Las Vegas Market: Stylish finishes, new technologies dominate

The happy mood and optimism were hard to miss at the introduction-filled Las Vegas Market, held Jan. 30-Feb. 2 at the World Market Center. In the words of one mattress vendor, “We were slammed with new placements.” “Our adjustable sales were through the roof,” said another.

At a show that appeared to have more traffic in bedding showrooms than since before the recession hit, BedTimes editors spotted these trends in products and point-of-purchase displays:

  • Inviting showroom makeovers that created bright, open spaces for showcasing beds and high-tech POP materials—from interactive iPod stands to illuminated headboards.
  • Mattress displays that allow shoppers to watch a product video and rest-test a bed with more privacy. (Flipped bed sets put shoppers’ feet toward the wall instead of out in the open.)
  • More foam and encased-coil mattresses merchandised with adjustable bases. Meanwhile, adjustable base producers continue to pile on consumer-friendly features.
  • Mattress covers with more color and contrast across all price points. Moderately priced beds are being upholstered with better fabrics and dressmaker details, such as satin ribbons inset in borders. Borders featuring two and three fabrics in arches, angles, stripes and diagonals demanded attention.
  • “Made in the USA” tags, cards and sewn labels on beds throughout the World Market Center. A special market space devoted to American-made furniture included several bedding industry vendors.
  • Gel, gel and more gel. Swirled-gel memory foam is playing a bigger role in comfort layers. It and gel bead-flecked memory foam are sweeping across entire mattress lines—from all-foam to innerspring-core constructions. In accessories, there were new pillows inlaid with colorful, solid gel panels and even an all-gel mattress pad.

BedTimes looks at a sampling of new products shown at market:

SpringAir

Spring Air International

The new Back Supporter Breathe is a seven-bed group that promises a sigh of relief for allergy and asthma sufferers, and a healthier sleep environment for all. It’s certified “Asthma & Allergy Friendly” after an assessment by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America in Landover, Md. The new collection from the Boston-based mattress licensing group includes LFK, pocket spring and foam cores. A zippered cover acts as an allergen barrier. Models are priced from $999 to $2,499.*

Simmons

Simmons Bedding Co.

Backed by an upcoming, hefty national ad spend, Atlanta-based Simmons unveiled a Beautyrest “brand transformation,” many new or redesigned models and a fresh tag line, “Living Life Fully Charged.” On display were the new ComforPedic by Beautyrest, Beautyrest Black and (shown here) Beautyrest TruEnergy—a hybrid pocketed coil and memory foam group that replaces Beautyrest World Class. TruEnergy beds are dressed in spacer fabric with picture-frame knit panels. All the collections share the Beautyrest Recharge Sleep System—a host of technologies designed to promote temperature regulation and air flow. Nine Beautyrest TruEnergy models are priced from $1,599 to $2,799.

Boyd

Boyd Specialty Sleep

A human-powered adjustable base was one of many product rollouts at St. Louis-based Boyd Specialty Sleep. The new manual, adjustable platform base is geared toward younger consumers and has suggested retail prices of $349 in queen, $249 in twin XL or $199 with mattress purchase. Boyd rolled out a range of other platform bases, with styling from contemporary to classic. The company also redesigned its high-end Natural Flex Ultra latex collection with a cooler, vented core and striking tailoring.

TempurPedic

Tempur-Pedic

The Lexington, Ky.-based producer broke into new territory with its lower-priced Simplicity collection. Available in three comfort levels, the beds feature a Tempur-Essential visco-elastic support layer over a Simplicity-Support foam core and retail for $1,499. The collection captures a new market for the company—the “$1,000 to $2,000 mattress shopper”—and has “all the basics that you need in a Tempur-Pedic,” said Mike Mason, Tempur-Pedic director of brand development and integration. Product shipments begin in April, backed by national 30- and 60-second Simplicity TV spots.

L+PCPG

Leggett & Platt Consumer Products Group

The company, based in Whittier, Calif., enticed retailers with Las Vegas-style games and prizes, and displayed a range of new, contemporary Leggett & Platt Fashion Bed headboards, footboards and platform frames. The Brisa Gel memory foam pillow shown here with bright blue gel inset retails for $120. The cooling gel side can be flipped over for a pure memory foam experience.

