Spring High Point Market Bedding News

It’s the little things | Creative touches and product nuances stand out at the spring show

While BedTimes doesn’t expect to see huge bedding news during the High Point Market since most major mattress brands shifted their focus to the Las Vegas shows, there were a number of distinctive but nuanced product tweaks and yes, even outright news, at the spring market April 16-20.

For instance, Newark, New Jersey-based Shifman Mattress Co. added its first adjustable bed. The handsome furniturelike base had nifty clear plastic “corner guards,” instead of a metal retainer bar. Over at the headquarters and showroom of Spring Air licensee Spring Air Mattress Corp. in Greensboro, North Carolina, BedTimes editors noted the built-in mattress handles that fit perfectly with the fresh new design of the company’s latest version of Sleep Sense Hybrid. At Hartford, Connecticut-based Gold Bond, there was a wealth of product news and jazzed up futon fabrics. While at Eclipse International and Eastman House, headquartered in North Brunswick, New Jersey, sumptuous design met some very appealing price points.

Read more about these introductions and others as you page through this album of features and fashions seen in bedding showrooms during the spring market in High Point, North Carolina.

*All prices are suggested retails for queen-size sets unless otherwise stated.

Spring Air Mattress Corp.

During the High Point Market, Spring Air licensee Spring Air Mattress Corp. invited customers to its spacious showroom and headquarters in nearby Greensboro, North Carolina. Retailers were greeted by the licensee’s fresh interpretation of Sleep Sense Hybrid, a collection under the Spring Air Back Supporter umbrella.

Pictured below, Director of Sales Bill Ellington (from left), Vice President David Grove and President John Grove Jr. touted the bed’s components—from its Hi-Low wrapped coil core by Leggett & Platt Inc. to a range of specialty foams, gel foam and latex in the comfort layers to microcoils and mini-microcoils in the top of the bed:

Spring Air Mattress Corp. new Sleep Sense mattress models

Retailing from $1,299 to $1,799, the four-bed group has white upholstery with fashionable accents in Radiant Orchid, a popular Pantone shade.

Of particular note were the built-in “ergo handles” (pictured), which the licensee designed specifically for the collection:

Spring Air 'ergo' handles on Sleep Sense models

The beds feature the RetaiLive app on the foot sash, allowing retail sales associates and shoppers to use smart devices to “virtually” drill down inside the beds for product information.

Bedding Industries of America | Eclipse International & Eastman House

Bedding Industries of America, the North Brunswick, New Jersey-based licensor of Eclipse International and Eastman House, focused on celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Eastman House brand.

Models in the anniversary collection retail from $999 to $1,999 and feature myriad high-end components (including coil-on-coil options) and unique, patented features such as Spinal Zone and Zoned Quilt Technology:

Eastman-House-anniv-charcoal

The group is available in white with charcoal borders and accents or an eggshell-and-toast color combination with satin accents:

Eastman House Anniversary Collection alternate color choice, toast

Eastman House Anniversary collection alternate color selection: ‘toast’

Gold Bond

The Gold Bond showroom was overflowing with news at this show. After seeing a jump in its futon business, the Hartford, Connecticut-based manufacturer has broadened its futon cover options to include decorative prints and fancy brocades:

Gold Bond futon with brocade upholstery The company also enlarged its SacroSupport encased coil line with two-sided Camelot. The step-up hybrid group of three beds uses a Bolsa with Quantum Edge encased coil unit from Leggett & Platt Inc. for a strong seating edge, said Gold Bond President Bob Naboicheck (pictured bottom right, seated on left, on Camelot with Vice President Skip Naboicheck):

GoldBond SacroSupport new modelsThe $1,199 model features gel memory foam. The $1,299 model includes mini-microcoils and the $1,399 version touts Vytex latex. All models can be used with adjustable bases.

