Sometime around 2004, at an engineer’s desk in the SODO area of Seattle, WA, a top-secret project began to take shape. The lead product engineer with the idea was Jim Marson, and his desk was located in the headquarters of Cascade Designs, Inc. Like all cool projects shrouded in mystery, this one had a name—Project Tiger—and, by the time the initial phase of the project wrapped in 2008, Therm-a-Rest would have once again changed the definition of outdoor comfort forever. This is the story of how the now legendary NeoAir sleeping pad technology came to be, and where it is today.

Dedication to Innovation

Marson had been working with Therm-a-Rest since 1987 and tinkering with inventions for far longer. He had already pitched the idea of a plastic snowshoe to MSR years before, and invented the now-iconic Z Lite™ pad, but a relatively “new” idea was creeping onto the scene, and he knew it just had to be improved to be viable for serious outdoor use.

That idea was the simple air mattress. Technically, the namesake of the Coleman company had already invented the air mattress back in the early 1900s, but no one really used them in the outdoors for two key reasons. The primary one was that they did not insulate you at all. In fact, they acted as a heat sink, pulling warmth away from you through convective heat loss. This happened because an air mattress was basically just a balloon in a different shape. With air flowing freely inside, it moved around, stole your warmth, and transferred it quite effectively into the ground. This was a non-starter for any serious outdoor use. Secondly, they just weren’t that comfortable. Despite the design providing virtually limitless thickness, sleeping on them was like…well, sleeping on a balloon. Displaced air from an elbow or a hip was transferred elsewhere with no control or intention. This made moving around on one like jumping in a bouncy house; not exactly a great way to sleep through the night.

What allowed the design to regain traction in the outdoors, however, was the rise of the “fast and light” movement. Sure, people had always aimed to decrease pack weight, but in the early 2000s, people were going nuts over it and pushing boundaries as a result. Anything light was fair game, even if it didn’t work all that well, or at all. Suffering was the new badge of honor in the ultralight world, and boy, were people suffering.

So it was for the first few years of companies making small air pads for backpacking. These were basic—sacks of air with no insulation and marginal comfort—essentially ultralight versions of a pool float. They weren’t comfortable or warm, but they were freakishly light. They could shave a pound or more from pack weight and packed down to a fraction of the size of a self-inflating pad, which was the de facto standard since Therm-a-Rest introduced them back in 1971.

It's no surprise then that Project Tiger was all about finding a way to make an air mattress warm and stable, while adding little or no weight to the basic air mattress concept. This meant that you really couldn’t put anything of substance inside of them, and what went in had to be somehow dimensionally stable, yet virtually unnoticeable when packing it away.

Marson ruled out any welds that pinched the top and bottom layers together. While marginally effective at introducing some stability, this design created significant cold spots and large divots in the sleep surface, falling short of the ideal. Instead, Marson’s brain was fixed on creating an internal matrix of struts that would allow full, dimensional loft throughout the mattress, slow internal air movement (and thus convective heat loss) while anchoring the top and bottom layers to provide excellent stability. Essentially, he wanted to re-create the structure of the foam inside a self-inflating pad, without the foam. The first prototypes used many variations of simple, vertical struts, but the winning design proved far more complex and much harder to engineer and build.

Perhaps the most impressive achievement of Project Tiger was the technology that emerged as the answer to this big engineering question: Triangular Core Matrix. This complex internal structure proved to be the ultimate solution and can still be found in our most advanced air pads. The numerous welds between fabrics created an ideal internal structure that delivered on every demand, but they also introduced a host of variables. To work reliably, all of them needed to be tested, controlled, and then flawlessly executed inside an airtight chamber, on a custom-built machine that didn’t yet exist.

Crazy, right?

Of course, tinkerers don’t stop tinkering, so the team was simultaneously looking for a way to boost warmth even further while keeping weight and bulk virtually unchanged. By the time the original NeoAir mattress actually launched in 2008, reflective material had been added tothe internal structure, allowing the NeoAir to deliver three times the warmth of an uninsulated air pad along with superior comfort, support and minimal added weight.

With outstanding performance at every level, it became an overnight sensation and the best-selling mattress in the outdoors. Just as our self-inflating mattresses had done 40 years before, it set a new standard of performance that would inform the design of every air pad going forward.

For Every Action, An Equal & Opposite Reaction

It turns out, Newton’s Third Law of Motion occasionally applies to consumer demand. We had just made the world’s most technically advanced ultralight mattress, so logically, people who weren’t so hyper-focused on going fast and light wanted that comfort and packability, but in a form that better suited their style of backpacking. Instead of something lighter, they wanted something that was more durable for everyday backpacking. For them, we made the NeoAir Trekker™, which used burlier fabrics that didn’t need to be handled with the kid gloves that the ultralight NeoAir demanded.

High Tech for Everyone

It’s undeniable that the advanced technology, fabrics, and complicated construction of the NeoAir air pads came at a cost. While hardcore enthusiasts were willing to invest in the very clear benefits, there was still a large opportunity to bring a simplified version of a NeoAir to a broader audience.  Our solution was WaveCore™, introduced in the NeoAir Venture, which remains in our line-up today. It replaced the intricate internal construction of the Triangular Core Matrix with a single layer of material that was alternately welded to the top and bottom layers of the mattress. This internal structure provides similar weight, warmth and stability, but at a level tuned for fair-weather use and adventuring fewer miles from the trailhead, all at a more accessible price point for occasional campers.

