While many bedding manufacturers wait for Las Vegas to make major product introductions, High Point Market April 5-10 featured a number of new product launches, line revamps and extensions, as well as sneak peeks at products in the works.
Many manufacturers used this market to showcase value price points, while several bedding makers exhibited at High Point for the first time.
Unless otherwise stated, all prices are the approximate retail for a queen set.
Atlanta-based mattress major Simmons unveiled a complete renovation of its existing High Point showroom. President Tony Smith presided over the ribbon-cutting ceremony, announcing that the company had signed an extended lease and renewed its commitment to the market.
High-end mattress maker Shifman Mattress Co. makes beds the old-fashioned way—handcrafted, two-sided, layered with cotton and wool, wrapped in lustrous traditional white damask, perched on eight-way, hand-tied box springs. But at this show, the Newark, N.J.-based company did something unexpected. It unveiled a decidedly new look, a Concept Bed with an upholstered divan base, contrasting bed borders, a detachable pillow-top filled with Talalay latex and cotton and wrapped in cream, gold and white fabrics. “The bed is a sneak peek at an upcoming premium collection and our retailers love it,” said Shifman President Bill Hammer.
Furniture maker Ashley Furniture Industries, headquartered in Arcadia, Wis., introduced Sierra Sleep, its new mattress collection for independent retailers. [The company’s Ashley Sleep line will continue to be sold at Ashley Furniture HomeStores]. Sierra Sleep encompasses a wide collection of specialty and innerspring beds that retail from $299 to $1,999. Styles and fabrics range from traditional quilted pillow-tops to all-foam beds with cut-and-sewn unquilted covers and contemporary design motifs. The Sierra Sleep lineup contains a full slate of gel, foam and spring technology, including memory foam with Zoned Gel Disk Support.
Boyd Specialty Sleep held the official introduction of a revamped Sleep Metrics bed program and accompanying updated hardware and software. The in-store and online interfaces are now complete and retailers can embed a fully functional Sleep Metrics tool at their websites. The comfort selection technology allows retailers to incorporate every mattress in their stores into the system, regardless of brand, said Denny Boyd, president of the St. Louis, Mo.-based company. He also announced the launch of a drop-ship program, “My Mattress Now,” that allows retailers to ship directly to consumers for just $20 per order.
Airbed manufacturer Comfortaire, based in Greenville, S.C., held the High Point launch of a completely refreshed look using bright white knits mixed with Comfortaire’s signature ocean blue in borders, knit motifs, trim and POP. Comfortaire added two beds with unquilted knit panels, a first for the company, and added a new comfort layer—memory foam-infused graphite and gel. The company also introduced the seventh generation of its air control system and remote with Digital Direct Comfort Drive. The remote offers greater individual adjustability, memory and a night light.
Five Star Mattress, Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Serta’s value-priced line, added new features to existing lines. The four-year-old TLC collection got a higher pocketed-coil count, taller coils, gel in the top beds and new fabrics. The group retails from $549 to $999. The newer Pro Comfort collection is now available in foam-encased and edge-to-edge innerspring versions and retails from $299 to $999.
Norfolk, Va.-based Paramount Sleep introduced a new group in its Boutique Hotel collection, targeting $399 to $599 velocity price points (pictured). The beds have the look and feel of luxury, the company said, with upscale tailoring and quilting fiber containing silk and wool, as well as specialty foams, including gel memory foam, over foam-encased wrapped coils. The manufacturer also showcased Nature’s Spa Fusion, which now uses tubular “Eco-Sphere” 100% natural latex in its comfort layers and retails from $1,499 to $2,299.
Mattress maker Jamison, which has headquarters in Brentwood, Tenn., reached out to value-conscious consumers with the new Two Thirty Four collection. Retailing from $299 to $499, the four-model group has both innerspring and foam core constructions with varying combinations and densities of polyurethane foam comfort layers. The collection includes a euro-top silhouette and is upholstered in classic cream and gray tones.
“The Donald’s” mattress collection at Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based manufacturer Serta got a complete redesign. Trump Home now has Serta’s hybrid iSeries core, new fabrics, a border trimmed with glitzy tapes and a beribboned, weighty “Serta iSeries” medallion hanging from its border. Trump Home retails from $1,299 to $2,999.
Carthage, Mo.-based Leggett & Platt Consumer Products Group added new decorative beds to its extensive collection, including the Wellesly, a metal full bed with antique styling and an unusual “marbled navy” finish.
Italian luxury bedding producer Magniflex, based in Prato, Italy, debuted a new collection manufactured in collaboration with Thomasville, N.C.-based Carolina Mattress Guild, whose showroom featured a mint green Vespa–test driven here by Billy Curtright, Magniflex sales manager. The lineup included six Magniflex-branded mattresses–three all-foam models with Magniflex’s patented memory foam and three lower-priced hybrids with innerspring and memory foam.