Kingsdown

Kingsdown Inc.

The Mebane, N.C.-based company added new opening price points to its foam Blu-Tek collection. Now starting at $1,299, Blu-Tek beds include Snow and Sub-Zero models. Four new MySide foam mattress models combine “a progressive foam core” and layers of gel, latex and visco-elastic in the top comfort layers. MySide retails for $1,599 to $3,999.

ES Kluft

E.S. Kluft & Co.

Included in a range of product enhancements was Kluft’s new Airegelle “multidensity” gel-infused memory foam technology. It was added to models across several collections. The most striking product on the floor in Vegas: AireloomKing, an oversized square mattress with “49 square feet of sleeping luxury,” priced at $8,000 and shown with a glamorous base and headboard by designer Michael Amini. Kluft is based in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.

Comfort Solutions

Comfort Solutions

The Willowbrook, Ill.-based licensing group redesigned its showroom, adding a brightly lit gallery to showcase the new Dr. Breus Bed. Another new offering was the iMattress. It comes with either an innerspring or foam core and features the company’s cooling AirFlo system, memory foam embedded with “gel spheres” and more specialty foam comfort layers. iMattress models are priced from $799 to $2,499. The show-stopping Charlemagne bed (pictured here) is part of the new Royalty collection—one of several high-end King Koil-branded groups introduced at the show. Retailing for about $12,000, the bed features coil-on-coil construction, sumptuous fabrics and shirred borders.

Magniflex

Magniflex

In its first private Las Vegas showroom, the Prato, Italy-based company launched a new “American look” in its Memoform Snooze collection. The higher-profile mattress sports temperature-regulating, quilted covers with Outlast yarns and the company’s exclusive “water-expanded” memory foam core. The beds have a dual-core design, allowing a couple to customize their sleep experience by zipping off the cover and flipping the single cores to soft or firm sides.

Restonic

Restonic

In a redesigned showroom, licensing group Restonic announced the national rollout of TempaGel, its foam bed with “gel thermocules” in the bed’s top comfort layer. The knit cover is woven with temperature-regulating Outlast yarns. The line is supported by an array of point-of-sale materials, from headboards to interactive videos and TempaGel-branded iPad stations. Four models are priced from $1,299 to $2,499.

Therapedic

Therapedic International

The mattress licensing group headquartered in Princeton, N.J., showcased new point-of-sale materials for its EcoGel beds, as well as new lifestyle posters and a refreshed company logo. Therapedic also updated its TheraWrap encased coil collection with a layer of signature EcoGel, a swirled-gel memory foam.

Dormeo Octaspring

Dormeo Octaspring

An unusual “foam spring” bed, the Dormeo Octaspring collection was rolled out to the U.S. market by global marketing group Studio Moderna. Four beds retail for $1,399 to $2,800 and contain one to three layers of honeycomb-cut polyurethane foam “springs” of differing densities sandwiched between flat foam panels. The beds are cool, conforming and relieve pressure points, the company says.

Pure LatexBLISS

Pure LatexBLISS

Doing a rest-test is easier in the BLISS Theater shown here. The mattress display turns shoppers toward a wall-mounted video monitor to provide more privacy and educate them about BLISS benefits. The Atlanta-based company also offered a display unit that holds four latex toppers, as well as pillows. It’s available to retailers for $625.

Anatomic Global

Anatomic Global

ANEW is a nonmemory foam bed for consumers who “prefer a foam bed with a more resilient feel,” said Diane Adams, senior vice president of sales and marketing for parent company FXI. Featuring the Media, Pa.-based company’s Activus fast-recovery foam, the three beds are priced at $2,400, $2,700 and $3,400 and have “four, five and six layers of anatomically designed resilience for more restful sleep.” Other Anatomic Global mattress collections were refreshed with new covers and point-of-sale materials and were displayed in a redesigned showroom.

