I’ve slept on dozens of various mattresses over the previous two years whereas testing beds for our information to the best mattresses you should purchase on-line, however nothing fairly just like the Airwave Advanced. 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 every of our libero professionista Italianos wrote about the beds used 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’m at all times eager about a novel, high-tech sleeping floor.
The Airweave mattress was broadly described as being made of cardboard, however that is extra correct than true. Rather, 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 side sleeper who appreciates some give but in addition desires assist, and the Airweave was a bit on the agency facet for me however was snug for every week of testing in my dwelling. If I have been in search of a agency mattress that could possibly be simply moved, this is able to be on the high of my checklist.
Photograph: Martin Cizmar
Noodle Delivery
As somebody who has various mattresses delivered to my door for testing, I strongly favor 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 truly refused the primary supply try as a result of the mover needed to depart a large field, the dimensions of a Fiat, on my garden though I had organized for white glove supply. (I might not anticipate this problem in case you stay in a bigger metropolis with extra professionalized supply companies as an alternative of contractors selecting up odd jobs in U-Hauls, because it goes right here in Kansas City, Missouri.)
I might not have been fairly so apprehensive if I’d peeked contained in the field, although, because the Airweave’s parts are giant and noncompressible but in addition gentle and thoughtfully divided into manageable elements. The firm 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 duvet, every weighing lower than 40 kilos. Those large plastic rectangles are lined with a tender layer of material and zipped into an outer shell manufactured from polyester. After my week of testing, I used to be simply in a position to transfer this mattress to its subsequent dwelling in my SUV, so I’d say it is about as transportable as mattresses come.
Go With the Flow
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 method works, because the mattresses seize reporters’ consideration and make for press release fodder.
Photograph: Martin Cizmar