Sleep products and accessories supplier Malouf, which has headquarters in Logan, Utah, beefed up its pillow selection with line extensions in its plush Zoned Dough memory foam pillows. One pillow is infused with bamboo rayon fiber and charcoal, another is lavender-scented and pinhole-cored, two have poured gel—including a two-sided poured-gel version. The new pillows retail from $99 to $129.
Shelton, Conn.-based Pure Latex Bliss launched the man-made Talalay collection Imi-tex with three beds designed to bring Talalay process latex mattresses at lower price points to consumers who are indifferent to “natural characteristics,” the company said. The all-synthetic “Talalay latex” used in the collection is created with post-industrial synthetic latex from medical gloves. The three mattresses in the (Oeko-Tex certified) Imi-tex collection have pressure-relief layers over a support core and are available in 8-inch, 9-inch and 10-inch profiles with price points from $1,599 to $1,999.
New specialty sleep manufacturer Rush Mattress, a division of High Point, N.C.-based RTA furniture distributor Vrush Industries, made its debut. The company manufactures a line of “completely customizable” foam beds using memory foam, reticulated foam, gel-infused foam and latex. Foams are U.S.-made and have CertiPUR-US certification, the company said. Thirteen models retail from $699 to $2,799. All mattresses are compatible with adjustable or platform bases. Pictured is the Windswept, a 12-inch mattress with two inches of latex. “There’s been a lot of excitement (about the line),” said Rush Mattress President Harry Goodman. “We’re operating ‘tight,’ so retailers can work with (healthy) margins.”
Spring Time Bedding, with headquarters in South Hackensack, N.J., expanded the Medici & Seville collection to include “air-ventilated mattresses” with up to 2 inches of XL foam, 1,000 pocketed coils and retail prices from $999 to $1,999.
Devon, England-based Vi-Spring, a producer of handmade bedding, introduced a redesign of its Signatory Superb model that included changes in the fill configuration. The bed has “hand-teased” Shetland fleece wool, cashmere, long-strand black horsetail hair, as well as a coil structure with a more plush feel. The queen-size Superb retails for about $17,000. Vi-Spring said it will spend more than $1.7 million in 2014 to market its ultra-premium beds.
Shawinigan, Quebec-based Zedbed brought a trio of new pillows to market in three heights and constructions—from fast-response foam, to gel, to perforated memory foam. The pillows retail for $99, $129 and $139 and bring the specialty sleep manufacturer’s pillow selection to 15. The pillows are “a bed for your head” and covered in a comfortable, attractive stretch knit that is machine washable, said Melanie Stranix, Zedbed vice president of sales (pictured).
Emerald Sleep Systems, a division of Tacoma, Wash.-based Emerald Home Furnishings, highlighted new additions to its Cool Jewel mattress collection, including a hybrid group that launched at the winter Las Vegas Market. The beds have a wrapped coil core, mesh spacer-fabric borders, gel foams, gel-infused latex and retail for $799 and $999 (mattress only). Emerald also announced it is partnering with adjustable base supplier Customatic Adjustable Bedz (with U.S. headquarters in Natick, Mass.) to offer the Wave adjustable base with wired remote and the Light Wave adjustable with wireless remote, massage and floor light. The two bases have custom fabric and leg options and are priced at $799 and $1,299 in twin XL, and $899 and $1,499 in queen. (Pictured from left) Customatic Adjustable Bedz principals Phil Sherman and Phil McCarthy and Joe Carman V, Emerald Sleep director of marketing, pose with a new Cool Jewel mattress atop an adjustable base.
Italian gel bed maker Technogel, with U.S. headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pa., was a first-time exhibitor at High Point Market, bringing its Vive soft-solid gel mattresses to the show.
Specialty producer Classic Brands, based in Jessup, Md., held a soft launch of products it will unveil at the summer Las Vegas Market July 27-31, including beds made with a new “negative-ion foam” that the company said will help eliminate odors and allergens. A new hybrid Natural Sleep line, pictured here, contains latex and wrapped coils. The bed retails for $1,499 and can ship flat packed and rolled.
After debuting Smart Series in October, Hartford, Conn.-based manufacturer Gold Bond added eight new beds to the group, including two-sided models, for a total of 11 Smart Series models. Priced from $999 to $1,999, the collection features gel or latex with gel. Gold Bond also promoted its American-made foam program–five beds with memory foam and gel foams and contemporary covers. “We are a great resource for someone who wants to differentiate,” said President Bob Naboicheck.
Mattress licensing group Therapedic, with headquarters in Princeton, N.J., expanded the Ecogel collection launched at the Las Vegas Market in January to include three hybrids with individually wrapped coils and latex, as well as a gel-on-gel overlay. The 11.5-inch Nexus, 13-inch Fusion and 14-inch Synthesis hybrids have a layer of cooling gel in the shape of the company’s proprietary HourGlass Back Support System atop gel swirled memory foam. Prices for the collection range from $999 to $1,499.
