They solve two different problems, so the honest answer starts with which problem is ruining your rides.
Sheepskin is a heat-and-moisture tool, and a genuinely good one. Real merino fleece breathes, wicks sweat, and keeps the seat surface comfortable in summer and winter alike. Long-distance riders have strapped sheepskin on for decades because it kills the swampy, chafing misery of hours in the saddle. What sheepskin does not do is redistribute pressure. It's a thin, soft layer — your full weight still funnels down onto the same two sit bones and tailbone, and it does almost nothing about vibration coming up through the frame. If your issue is a numb, aching backside and a lower back that quits at hour two, fleece alone won't move the needle much.
An air-cell cushion attacks exactly that: interconnected chambers spread your weight across the whole seat instead of two pressure points, and the air layer absorbs a share of the road buzz before it reaches your spine.
If overheating and sweat are your enemy, sheepskin. If pressure pain and back fatigue are cutting your rides short — the more common complaint among riders past fifty — the air cushion is the better tool. Plenty of Iron Butt types run both: air cell for pressure, fleece on top for climate.
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