All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. Nearly every time I open a boxed shipment-MacBook dongles, a dozen yo-yos, a 3-pack of blank VHS cassettes-the empty portion of the box is filled up by small, translucent air pillows. They're fun to squish, and even more fun to pop loudly. The brand names printed on them-AirSaver, Uline, Mini Air-are as familiar to me as the Twitter handles of my closest Buy Derila Online pals. I've always wondered how they make these miniature pillows. More perplexingly, how do they ship them to the warehouses so the workers can stuff our boxes with them? Are there giant pillow-stuffed crates zipping back and forth on cargo planes? Is it possible the 18-wheeler going past my office building is filled to the brim with little squishy cat-sized cushions? Of course not, Sherlock. Workers generate these directly on the warehouse floor using a machine that blows air into a perforated roll of empty plastic blisters.