Gold Bond also added a plusher version of its 11-inch Brilliance latex mattress, using a super-soft latex in the top layer. It retails for $3,200. The company used its futon-manufacturing prowess to create an unusual all-cotton mattress in three heights—5 inches, 8 inches and 10 inches—filled with 50 pounds, 80 pounds and 99 pounds, respectively, of GOTS-certified organic cotton. The beds are covered in a woven certified organic cotton cover and retail from $1,599 to $2,199.

Finally, Gold Bond added a top, 12-inch model (retailing for $949) to its turnkey S-Series boxed-bed program. Beds ship in narrower, smaller boxes directly to consumers and use Carpenter Co.’s Serene and Avena polyurethane foams.

Shifman Mattress Co.

Shifman Mattress Co., headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, redesigned its latex collection. The three-bed Pure Comfort group offers enhanced comfort levels with all-Talalay latex cores, a firmer seat-edge and a more streamlined design. The two-sided mattresses are dressed in a soft, dimensional matelassé woven ticking that could easily pass for a stretchy double-knit and contrasting borders. Prices start at $3,100 and top out at $5,300.

Shifman Mattress Co. redesigned latex collection

Redesigned Pure Comfort Collection by Shifman Mattress Co. has Talalay latex cores and sits atop the company’s first adjustable base program.

In a first for Shifman, the company introduced an adjustable base program with the look of upholstered furniture and deck-on-deck construction. Designed especially for the manufacturer by Leggett & Platt Inc., the PowerMotion starter base, which retails for $1,649, features both head and foot elevation, massage, underbed lighting and USB ports for charging.

The step-up PowerMotion Plus, retailing for $1,899, offers the same features, plus an app for smartphones, a pillow-tilt elevation, a sleep timer and a snore feature, which raises the head for 15 minutes before returning to the sleep position. Both bases replace the typical metal retainer bar with almost invisible, clear plastic corner retainers.

Kingsdown

After a decade-long absence, Kingsdown, headquartered in Mebane, North Carolina, made a grand return to High Point with the six-model Crown Imperial collection (pictured below) and a handsome, spacious showroom. The luxurious hybrid beds with unique Kingsdown styling provide support and comfort with pocket coils, microcoils and gel-infused memory foam.

Kingsdown Crown Imperial Collection

Described as “handcrafted by artisans,” the beds feature a lush silk and wool panel fabric with a crest medallion punctuated by outer tufting. Retailing from $1,999 to $3,999, the six beds range from a 13-inch profile to a 16½-inch profile. The company’s 7,800-square-foot showroom displayed the company’s broad lineup of products, as well as sleep technology developed by its Sleep to Live Institute.

Kingsdown High Point Market showroom

Kingsdown made a grand return to High Point Market with this spacious, new showroom.

“Increasingly, independent sleep shops and furniture retailers see our distinct product mix as a way for them to differentiate their offerings in the market,” said Frank Hood, Kingsdown president and chief executive officer. “But many of these independents still don’t travel to Las Vegas, so High Point presents us with an opportunity to work with them.”

Paramount Sleep

Mattress manufacturer Paramount Sleep displayed the final Nature’s Spa collection—nine models specifically designed for women and carrying a wellness message, according to the Norfolk, Virginia-based company. The bed’s cream-colored stretch knit contains cotton yarn meeting the new Better Cotton Initiative standard for sustainable growth. Interior components include natural fibers, such as silk and wool, 100% natural latex, 1½-inch pocketed mini-microcoils and a CertiPUR-US certified high-density foam core made with renewable content derived from soybeans. Prices range from $1,700 to $5,000.

Paramount Sleep Nature's Spa Collection

Paramount Sleep Nature’s Spa Collection

Paramount also revamped Heavy Duty, a built-to-last innerspring group retailing from $999 to $2,599. In addition to a durable spring unit, the beds have a “self-ventilating” foam encasement and a unique tri-zoned comfort layer with gel foam in the hip and shoulder regions and high-density foam in the center third. The updated upholstery includes a striking, striped border with tape inset in deep, neutral shades.