Sealy

Sealy

Shipping to retailers in April, Optimum by Sealy Posturepedic, a new specialty sleep collection, has OptiCool gel memory foam with temperature-regulating Outlast material. The Optimum collection retails for $1,299 to $2,999. Some models were merchandised with the Sealy Reflexion adjustable base, and the Trinity, N.C.-based company has created an in-store program to support the collection that includes a lighted headboard, coordinated pillows and streamers. Also new: the innerspring hybrid Sealy Posturepedic Gel Series, dressed in silver and cream with floral motifs.

Comfortaire

Comfortaire

The Greenville, S.C.-based airbed maker reconfigured its collection with new aesthetics and components, including a box-top and green tea-infused foams. The company displayed several new models with adjustable bases. The new top bed, the EC3, retails for $5,399. It has “edge-to-edge” air chambers layered with a gel foam on the top. At the core is Energex, a synthetic latex base foam.

Englander

Englander

Clustered beneath an illuminated canopy in the licensing group’s redecorated showroom were new and improved E-gel memory foam beds, which offer a different take on gel memory foam—they are injected with CoolBlue solid gel “cylinders,” 4,000 of them in the top bed. Englander calls the beds “gel posturized.” They retail for $1,499 to $2,999. Also new: the Bodi-Form Gel collection with swirled gel foam in the top comfort layer over foam cores. Three models are priced from $799 to $1,499.

Sleep Inc

Sleep Inc.

The Corsicana, Texas-based producer holds licenses to produce Englander, Spring Air and Therapedic brands, but in Las Vegas it rolled out the banner “Dream Big” and launched four Sleep Inc.-branded collections—Bodycomfort encased coil, Bodycool with gel-infused foam, Bodyrhythms with natural latex and Bodycontours memory foam. Zoned Bodycomfort retails for $599 to $999 and has a high-end look with a blue and gray plaid border and coordinating knit panel fabric. Bodycool uses swirled-gel memory foam in its top layer and retails for $799 to $1,199. Also on the floor: a collection of two-sided Sleep Inc. beds for the contract market.

Sleep Harmony

Sleep Harmony by Glideaway Bed Carriage Mfg. Co.

In addition to new mattress protection made with Tencel yarns and expanded pillow offerings, the St. Louis-based company launched the CG Series of gel memory foam mattresses. Made in the United States, the three mattresses come in heights from 7 inches to 9 inches and retail for $599 to $949. Sleep Harmony added five colors—orange, purple, black, red and yellow—to its collection of velour-covered memory foam mattresses for kids. Mattress-only suggested retail is $295 in twin and $395 in full.

Reverie

Reverie

The adjustable bed importer with headquarters in Silver Creek, N.Y., held the official launch of its flagship product, the patented Dream Sleep System, which boasts a host of features. As an Apple licensee, Reverie’s exclusive technology allows users to download a Reverie control app from the iTunes store onto an iPad or iPhone, turning those devices into a remote control for the Reverie sleep system. The system, which retails for $4,000, comes with anti-snore and programmable-memory functions.

Serta

Serta

A new top bed in Serta’s iComfort gel foam collection—it has a pillow-top—drew lots of attention in the showroom of the Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based manufacturer. The new model has Cool Action Gel memory foam and other premium comfort layers. It retails for $3,999. Serta also remerchandised its Perfect Day (shown here) and Trump lines, adding its iSeries technology, which includes Cool Action Gel memory foam over a EuroCoil individually wrapped coil-in-coil system.

Carolina Mattress Guild

Carolina Mattress Guild

The Thomasville, N.C.-based company introduced Fresh Touch, a collection with what the company calls “the perfect blend of natural latex and Cool Breeze Gel memory foam.” Foam cutouts on foot streamers illustrate the yin-yang, or complementary, nature of the two foams. The company also restyled its memory foam G collection, adding a layer of gel foam to each bed. Three models retail from $699 to $1,299.

Fabrictech

Fabrictech International

Mattress protection supplier Fabrictech in Cedar Grove, N.J., launched a pillow collection—10 SKUs in four color-coded product groups. The group includes Talalay latex and “temperature-neutral” memory foam pillows in various shapes and comfort levels; down pillows featuring Ultra-Fresh, an anti-bacterial cleansing treatment; and a Cuddle Me body pillow. All pillows have sealed inner linings to keep dust mites and allergens out.

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