FREEZE FLAT DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE
The company “MH Product Development” was established in March of 2017. The goal was to develop and bring to market two products. One of the products would eventually become the Freeze Flat. The 2nd product (the “Everwarm”) will be available in December 2022… finally.
After several months of prototyping and evaluating different construction methods the design was basically complete and the name “Freeze Flat” was selected (FF designation for the part number shown below). Although at this point, offering multiple center plates to allow for several bags to be frozen at once was still being considered. This was eventually abandoned because it was not very easy to handle or use. The quoting process and vendor evaluation began.
In February of 2018, a domestic supplier for the plastic had been selected and the injection molding tool was created. At this point using a sticker for the logo was still being considered. Shortly after the initial samples were made a decision to have the logo debossed into the plastic was decided on as the way to go forward.
In May of 2018 the first production order was completed. This followed testing of a few different materials. The initial material selected was a bit too brittle at low temperature.
By June of 2018, the first units of the Freeze Flat had been assembled and were being sold in a limited basis locally. This consisted mainly of directly selling from referrals from friends and family. A lot of free samples were distributed during this time to try and get the word out on the product.
By the end of September 2018 the decision was made to focus on selling on Amazon. The process of setting this up took some time. The listing was setup in late November and the first sale was in December of 2018.