AirSkirts: Creating Solutions To Enable RV Life Year Round
10 Leading Companies to Watch in 2022
“With RV ownership at an all-time high and new sales continuing to soar, innovations that enable the RV lifestyle are timelier than ever”.
Based out of Oakdale, Connecticut, AirSkirts designed and developed a solution for ‘RV skirting’ RVs – a method of providing insulation and preventing freezing pipes – that doesn’t require drilling holes into the RV or messy DIY solutions. AirSkirts patent-pending, inflatable design was an invention of necessity, allowing cold and warm weather campers to live comfortably in their RVs. AirSkirts core mission is to provide quality, high-end products for RVs that enable the RV lifestyle – regardless of climate.
Below are the highlights of the interview with AirSkirts:
What makes AirSkirts a preferred choice for RV owners over other competitors?
Prior to AirSkirts, RV owners had few options to camp in cold weather. The most common solution was a custom vinyl skirt – dozens of holes would be drilled into the RV and a thin, vinyl skirt, meticulously cut to size, would be draped around the perimeter. This solution is costly, causes permanent damage to the RV, and provides little insulation. These skirts also can’t be re-used when the owner upgrades to a new unit.
Unhappy with the vinyl skirt solution, many RV owners would resort to DIY solutions, including constructing skirts out of Styrofoam board, wood, or hay. Tedious and wasteful, these solutions also lacked portability, and suffered the same downsides of custom vinyl skirts.
AirSkirts’ simple, inflatable design eliminates all the downsides of other solutions. AirSkirts is the only solution that can be sold off the shelf due to its modular design, and it doesn’t damage the RV. Trapped air provides exceptional, natural insulation, and because the system is held in place by air pressure it won’t budge or blow away.
Describe your top-notch features that address the needs of your customers?
- No installation, drilling holes, or time-consuming setup
- Superior insulation
- Resilient in extreme cold, high wind, etc.
- Visually appealing
- Modular design works with all RVs
- Can be used on the customer’s next RV
- Military grade construction
- Fast deployment and portability allow to use even during brief stays
- Allows customers to extend camping season
Shed some light on the genesis of AirSkirts?
After selling his home in Brooklyn, NY and most of his possessions, Jim began living and traveling full-time in his 2016 Airstream trailer. AirSkirts was an invention of necessity for Jim after several seasons of frustration with traditional skirting methods.
How has the recent COVID-19 pandemic affected the RV space? What do you think will be the future of RV skirting post-COVID-19?
RV ownership is climbing across the country. Currently, the number of U.S. households owning an RV is just over 11 million. New RV shipments grew 49% year over year in 2021. More RVs were built in 2021 than any other year.
Because COVID has fundamentally changed the way we work, more and more people are able to take up an RV lifestyle while still working remotely. Add to this the number of traveling workers brought about by COVID (for example, travel nurses) and the RV industry has seen a big shift in how people use and live in RVs.
How has the recent COVID-19 pandemic affected the business operations at AirSkirts? What methodologies do you prefer to combat the pandemic?
Supply chain interruptions have been the biggest hurdle when dealing with COVID. Fortunately, our staff has remained healthy and happy, and despite difficulty in acquiring materials we’ve kept up with demand.
What are your future aspirations for the company? Where do you see AirSkirts in the next coming years?
While we anticipate our skirts will be our biggest product moving forward, we have a few exciting new products in development that will help us equalize the seasonality of our sales. This, plus a shift towards dealership focused sales, will enable us to scale rapidly in 2022.
What is a piece of advice you want to give to budding entrepreneurs?
My advice would be the same in this industry as it would have been in software – design, collect, iterate, improve. Designing a good solution is the first step, but companies that don’t listen to their customers (collect) and respond (iterate) don’t improve. Being in a constant growth mindset at an organizational level is probably the best goal to strive for in any new endeavour.
