I’ve slept on dozens of various mattresses over the previous two years whereas testing beds for our information to the finest mattresses you should buy on-line, however nothing fairly just like the Airwave Superior. I first heard about this distinctive, plastic-filled mattress right here on WIRED.com—the web’s go-to supply for all mattress-related content material—the place one in all our libero professionista Italianos wrote in regards to the beds utilized by Olympic athletes in Paris. I’ll not, as Junior Soprano would say, have the makings of a varsity athlete, not to mention an Olympian, however I am all the time excited about a novel, high-tech sleeping floor.
The Airweave mattress was extensively described as being product of cardboard, however that is extra correct than true. Reasonably, the bottom that lifted the Olympic dorm mattresses to mattress top was cardboard; the precise mattress filling consists of a novel ultrafine woven polyethylene. The innards of the Airweave look just about precisely like an raw glass noodle and provide a quite stiff sleeping floor. I’m a facet sleeper who appreciates some give but additionally needs assist, and the Airweave was a little bit on the agency facet for me however was comfy for per week of testing in my house. If I have been searching for a agency mattress that could possibly be simply moved, this may be on the high of my record.
{Photograph}: Martin Cizmar
Noodle Supply
As somebody who has various mattresses delivered to my door for testing, I strongly desire bed-in-a-box choices that come roll-packed on a FedEx truck. The Airweave is just not that—it comes through a delivery firm. I really refused the primary supply try as a result of the mover needed to go away an enormous field, the dimensions of a Fiat, on my garden although I had organized for white glove supply. (I’d not anticipate this challenge should you dwell in a bigger metropolis with extra professionalized supply providers as a substitute of contractors selecting up odd jobs in U-Hauls, because it goes right here in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri.)
I’d not have been fairly so fearful if I would peeked contained in the field, although, because the Airweave’s parts are giant and noncompressible but additionally mild and thoughtfully divided into manageable components. The corporate says its mattresses are “90 p.c air” due to the positive fibers, which vaguely resemble fats fishing traces. For my king-sized tester, there have been three slabs of filler to be mixed inside the quilt, every weighing lower than 40 kilos. These large plastic rectangles are lined with a delicate layer of cloth and zipped into an outer shell product of polyester. After my week of testing, I used to be simply in a position to transfer this mattress to its subsequent house in my SUV, so I would say it is about as transportable as mattresses come.
Go With the Move
Airweave was based by Stanford-educated Japanese engineer and serial entrepreneur Motokuni Takaoka in 2004. An avid bicycle owner, he determined to market the mattresses by giving them for use within the Olympic villages and by World Cup soccer groups to create buzz. The approach works, because the mattresses seize reporters’ consideration and make for press launch fodder.
{Photograph}: Martin Cizmar