Paramount Sleep Heavy Duty

Paramount Sleep redesigned Heavy Duty Collection

Protect-A-Bed

Chicago-based Protect-A-Bed introduced a customizable racking system exclusively for furniture stores. Available at no cost, the display unit can be modified for use with any of the accessories supplier’s branded collections. Retailers can choose one cabinet or two side-by-side cabinets, which Protect-A-Bed will deliver, assemble and install. The units come with a flat-screen display that plays preloaded product videos or other videos of the retailer’s choice:

Protect-A-Bed customizable display case for furniture retailers

Salem Sleep Systems LLC | Fibrasca

Salem Sleep Systems LLC, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, offered a new lineup of foam pillows from Fibrasca, a 32-year-old company with headquarters in Joinville, Brazil. The pillows retail from $19 to $59. Covers and cores boast traits from heat dissipation to machine washability.

Below, Fibrasca Sales Manager Silvio Brandenburg holds the FrostyGel memory foam pillow with a washable, zippered cover that has a cooling gel coating:

Salem Sleep and Fibrasca launch pillow collection

Fashion Bed Group by Leggett & Platt Inc.

At Fashion Bed Group by Leggett & Platt Inc., the new Lakeview platform bed was a standout—and not just for its contemporary styling and contrasting sleek legs in light wood (leg detail, pictured), but also for its appealing price point of $599. The Carthage, Missouri-based company’s Lakeview also features a slatted foundation, cushioned headboard and faux leather upholstery:

FBG Lakeview bed from Fashion Bed Group

Vispring

In its new 2,200-square-foot High Point showroom, Vispring introduced a fresh marketing strategy, including images, brochures, website, advertising campaign and store concept. The Market Square showroom, with heart-of-pine plank floors and exposed brick walls, was complemented with yellows and grays throughout the space.

In addition to the new showroom look, Vispring, based in Leeds, England, featured the Carmina (pictured below), an upholstered “surround base” with headboard and footboard retailing for $7,195:

Vispring Carmina bed

Therapedic International

Mattress licensing group Therapedic International, with headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, previewed a $999 turnkey boxed-bed program under its Agility by Therapedic brand. The program provides direct-to-consumer threshold delivery of an 11-inch memory foam and microcoil mattress. The bed has a white knit waterfall panel and charcoal gray upholstery on the borders. A slatted foundation with border upholstery ships in a small box and is easy to assemble. A complete set is priced at $1,299.

Therapedic Agility box-bed programThe new boxed Agility is built to last, said Gerry Borreggine, Therapedic president and chief executive officer. “The Therapedic R&D center developed and tested this bed,” he said. “After 200,000 rollator cycles, the mattress lost just 3% in firmness and 2% in height.”   

Magniflex

Florence, Italy-based Magniflex debuted MagniStretch (pictured below), a patented mattress composed of three layers of foam designed to stretch and decompress the spine during sleep.

Magniflex MagniStretch mattressThe bed has been endorsed by traumatology and orthopedic specialists at the University of Zaragoza in Spain, according to Silvia Galasso, Magniflex sales operations manager. MagniStretch’s bottom layer is support foam; the middle layer contains the stretching technology and the top layer is softer support foam with laser cuts designed to distribute body weight evenly, Galasso said.

The 12-inch mattress uses temperature-regulating Outlast yarns in its zippered cover and highly breathable memory foam in the cushion. It retails for $2,699.

Restonic | Alliance Sleep Products

Restonic licensee Alliance Sleep Products, with headquarters in Buffalo, New York, added a seventh model to the ComfortCare Hybrid Signature line, a Restonic group that launched at the Winter Las Vegas Market.

Designed with comfort in mind, the new top model adds a 2½-inch wrapped mini-microcoil unit to the top cushion and is layered with Isotemp foam infused with phase-change material, said Laurie Tokarz, Alliance Sleep president (pictured seated on the new bed):

Restonic Hybrid Signature collection It retails for $1,799. As part of its cooling story, ComfortCare Hybrid Signature has a panel fabric knitted with Outlast yarns and borders upholstered with breathable spacer fabric.

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