National Post (National Edition)
ROAD WORK
AIRSTREAM'S NEW TRAILER GEARED FOR THE WORK-FROM-HOME CROWD.
As the pandemic deepens, Airstream is steering from wealthy retirees to white-collar workers and Instagram influencers.
The luxury brand owned by RV giant Thor Industries unveiled Tuesday yet another sinuous, silver towable camper — one geared for the work-from-home crowd. Two of the three beds on the so-called Flying Cloud 30FB Office will convert to desks allowing owners to sleep where they work, quite literally.
An office chair comes standard and anchors to the desk while driving. Overhead storage cabinets double as white boards and a sliding privacy divider serves as a tableau for Zoom backgrounds. The rig also will come pre-wired for Wi-Fi, with a powerful rooftop antennae linked to an onboard battery or a bank of solar panels.
“The pandemic has permanently changed the traditional work landscape,” CEO Bob Wheeler said in a statement. “Airstream has always provided the freedom of a mobile living, playing and working space, but the Flying Cloud 30FB Office takes that promise to the next level.”
Airstream says the product strategy was structured largely on feedback from pandemic nomads. And though we may be nearing the end of lockdown life, the brand is betting that many of us won't get back to a formal office any time soon.
In August, when infection rates had fallen precipitously from their initial peak, one in four employees still were working remotely. Many companies are letting leases expire and preparing to extend work-from-home arrangements indefinitely. All of this is good news for those who sell beds on wheels — or desks for that matter.
Liberated to work from home — or anywhere else — in the past year and leery of hotels and airplanes, a crowd of Americans bought rigs for living on the road. Even though factories were shuttered for weeks in the spring, U.S. RV makers shipped almost 431,000 vehicles last year, a six per cent increase over 2019, according to the RV Industry Association. What's more, the trade group expects the momentum to continue, forecasting another 20 per cent increase in shipments this year, which would be near an all-time peak.
Towable campers such as those riveted together by Airstream were the most popular product in the segment and the brand has struggled to keep up. Last year, as Airstream sales surged 22 per cent, its shipments slumped by 13 per cent because of a six-week factory shutdown, Wheeler said.
Buoyed by Airstream, shares of Thor Industries have more than tripled since a nadir in March. The new brand's newest rig, however, will likely be a stretch for all but the most financially secure digital nomads. The price starts at US$107,500 before features such as solar panels. And at almost 6,800 pounds, the camper will require something much stronger than a Subaru to pull it around the country.
THE PANDEMIC HAS PERMANENTLY CHANGED THE TRADITIONAL WORK LANDSCAPE.