Hello everyone, my name is Zack Throckmorton.  I am a veteran of the United States Air Force and I have a bachelor’s degree in Homeland Security.  I am raising funds to develop a sleeping system to replace the outdated cots or other portable sleeping systems that have been in circulation for decades.  These systems will help improve health in the forms of pain management and reducing potential illnesses.  I care about this project because during emergencies, people do not need to worry about being in pain or risk getting sick from other people’s germs.  Emergency workers need to reduce the amount of time it takes to break down cots and tend to their duties of ensuring the security of the people they are protecting.  The traditional cot systems are difficult to store as they are bulky and do not stack well.

The purpose of this Kickstarter is to fund the research and development of a bed system to include the payment of engineers, CAD designs, materials, and labor. Once I go into the production stage, I will set up a mailing list for investors.  Any money that is left over from the prototyping of this product will be put towards the funding of production and storage.

The world has seen a variety of natural disasters to include hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, fires, and whatever else resilience can test.  These disasters tend to have one thing in common — emergency shelters that do not have room for supplies.  In these supplies are emergency cots.  Cots are uncomfortable, do not provide any type of body support, they are bulky, and can break easily.  A tear in the material can have lasting effects and reduce the overall effectiveness of the product.  With worldwide issues, comes the current COVID-19 crisis.  Because of this crisis, many families have had to turn their guest rooms into home offices so they can work, usually requiring a bed to be removed.

The bed system that I am designing does not take away from comfort or compatibility.  The goal of my Kickstarter is to develop a system that will include a mattress, bed frame, and necessary materials that do not require the use of standard electrical power and rely off batteries and yourself.  For emergency management, these bed systems will reduce the amount of time it takes to clean cots because the mattresses can have removable protectors that can either be reused or recycled.  This will save time for emergency shelter workers because they no longer have to pack a cot back up, clean it, wait for it to dry, then store it somewhere.

I want this product to not directly correlate with emergencies.  Because beds take up a lot of space and the number of transformed guest rooms turn into home offices, giving guests a place to stay is important.  I would like the system to be able to quickly set up, store, and most importantly be visually appealing.  The bed can also be stored quietly in a closet when it is not in use, giving your guest’s space back to you.

I am excited and eager to start this project and I hope to make the world a bit better by providing additional comfort during this time and in the future!

(Photo credit: John Burgess)