If you work at a desk year-round, you know the feeling when winter comes around. The temperature drops, the chill sets in, and suddenly your beautifully curated workspace becomes a battleground against the cold.
When we started Jaffle, it was out of a shared frustration.
It’s something of a national joke that Australian houses are freezing cold in winter. Many visitors from the Northern Hemisphere report that their winters spent in Australia were the coldest of their lives.
It’s because Aussie buildings are designed for hot summers. In winter we all quietly suffer, and so does our focus and productivity.
So we set out to find the perfect solution. We couldn’t suffer through another Tasmanian winter. Enough was enough.
We bought fingerless gloves, but they felt clumsy and ruined the tactile feedback of typing and using a mouse, and they were a hassle to take on and off.
We tried cradling a hot cup of tea, using microwavable heat packs and single-use hand warmers, but they all inevitably went cold, and the constant stopping and starting and managing our warmth shattered our concentration.
We even caught ourselves sitting on our hands between emails just to thaw them out.
We tried blankets, dressing gowns and bulky clothes, all of which were a hassle to wear and looked highly suspect in Zoom meetings, explained away with ‘Sorry about my outfit, my house is freezing!’
We were spending more mental energy trying to stay warm than we were on our actual work. Nothing kept our hands warm while keeping our minds fully on task.
We needed to get warm and reclaim our winter workdays.
But as award-winning product designers, we refused to introduce anything clunky or ugly into our workspaces.
Designing for Unbroken Focus
The brief we set for ourselves was simple: create a source of warmth that is elegant, effortless, and entirely invisible to your workflow (and others on video calls or in the office).
The Jaffle Heated Desk Mat was born from this desire to gently deliver heat right where you need it, without asking you to change how you work, or your workspace aesthetic.
Because your skin rests against a desk mat for hours a day, materiality was our first obsession. It had to feel premium and look great no matter the season.
After extensive testing, we found a beautiful, supple vegan leather that gently transmits warmth while remaining spill-resistant and cruelty-free.
But we also know that an inspiring workspace is a dynamic one. You might change your office color palette or upgrade your peripherals. Instead of building a disposable tech product, we designed the vegan leather covers to be fully swappable. It’s a commitment to longevity and reducing waste, where your mat adapts as your style evolves.
Quiet Technology
To keep your mind on task, the technology keeping you warm needs to disappear.
We integrated four precise heat levels, allowing you to dial in the right amount of ambient warmth for your body and your environment on any given day.
And because a distracted mind is often an anxious mind, we built in multiple, rigorous safety features. With auto-off and a triple sensor safety system designed to Australian standards, you never have to worry if you left your mat on, you can simply step away from your desk with total peace of mind.
Jaffle is powered by USB-C, the power standard that’s not only future-proof, but safer than mains powered devices.
Elegant, Effortless and Efficient
With its direct and targeted warmth, Jaffle heats you… not the entire room. This means Jaffle is vastly more efficient than space heaters or central heaters, drawing just 85W at maximum power compared to between 900 and 2400 watts for a traditional space heater.
Reclaiming Your Flow State
Jaffle is a tool for focus, comfort and efficiency, and we’re pleased to share the simple joy of staying cosy with you, from our homes and offices in Tassie to wherever you do your best work.
