memobottle is the cult water bottle brand from Melbourne that’s taken the world by storm, selling millions of flat bottles in its 12 years in business. Now it’s reinventing the traditional round bottle it originally broke away from.

From showing up at the Big Design Market over 10 years ago to being stocked in 2000 retail locations in over 100 countries, the brand has made a name for itself with its iconic flat water bottle design. Designed to fit in a bag alongside a book or laptop, the paper-sized flat water bottles were designed to fit with how people live.

Always ones to focus on the practicalities, co-founders Jonno Byrt and Jesse Leeworthy are now tackling the elephant in the room when it comes to reusable water bottles: mould.

A key, but quiet, issue with reusable bottles lies inside the lid. Most insulated lids are built from channels, seals and straws that were never intended to come apart, meaning water lingers in places a sponge can’t reach and mould quietly builds up. These insulated bottles can’t be put in the dishwasher, so cleaning them is doubly difficult if you’re someone who tends to keep yours in the car or your bag.

“People love flat. But they often need round. For the desk, the car and the gym,” says Byrt. “If we were going to go round, coming to the party late, we had to fix the biggest issue facing round bottles today: make it easy to clean.

“Round bottles have had the same problems for years. The lids are impossible to clean properly and people just put up with it,” says Leeworthy. “We weren’t interested in adding another round bottle to the shelf unless we could fix that. Three parts, three seconds and you can see every surface you’re cleaning.”

The new design, memo Round, is Byrt and Leeworthy’s answer to this issue. Unlike convention designs, the lid has just three: a straw, plug and mouthpiece, all of which can be disassembled in three seconds for easy cleaning.

memo Round is available in two sizes, 700-mililitre and 1-litre, and eight colours: matte black, cloud stone, steel and stone, electric blue, black cherry, wild olive, pink salt and red.

Beyond the convenient cleaning and multiple colour choices, memo Round has also been designed with all the thoughtful touches typical of a memobottle product. The bottles all come with a colour-matched detachable strap and a silicone base, which avoids the clanging sound on the desk (or bedside table). The bottle is also double-walled with 304 stainless steel, meaning the contents stay cold for 24 hours with zero condensation.

The mouthpiece has also been designed to sit flat, hidden in the lid. To take a sip, you simply flip it up, then turn it a full 360 degrees either way to close. It locks with a satisfying click to give you peace of mind knowing it’s sealed.

Launching today, the new memo Round is available to order via Kickstarter. This is memobottle’s sixth Kickstarter. Its previous five campaigns have raised more than $2 million.

A business with purpose, memobottle is a certified B Corporation and a Water.org partner, meaning five months of safe drinking water is provided to someone in need for every bottle sold.

Images: Supplied.