Product review – Journey Pillow

Several months ago I met Anthony Williams (clinical neurophysiologist)  and Candace Williams (industrial engineer). They are a brother and sister duo who hipped me to a product they said would revolutionize how people traveled. As someone who travels frequently, of course I was intrigued. We sat down and they demonstrated their prototype traveling neck pillow.

Before I give you more details, let me inform you that I have used plenty of neck pillows over the years. The inflatable type. The one filled with buckwheat. The rolled up blanket. The passenger next to me. The sidewall of the airplane. All have their degree of usefulness, but none quite works the way it is designed. The inflatable type loses inflation. The buckwheat variety can be noisy with all that buckwheat moving around inside, and they retain body heat. When it comes to using airplane blankets, if it’s not sealed in plastic I certainly will not use it. My seatmate’s shoulder is a last resort option. If I’m really tired all bets are off so be forewarned if you find yourself seated next to me! And the sidewall is just downright uncomfortable.

Candace demonstrated Journey Pillow and I was intrigued with the design features of the pillow:

• ergonomically designed
• filled with memory foam
• non-slip clips that attach to your belt, seatbelt, or waistband
• straps – the straps, along with placing the pillow over your head, reminded me of donning a life vest (“Place the vest over your head and attach the straps to the front of the vest”)

I’ve used Journey Pillow on a few domestic flights and can report that the pillow lives up to its claims. Journey Pillow cradled my neck comfortably, didn’t retain as much body heat as the buckwheat filled travel pillow can, and overall was more effective than the inflatable travel pillow. Journey Pillow travels well and fit neatly inside my roller bag. One minor issue I encountered were securing the  clips to my waistband. Wearing shirts that were untucked was a bit problematic. I had to lift my shirt to attach the non-slip clips to my waistband. This caused my shirt to ride up, bunch up, and wrinkle underneath the straps. Other than that the pillow delivered on its promise. Using Journey Pillow did garner some stares and a few questions from passengers. I’m traveling to New Zealand in late October and looking forward to testing out the pillow for long-haul travel.

Anthony and Candace have developed a travel pillow that offers many advantages over other types of travel pillows. Check out their video describing Journey Pillow in detail:

http://www.journeypillow.com

Sylvester