I went back to sleep dozens of different mattresses over the past two years while testing beds according to our guide to best mattress You can buy it online, but there’s nothing like the Airwave Advanced. I first heard about this unique plastic-filled mattress on WIRED.com—the Internet’s go-to source for all mattress-related content—where one of Italian libero specialist wrote about the beds used by Olympic athletes in Paris. I may not, as Junior Soprano would say, have the makings of a college athlete, let alone an Olympian, but I’ve always been interested in a unique, high-tech sleeping surface.
Airweave beds are widely described as made of cardboardbut that is more precisely the truth. Rather, the base that raises the mattress in the Olympic dormitory to bed level is cardboard; The actual mattress padding is composed of a unique, ultra-fine woven polyethylene. The Airweave’s internal parts look a lot like a piece of undercooked meat glass noodles and provides a fairly firm sleeping surface. I am one sleep on side who appreciates some give but also wants support, and the Airweave was a little firm for me but comfortable during a week of testing in my home. If I were looking for a firm, portable mattress, this would be at the top of my list.
Photo: Martin Cizmar
Noodle delivery
As someone who has had quite a few mattresses delivered to my home for testing, I really like bed-in-box products that come rolled on a FedEx truck. Airweave is not that – it is delivered through a shipping company. I actually turned down the first delivery attempt because the mover wanted to leave a large box, the size of a Fiat, on my lawn even though I had arranged a white-glove delivery. (I wouldn’t foresee this problem if you live in a larger city with more professional delivery services instead of contractors picking up odd jobs at U-Hauls, like here in the City Kansas, Missouri.)
I wouldn’t be too worried if I looked inside the box, though, as the Airweave’s components are huge and incompressible but also light and thoughtfully divided into manageable chunks. The company says its mattress is “90% air” due to fine fibers that look like fat fishing line. For my full-size tester, there are three sheets of filler incorporated inside the lid, each weighing less than 40 pounds. Those large plastic rectangles are covered with a soft fabric and zipped into an outer shell made of polyester. After a week of testing, I was able to easily move this mattress to my next home in my SUV, so I’d say it’s as portable as mattresses get.
Go with the flow
Airweave was founded by a Japanese engineer and serial entrepreneur who graduated from Stanford Motokuni Takaoka in 2004. Being a cycling enthusiast, he decided to market these mattresses by putting them to use in Olympic villages and World Cup soccer teams to create a buzz. This technique works because the mattresses attract the attention of reporters and create press release animal feed.
Photo: Martin Cizmar
