By Jane Kitchen and Barbara Nelles
High-end latex line PranaSleep made its Las Vegas Market debut.
Ribbon-cuttings occurred at a hectic pace at this busy market, with market authorities reporting that seven new bedding-related sources exhibited in their own showrooms for the first time.
“The bedding component of the Las Vegas Market just keeps getting stronger,” said Ryan Mahoney, director of leasing at World Market Center.
We spotted first-time mattress and sleep accessories vendors, as well as those opening a permanent showroom for the first time.
First-time exhibitor PranaSleep, manufacturer of high-end latex foam mattresses, foundations and pillows, opened a brand-new showroom complete with a Zen garden and bridge to reinforce the company’s tagline, “Restoring life’s energy.”
Juel Sleep Solutions presented a new type of foam core made with polyethylene foam.
Next door, Spaldin Natural Sleep also held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in its new showroom, where it launched its line of European-design mattresses featuring some components with Oeko-Tex certification.
“Natural” and “organic” bed brand Natura, manufactured by Canadian producer Rev, relocated to an expanded showroom in Building C, painted in Natura’s signature green. The company celebrated with a ribbon-cutting and cocktail party, with a delicious mango concoction mixed up by Rev Chief Marketing Officer Valerie Stranix.
VitalWood beds from Bio-Textima have unusual wood ‘springs’ and other components from renewable resources.
Among unusual market first-timers were two companies — Juel Sleep Solutions, based in Raleigh, N.C., offering a new take on ventilated foams; and VitalWood/Bio-Textima, based in Bősárkány, Hungary, giving new meaning to the innerspring.
Juel told a “cool” story with an artful, geometric core designed for maximum airflow and made from sturdy polyethylene foam — a type of foam not seen before in the mattress segment.
Juel’s beds and its “EvenCool technology” throughout, which included ticking with phase-change material and gel memory foam, are meant to “breathe new life into foam mattresses,” said President Jim Roberts. “If you want something different, we’re something different.”
Four Juel Sleep beds with four distinct feels retail from $1,699 to $2,999.
The VitalWood beds have wood — yes, wood — springs sandwiched between natural latex, and layered with a removable and reversible natural wool and cotton topper for what the company describes as a long-lasting, all-natural bed, retailing from $3,000 to $6,000.
Dreams LLC’s Scott Miller and Art Van Elslander (third and fourth from left) are flanked by HGTV and Scripps executives as they cut the ribbon on the new HGTV Home Sleep collection showroom.
Dreams LLC, based in Rochester, Mich., held the official launch of the HGTV Home Sleep collection. Sleep LLC is a marketing and distribution company founded in 2013 by mattress industry veteran Scott Miller and Art Van Furniture founder Art Van Elslander. HGTV Home covers the entire sleep products category, including four mattress collections, three adjustable bases, metal bed frames and support systems, twelve pillows, six mattress toppers, protection products, crib mattresses and pet beds.
“We are thrilled to offer retailers a preview of this award-winning new brand and to begin our plans for placing the line throughout the United States and Canada,” said Miller, Dreams LLC president.
Blu Sleep Products’ Elizabeth Dell’Accio and Alex Ciccolella (second and third from left) cut the ribbon on their first permanent showroom in Las Vegas and launched Somnium Sleep beds.
Another first-time exhibitor, SleepAngel, held the official U.S. launch of its rebranded and repackaged SleepAngel pillow with patented PneumaPure filter — to block germs and allergens from contaminating the pillow’s interior. The pillows are available with four fills — gel foam, memory foam, micro fiber and latex — and retail from $80 to $120. The product has a distilled message, “Sleep where the air is pure;” eye-catching point-of-sale materials; and attractive, boxed packaging, said Chief Executive Officer David Woolfson.
Somnium Specialty Sleep beds have engineered foam cores.
Pillow-producer Blu Sleep Products cut the ribbon on its first permanent showroom and rolled out four new pillows, as well as a collection of six Somnium Specialty Sleep foam and latex beds with European-style engineered cores. They retail from $1,999 to $4,999 and have zippered knit covers. Among the pillow introductions were a New Zealand wool fill pillow and wool-fill pillows with foam or latex inserts. The wool was laminated to hold its shape. Pillows retailed from $79 to $149.
The mattresses are assembled in Canada and the U.S. from Italian foams and have eye-catching “cool cores designed for breathability,” said Elizabeth Dell’Accio, Blu Sleep vice president. “We had a great reaction from retailers and have completely redesigned the collection, in and out, for the American market.”
