Alison Keane • President
As I near my two-year anniversary at the International Sleep Products Association this August, I won’t pretend I’ve seen more than the current down cycle. Yet I’ve seen enough to recognize when a moment calls for clarity over commentary.
So, I’ll be direct.
The recovery that many people were expecting this year has not materialized. You see this truth in your own business, and we see it reflected in ISPA’s industry data. Volumes have remained under pressure, pricing has been uneven, and the broader environment—geopolitical uncertainty, energy costs, a stubbornly frozen housing market mirroring stubbornly frozen mortgage interest rates—continues to push out the timeline for meaningful improvement.
What’s important to understand, though, is what this moment actually is—and what it isn’t. From what we’re seeing across the industry, this is not a demand story in the traditional sense. The need for and interest in better sleep hasn’t faded. Purchases are being delayed, not abandoned. Consumers are parked, not gone. That’s a meaningful distinction, and it shapes everything about how we should be responding right now.
It also helps explain why our data shows that mattresses consistently come up as the category most likely to lead any recovery. Mattresses are need-driven in a way that a sofa or a dining set simply isn’t. And unlike most home furnishings, we aren’t exposed to tariffs in the same way, which means we present a genuine margin opportunity for retailers who are navigating a difficult floor right now. That’s a real competitive advantage, one worth communicating clearly to your retail partners.
But data alone can’t paint the whole picture. The external environment is shaping how this industry operates in real time, and this spring has moved fast. Legislation in New York threatened to undermine the mattress recycling infrastructure that the Mattress Recycling Council has spent a decade building—ISPA fought that legislation directly, and member engagement made a difference. We submitted comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in support of advanced recycling technologies that could open new pathways for hard-to-recycle materials like foam. We are working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission and on the Hill to address noncompliant mattress imports.
These aren’t distant policy debates. They affect your costs, your compliance obligations, and your operating environment. ISPA and MRC can’t affect global economics, but we can make an impact on bedding legislation and regulations, and we can help you navigate the current climate.
If you’re already an ISPA member, I’d encourage you to lean in more—about the data, about the advocacy work, and about the conversations happening across the supply chain. If you’re not a member, I’d genuinely welcome a conversation. Not as a pitch, but because the work we do on your behalf is more effective when more of the industry is part of it.
Recovery will come. Our category has proved its resilience, and the fundamentals are sound. But the companies that emerge best positioned won’t be the ones who just waited it out—they’ll be the ones who stayed informed, stayed engaged, and used this period to get ahead.
