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 purchase 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 certainly one of our libero professionista Italianos wrote concerning 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 at all times all in favour of a singular, high-tech sleeping floor.
The Airweave mattress was extensively described as being fabricated from cardboard, however that is extra correct than true. Moderately, the bottom that lifted the Olympic dorm mattresses to mattress peak was cardboard; the precise mattress filling consists of a singular ultrafine woven polyethylene. The innards of the Airweave look just about precisely like an raw glass noodle and supply a reasonably stiff sleeping floor. I’m a facet sleeper who appreciates some give but in addition needs help, and the Airweave was just a little on the agency facet for me however was snug for per week of testing in my house. If I have been searching for a agency mattress that could possibly be simply moved, this is able to be on the prime of my checklist.
{Photograph}: Martin Cizmar
Noodle Supply
As somebody who has numerous mattresses delivered to my door for testing, I strongly choose bed-in-a-box choices that come roll-packed on a FedEx truck. The Airweave isn’t that—it comes by way of a delivery firm. I truly refused the primary supply try as a result of the mover needed to depart a large field, the scale of a Fiat, on my garden despite the fact that I had organized for white glove supply. (I might not anticipate this difficulty in the event you reside in a bigger metropolis with extra professionalized supply providers as an alternative of contractors choosing up odd jobs in U-Hauls, because it goes right here in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri.)
I might not have been fairly so nervous if I would peeked contained in the field, although, because the Airweave’s elements are giant and noncompressible but in addition mild and thoughtfully divided into manageable elements. The corporate says its mattresses are “90 % air” due to the effective fibers, which vaguely resemble fats fishing strains. For my king-sized tester, there have been three slabs of filler to be mixed inside the duvet, every weighing lower than 40 kilos. These huge plastic rectangles are lined with a tender layer of material and zipped into an outer shell fabricated from polyester. After my week of testing, I used to be simply capable of 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 Stream
Airweave was based by Stanford-educated Japanese engineer and serial entrepreneur Motokuni Takaoka in 2004. An avid bike 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
