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 certainly one of 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 focused on a singular, high-tech sleeping floor.
The Airweave mattress was extensively described as being fabricated from cardboard, however that is extra correct than true. Quite, 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 provide a somewhat stiff sleeping floor. I’m a facet sleeper who appreciates some give but additionally needs assist, and the Airweave was just a little on the agency facet for me however was comfy for every week of testing in my dwelling. If I had been on the lookout for a agency mattress that could possibly be simply moved, this is able to be on the high of my listing.
{Photograph}: Martin Cizmar
Noodle Supply
As somebody who has numerous 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 will not be that—it comes by way of a delivery firm. I really refused the primary supply try as a result of the mover wished to depart a large field, the scale of a Fiat, on my garden regardless that I had organized for white glove supply. (I’d not anticipate this problem should you stay in a bigger metropolis with extra professionalized supply providers as a substitute of contractors choosing up odd jobs in U-Hauls, because it goes right here in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri.)
I’d not have been fairly so nervous if I would peeked contained in the field, although, because the Airweave’s parts are massive and noncompressible but additionally mild and thoughtfully divided into manageable elements. The corporate says its mattresses are “90 percent air” due to the fantastic 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 huge plastic rectangles are coated with a delicate layer of cloth 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 dwelling in my SUV, so I would say it is about as moveable as mattresses come.
Go With the Move
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
