This fancy portable mattress is the only way you’ll get me to camp

Camping. Why anyone would put themselves through an odyssey of gross insects and pooping in holes is beyond me, but you do you, Steve. I’ll do me.

However, if I were forced to go sleep in the woods, I would like to use this new camping mattress by Chinese sleep startup Mazzu created in collaboration with London-based design studio Layer. It looks like the closest thing to a Four Seasons bed this side of the Rio Grande. Or any río (just don’t get me close to a river).

The Mazzu Camping Mattress isn’t your typical inflatable pad that promises comfort on-the-go but delivers back pain for a week. It’s built around 72 precision-engineered elastic spring units—pre-compressed coils encased in durable jackets that adapt independently to your body’s contours. Each unit flexes on its own, providing ergonomic support whether you’re lying flat or curled up on your side (you know, like in an actual bed).

Layer tells me via email that people want “the comfort of home when they’re outdoors, and traditional inflatable or foam mats just don’t deliver that.” Which, yes, that’s exactly my point. The company says conventional options are bulky, unreliable, or simply uncomfortable. And many are unsustainable.

Layer and Mazzu saw a clear gap to create a sustainable, portable system that offers bed-like comfort without compromise, bringing “a real sense of restfulness to the camping experience.”

Come together, right now

The collaboration between Layer and Mazzu wasn’t just about slapping springs into a camping format. Mazzu’s engineers have been developing elastic spring technology since they started their sleep company in Fujian, China, in 2024. Layer worked closely with Mazzu to translate that into a modular outdoor system.

The design studio says there were many rounds of prototyping—exploring different spring densities, connection systems, and layouts—until they arrived at something simple and robust that’s also intuitive to use.

The pieces click together like Lego bricks and are secured with a strong cord. When the mattress base is assembled, you add a thin, 100% cotton cushion on top to smooth everything out. Layer tells me it gets assembled “in just a matter of minutes,” and you can be set up and ready to rest almost as quickly as rolling out a standard mat, “but with a completely different sleep experience.”

The other advantage of this design, the company points out, is that it’s not harmful to the planet. Layer says the portable coils structure is built without foam or glue (Mazzu, however, points out that the pad on top uses polyester fiber and high-resilience polyurethane). Layer says the mattress is built to last: “Every component can be replaced, repaired, or upgraded individually, which extends its lifespan and reduces waste—something that’s very rare in camping gear.”

Packed in a cooler

The complete mattress—including foldable base, spring modules, and topper—packs into a wheeled case no larger than a cooler. Once emptied, Layer says, that case doubles as a nightstand or storage box at the campsite. So it’s not just about better sleep, the company says, it’s about circularity and smart use of space.

The color palette takes cues from outdoor gear: foliage tones and bright accents for visibility. The open structure showcases the engineering inside, which I appreciate (if I’m paying for 72 independent spring units, I want to see them).

The Mazzu Camping Mattress launches this month. Pricing in China is about 2,259 yuan (about $320), but no official price has been announced internationally.​​ If it actually delivers on the promise of bringing regular mattress comfort into the wilderness, it might be worth whatever they’re charging. Maybe then I’ll consider camping. (LOL! No.)