By Barbara Nelles and Jane Kitchen
World Market Center
International Market Center executives reported that attendance records were “shattered” at this winter’s Las Vegas Market Jan. 26-30, and the editors of BedTimes witnessed the “energy and buzz” first hand in mattress showrooms.
The show had 21% more buyers compared with the summer show and 850,000 more square feet of occupied showroom space. There were more new lines, showroom openings and first-time exhibitors than we’ve seen in quite a long time.
“We’ve never seen anything like it,” said Pure LatexBLISS President Kurt Ling. “It’s been the busiest days we’ve ever had so far — we’ve just been to the wall.”
Managing sleep temperature was a common theme at this show and the latest take on temperature control has entered a new “phase”— the phase-change material era is definitely here. In addition to ever-present gels and gel foams, as well as the use of engineered foams designed to mechanically aerate beds, growing numbers of mattress manufacturers incorporated phase-change imbued components into almost every part of the bed.
In tune with the principal driver of consumer spending in 2013 — the luxury segment — many manufacturers launched collections for the well heeled. Worth noting, a good number of premium and ultra-premium new beds were sprung — or hybrid — beds, combining an innerspring unit with specialty foams. There was also much “smart talk” about functional fabrics, intelligent mattresses and programmable adjustable bases.
Delving into design, beautiful fabrics were used abundantly on new beds and we noted that manufacturers like Sealy, in its Stearns & Foster collections, and Zedbed, in its new Fuzzio hybrid, used bold knit designs in the bed’s top panel to call out special comfort features in the core. Often, the feature being highlighted down below was poured gel over latex or over memory foam, sometimes combined with — yes — phase-change material.
The market began one day earlier, on Sunday instead of Monday, and some bedding showrooms reported that Sunday traffic was on the light side — but not all.
Kingsdown President Frank Hood said his company, which spotlighted luxurious mattress fabrics and updates to high-tech Sleep Smart, had really strong traffic Sunday and Monday, with foot traffic beginning to taper off in the afternoon on Tuesday.
“We’ve seen a lot of new faces,” said Hood. “And it probably marked the largest in terms of business we’ve consummated at Market.”
Symbol Mattress new hybrid Signature Series bed
Symbol Mattress, which rolled out the feature-filled, wrapped coil with latex Signature Series (retailing from $899 to $1,299), was extra busy from day one.
“Our showroom was always busy and retailers were buying our new product offerings on the spot, said Mike McQuiston, executive vice president. “Truly, it was the best market we’ve had in a long time.”
Ron Passaglia, president of Restonic, said, “All kidding aside, we have experienced the best market in quite some time. Not only were people coming in — they were really interested, open and looking for new product.”
Mattress manufacturer and licensing group Eclipse/Eastman House capitalized on the market’s international draw, picking up a new Middle East licensee during the show and fielding inquiries from several prospects hailing from South Africa and beyond, said Stuart Carlitz, president and chief executive officer of parent company Bedding Industries of America.