More Warmth, Less Weight

While the first NeoAir sleeping pad was certainly revolutionary in the truest sense of the word, Marson and his team already had new ideas out in the field being tested. Continued tinkering with reflective barriers gave some wild returns on R-value, depending on where and how many were used inside, so the next generation of NeoAir pads brought warmth to the fore. They came in the form of unique updates to the original NeoAir: the XLite, the XTherm, and the All-Season, a super-warm version of the Trekker. The XLite and XTherm were the first NeoAirs to offer a weight-saving tapered shape, and each broke barriers with the amount of warmth provided by such lightweight pads.

Quiet In the Back, Please

Every rose has its thorn, and along with all the incredible benefits, the complex structure of the Triangular Core Matrix, combined with the reflective barriers and the best ultralight fabrics of the day. created a noticeable “crinkle” when moving around. While that noise was acceptable enough to still rake in a long list of awards, accolades and record sales, it was still a point of concern for some. And if there is any weakness at all in our designs, we’ll try to fix it. In fact, research into making our pads quiet had been ongoing from day one, but available materials and technology proved to be the limiting factors. After an exhaustive search working with our suppliers to develop what we needed paired with extensive field testing, the “next” generation, the XTherm NXT and XLite NXT, emerged. A combination of unique coatings and all-new materials made these pads our quietest NeoAirs yet.

The Future is Now

Just as the desire for “Fast and Light” brought about new products that matched how people were engaging with the outdoors, the latest trend is elevating comfort to be on nearly equal footing with weight and packability. What’s also changed is the very definition of ‘comfort’. While full-on ‘glamping’ in free-range organic canvas tents on feather beds draped in the finest European linen sheets seemed, thankfully, like just another flash in the trend pan, it certainly left its mark on the outdoors.

What stuck was the idea of bringing relatively decadent comfort outside, but it still had to be light and small enough to carry. These seemingly irreconcilable demands are exactly what inspired our latest revolution in outdoor comfort, the already award-winning NeoLoft™ air pad.  It’s glamping-level comfort that can actually be reasonably carried into the backcountry, a huge win for outdoorspeople who prefer to get away from their vehicles.

Our thickest backpacking air pad ever, it’s likely not going to make it into any PCT thru-hiker’s pack, but it’s easily light and packable enough to be at home on everything from casual, multi-day backpacks to summer road trips, while never making you feel like you brought the wrong mattress for the job. It’s 4.6-in. (11.7 cm) thick, weighs just 30 oz (850 g), packs enough warmth for all but the coldest days of the year, and takes up just a bit more room than a 1L water bottle in your backpack. Coupled with a soft and stretchy knit surface that wraps you in comfort and support, it’s a staggering amount of comfort in an unprecedentedly small and lightweight package. Really, it’s just that good.

From the early days as Project Tiger, to re-making how people sleep outdoors, NeoAir is Therm-a-Rest’s proudest achievement since we originally re-invented outdoor comfort back in 1971 with self-inflating mattresses. While that may sound like just a date in the distant past, what that experience means is that we know more about building camping mattresses than anyone else. Combined with designing and building them in-house (all our pads are still made in the USA in our own manufacturing facilities), our innovation pipeline is unprecedented, and you don’t have to look any further than our past to see just how true that is.

Here's a look at our current NeoAir mattress line-up:

Model	R-Value	Sizes	Weight	Thickness	Best Use
NeoAir® XLite NXT™	4.5	Regular Short Regular Regular Wide Large	11.5 oz / 0.33 kg 13 oz / 0.37 kg 1 lb / 0.45 kg 1 lb 1 oz / 0.48 kg	3 in / 7.6 cm	Backpacking, thru-hiking, bikepacking, kayaking, canoeing
NeoAir® XLite NXT MAX	4.5	Regular Wide Large	1 lb 3 oz / 0.54 kg 1lb 4 oz / 0.57 kg	3 in / 7.6 cm	Backpacking, thru-hiking, bikepacking, kayaking, canoeing, with extra comfort
NeoAir® XTherm NXT™	7.3	Regular Regular Wide Large	15.5 oz  / 0.44 kg 1 lb 3 oz / .54 kg 1 lb 4 oz / 0.57 kg	3 in / 7.6 cm	Cold weather/winter, backpacking, thru-hiking, bikepacking, kayaking, canoeing
NeoAir® XTherm NXT MAX™	7.3	Regular Wide Large	1 lb 7 oz / 0.65 kg 1 lb 8 oz / 0.68 kg	3 in / 7.6 cm	Cold weather/winter, backpacking, thru-hiking, bikepacking, kayaking, canoeing with extra comfort
NeoLoft	4.7	Regular  Wide Large	1 lb 6 oz / 0.71 kg 1 lb 14 oz / 0.85 kg 2lb  / 0.91 kg	4.6in / 11.7cm	Deluxe,  comfort for everything from casual backpacks to car camping.
NeoAir® Venture™	2.2	Small Regular Large	1 lb  9oz / 0.45 kg 1 lb 7 oz / 0.65 kg 1 lb 15 oz / 0.88 kg	1.5 in / 3.8 cm	Backpacking, all-around use

 

Related Posts:

• The Ultimate Guide to Therm-a-Rest Sleeping Pads
• How to Choose a Sleeping Pad in Three Steps
• R-Value vs. Degree Ratings: Sleeping Pad Warmth