Mel Reid is the founder and mother behind Sandbar Swimwear. Originally from the UK, Mel grew up on the Canary Islands and travelled most of the world before settling down in Singapore in 2012, which is where her little boy Finn and baby girl Skye were born.
After 11 years in the corporate world, where Mel met her husband, Tom (pictured below), she took the plunge to step away from corporate life to spend more time watching her kids grow up and commit herself to creating the world's most environmentally impactful swimwear.
Image: Mel & Tom with Children Finn and Skye
Spending most of her adult life trying to find ways to reduce our footprint on the planet, along with her deep love of the ocean and connection with it, the decision to create something that helps reverse the impact we’ve had on our blue dot is what drives Mel. This is what Mel now dedicates her life to full-time.
Sandbar Swimwear is inspired by the things Mel is most passionate about - Family time, sustainability, and the environment. The swimwear range offers Matching swimwear for adults, matching swimwear for children, matching swimwear for families and has dozens of unique swimwear designs
Mel grew up in a busy working family so this was pretty finite. Her mission on weekends is to make sure that each moment is celebrated and cherished; this became the inspiration for Sandbar Swimwear’s photography – look and feel!
If you’re a mother like Mel, you’ll know that kids go through a lot of clothes - where new materials are predominantly used and most times quality overlooked. Sandbar Swimwear create pieces that feel soft on the skin, are made to last, and above all, that reuse materials so as to avoid the fabrication of new plastics.
Growing up in the Canary Islands with clear waters and rugged coastlines, and later becoming a keen diver, the ocean is so important to Mel. “It’s clearer than ever before how extreme ocean plastic has become and the urgency we need to have in protecting it however we can” Mel shares with Expat Choice.
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“Our purpose is to make an impact, to protect the ocean, to preserve our world so that our children can grow up with an ocean abundant with life.”
“To ensure that our ocean has a chance to recover and to do this, there is a real need to review our consumption of plastics, which is in everything including our clothing.”
Sandbar Swimwear founder Mel Reid aims to provide a platform for customers, both present and future to make lifestyle choices that better impact our world, that carve out the future we want to see around us. Making a difference for future generations, protecting our tomorrow.
Mel and Tom have known the founders of Seven Clean Seas for almost 10 years, and they have watched Seven Clean Seas go from concept to reality to pulling almost 500,000 KGs of plastic from our oceans.
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Committed to turning the tide on ocean plastic, Seven Clean Seas is the perfect partner for Sandbar Swimwear. Their mission is to preserve the marine environment by ridding the ocean of plastic for good. They remove plastic from some of the worlds most polluted areas by creating sustainable projects and solutions.
Aside from beach clean ups, Seven Clean Seas ocean plastic removal efforts are always evolving and expanding from Singapore into Indonesia, targeting some of the most impacted coastlines in Southeast Asia.
Sandbar Swimwear is made using Repreve, which is an engineered yarn from North Carolina. Repreve a widely known recycled fibre and is made 100 percent from recycled plastic bottles. Mel loves this fabric because it also has a U Trust verification with a traceable FibrePrint, so you know where it comes from.
Using Repreve avoids the production of new fibres and plastics, which also avoids the use of new petroleum and emits fewer greenhouse gases. It's a double benefit as turn it means fewer plastic bottles are out there making their way into our oceans. With every item purchased, Sandbar® funds the removal of 2 KGs of plastic and trash from our oceans.
