We’ve all been there. You start out backpacking with a borrowed foam pad from your buddy, quickly realizing that it’s best reserved for minimalist trips where weight and space are at a premium, more so than comfort and a great night’s rest.

Your next pad was a huge jump. Maybe you got a self-inflating mattress or went straight to the high-performance of a NeoAir® sleeping pad. What a difference, right? You added a few inches of loft and a lot of warmth with minimal added weight and almost no difference in packed size. This. Is. Amazing.

Then, one day, what seemed decadent in the backcountry left a little to be desired on a car camping trip, so you did what any sensible person would do—you bought a luxury-class camping mattress. It’s even more amazing. It checks all your boxes, but it’s so big that it will never see wilderness, and it’s even sometimes hard to find room in the car for two of them on a road trip. 

So, what’s your next move? The NeoLoft™ sleeping pad. More than just your next luxury-class mattress, it’s more accurately the the first luxury-class backpacking mattress. Let’s have a look at why it might just become your go-to pad for almost everything you do outdoors.

Comfort By Design

Loft: 4.6 in. (11.7 cm)

The first thing you’ll notice about an inflated NeoLoft mattress is that it is, well, HUGE. We’ll look at how ridiculously small it gets in a minute, but for now, let’s all say, “4.6 inches of loft” together. That’s right, nearly five inches of bump-eating space between you and the ground. Its 3D construction means you get that loft from edge to edge, with a 20% larger sleep surface than a pad with rounded edges. As a bonus, there are subtly raised side rails around the perimeter to help keep you on the mattress, even for rambunctious sleepers. If you’re extra large or extra rambunctious, we’ve got you covered with sizes to match. The Regular Wide and Large sizes will add four inches of extra width to roll around on, and the Large will add another five inches of length to that.

Warmth: 4.7 R-value

Thanks to its internal ContourCore Matrix™ construction and ThermaCapture™ layers, the NeoLoft provides enough warmth to easily keep you comfortable from the edges of winter to the heart of summer. Add a Z Lite™ or a RidgeRest® underneath, and you can raise the R-value to a cozy 6.7 for use deeper into winter. The best part is that with all that warmth, you can lighten your load with a lighter sleeping bag or quilt or simply enjoy the added comfort margin with your existing bag.

Stable Support

Aside from slowing convective heat loss, another benefit of the ContourCore Matrix inside the NeoLoft is stability. Despite the pad being nearly 5 inches thick, this internal cellular structure assures that the top of the mattress are connected throughout the entire pad, keeping it stable and even, however you move around on it. There are no pinched welds that create an uneven surface and create cold spots; just consistent comfort, all night long.

Redefining Packable

Weight: 1 lb. 14 oz. (850g)
Packed Size: Unbelievable

All that loft and warmth may leave you thinking there’s no way a NeoLoft is going to make it into your backpack.  However, the truth is that this pad can easily go anywhere you want to take it.

It’s probably not going to make it on the ultralight packing list for your PCT thru-hike, but this pad will change the way you think about more casual backpacks and car camping forever. And that road trip we talked about? You can fit a couple of these pads under the front seat of your car, so you’ll never have to worry about not having enough room for your most decadent mattress again.

Quiet Comfort: It’s All in the Fabric

There’s simply no getting around the fact that the latest crop of the lightest, most technical fabrics have a “crinkle” to them. However, unshackled by the need to hit an ultralight weight class, with the NeoLoft we opted for an amazingly plush, 50D stretch-knit polyester fabric that delivers a host of comfort-boosting benefits. First is just how good it feels. You can imagine this fabric as an air-tight version of your favorite mid-weight base layer. Its soft and supple stretch not only feels great next to skin, it also adds a surprising amount of forgiving comfort when moving around on the pad.

And speaking of moving around on the pad, this awesome fabric is now whisper-quiet and is sure to please even the most sensitive sleepers. Just add a pillow and you’ll barely know you left your own bed.

On the bottom of the pad, we’ve boosted durability with a 75D polyester with an eco-twist. Rather than batch-dyeing the fabric (essentially dipping finished fabric into a giant vat of dye), we’ve sourced a solution-dyed fabric. This means that the pigment is added to the actual liquid polymer solution before it is cooled and spun into fibers. Performance-wise, this means the color is completely embedded into the fibers themselves, as opposed to being just a surface treatment. The resulting fabric is colorfast and far more resistant to fading from UV exposure over time. On the eco-side, this process uses 60% less water, producing far less waste, and requires no post-dye bath drying, further reducing its carbon footprint. The net result is less impact on the environment and a better-performing product. This is the future of synthetic fabrics. We’ve excitedly been slowly bringing it onboard and will be using more and more of it as the supply chain adapts to meet demand.

Fast, Easy Inflation/Deflation

Finally, there is no point in a big, cushy mattress if it’s a hassle to use, so we made that easy too. Our TwinLock™ Valve system, paired with an ultralight pump sack keeps inflation and deflation a snap. On the “in” side, a large, one-way valve opens to allow quick inflation, but also prevents air from escaping, even when open. Connect the oversized pump sack to the valve, and just 5-6 sacks of air will have you fully inflated in minutes. When it’s time to pack up camp, just open the other, dedicated deflation valve and you can get all the air out in under 30 seconds.

Redefining comfort has been the mission of Therm-a-Rest since we invented the first self-inflating mattress way back in 1971. The NeoLoft  is just that kind of innovation, and we’re certain that after even a single night with one, you’ll agree that the new standard of backpacking luxury has just been set.

Related Posts:

• The Ultimate Guide to Therm-a-Rest Sleeping Pads
• How to Choose a Sleeping Pad in Three Steps
• Winter Sleeping Pad: How to Choose