Ethiopian lambskin leather with a uniform bold black aesthetic. The snap closure around the wrist elegantly secures the gloves on your hands, creating a snug fit while also keeping cold air out so your hands remain warm at all times. A cashmere layer helps keep your extremities toasty while providing an unmatched level of comfort, although the highlight remains the nanotechnology-infused leather which works almost like a second skin, letting you use your phone just like you normally would… with any part of your hand.
4. The Breez Desktop Hand-Warmer
If you’ve ever tried to text in the cold, you know that your fingers tend to lock because of the low temperatures… so imagine trying to type on a keyboard in the cold. Whether you’re working or gaming, the Breez desktop hand-warmer keeps your fingers toasty as you clack away at the keys of your USB or wireless keyboard. The horizontal radiator design uniformly warms your hands as you type, covering the entire keyboard so there’s never a cold zone near the Numpad.
5. 005G
005G is a neckwarmer designed by Xiaoming for cold winter mornings when hitting the snooze button is all too tempting. As the seasons change, our bodily needs do too. With winter quickly approaching, the cold, dry air has us shopping for winter accessories like weighted blankets, moisturizers, and steam inhalers. Despite having the heater turned all the way up to stave off the cold, an extra blanket or pair of fuzzy socks always brings just the right amount of coziness. Industrial designer Xiaoming is bringing coziness to this winter season with 005G, a neck warmer that drapes around your shoulders just like a warm towel.
6. The Quanta Vici
With the ability to comfortably warm up to a wonderful 130F, Quanta Vici’s gloves and socks help perfectly cap off any winterwear outfit, ensuring that your extremities don’t end up feeling cold while your body feels warm. The apparel is app-controlled, charges via USB-C, and has a battery life of anywhere between 6 and 50 hours. Additionally, the gloves come with capacitive touch-sensitivity, which allows you to use your phone with the gloves on (you won’t be able to use the fingerprint unlock, obviously), while the socks have compression ribbing, anti-blister cushions, and arch support to make them comfortable over long hours. Both the gloves and socks are designed with a ventilation mesh too, to promote breathability and comfort over prolonged wearing, and are designed to be anti-slip too.
7. Vollebak’s Indestructible Puffer
Vollebak’s ‘Indestructible Puffer’ is exactly what its name says it is. And the puffer owes its indestructibility to the ‘single strongest fiber known to man’, Dyneema. Dyneema is said to be 15x stronger than Steel. If you’re ever headed to the coldest place on Earth, this jacket’s got to be in your hand luggage. The Indestructible Puffer can withstand temperatures as low as 140 degrees Fahrenheit. In fact, the cold only titillates the puffer. As the temperature drops, the jacket goes into Hulk mode, gaining strength as it gets colder.
8. Dadaism J’s cup warmer
There is nothing that meets the pleasure of a steaming hot coffee or tea while working. You get an extra kick to stay productive for a few more hours. However, there are times when you tend to forget and that hot beverage is left to become a cold brew sitting on the table. This is where a cup warmer like the one conceptualized by designer Dadaism J comes into the equation. The functionality of this cup warmer is to keep your compatible cup heated from the bottom to ensure the beverage inside remains at a particular temperature. This ensures you don’t have to sip on cold brew when your mug should have had a piping hot beverage.
9. The Delivery Jacket
With these winter months getting colder and more treacherous, keeping dogs and puppies with shorter hair warm is a top priority for dog owners. In fact, 40% of dog-owners based in the U.S.A. bought some item of clothing for their dog. If you’re looking to upgrade your’s pup’s wardrobe for the new year, the collection of dog jackets from Between Two Naps features some other fun options, like headpieces topped with pillows and puppy-themed, plush racing helmets. The Delivery Jacket, however, is their upcycled option, which comes one-of-a-kind, with a cropped body and elasticated underside. Their design features classic packing labels embedded into the jacket’s fabric that includes random words such as “sleep,” which help the store owners track outbound shipments.
10. The flo
The flo is a desk fan that is portable by nature. The fan’s facade is actually covered – no more hurting your finger by occasionally poking into the blades. The fan can be regulated using a temperature dial at the back of flo – allowing you to easily switch between heating and cooling functionalities. One of the better functionality of the design is the use of a filter, that purifies the air being thrown at you, rather than having the dust from your fan blades being thrown at you. The fan also uses a simple USB-C cable to stay charged at all times. Flo’s aesthetics are simple, yet minimal, making it an easy to own and use piece over the years. And given how it works for all seasons – it reduces the storage space required for the off-seasons.