In this business, it’s rare to hear executives from one company call out to other companies to hop in, the water’s fine. But that’s what we heard after digital native bedding brand Purple Innovation announced its acquisition of fellow Utah-based, gel grid mattress producer Intellibed at the end of August.

Purple CEO Rob DeMartini is bullish on the deal that he helped orchestrate and said the all-stock acquisition gives the company the ability to “pivot to premium” in the gel grid sleep space. With the Intellibed acquisition, the company’s total product lineup will span retails of $1,399 to luxury prices beyond $7,000.

In his interview with me about the acquisition, DeMartini said that gel technology for sleep is poised to take off just as memory foam did after it was introduced in the U.S. 30 years ago by Tempur-Pedic. During those early years, introducing a new sleep surface into the marketplace included some guerilla marketing that included cubes of the Tempur material being handed out on the streets of High Point during April and October markets. The Furniture Today office on the eighth floor of the National Furniture Mart was home to more than its fair share of the squishy cubes.

Tempur-Sealy has said in quarterly earnings calls that it is looking to develop a pressure-relieving gel grid lineup later this year under the Sealy brand. Scott Thompson, CEO of Tempur Sealy, has described the gel grid as “kind of a crushable wafer.”

DeMartini said he welcomes additional players in the gel grid mattress arena to add to the conversation about the sleep technology. He said he hopes Sealy jumps into the category and that they do so with a premium product. He welcomes it. The key word there is premium. He said Purple is committed to investing in the category and expanding its share of voice to help bring the consumers along in their shopping journeys.

The idea of inviting and encouraging others into the field?

That old saying about a rising tide raises all ships comes to mind. DeMartini said that having other brands in the category will help validate and elevate the gel grid sleep category. The more leading mattress manufacturers that are investing in advertising and marketing, the more likely it is that consumers hear the message and better understand the technology employed in the gel grid sleep surface.

Memory foam was an unknown sleep material in 1992; consumers were used to sleeping on springs. The marketing push — and investment — that built the memory foam mattress category were needed to bolster the idea of a new sleep material.

Could gel grids be the next memory foam? We’ll see how the winter Las Vegas Market shakes out and whether there is an influx of gel grid introductions. As with all newer product designs, the consumer will be the ultimate judge, and that could take some time.

I’m Sheila Long O’Mara, executive editor at Furniture Today. Throughout my 25-year career in the home furnishings industry, I have been an editor with a number of industry publications and spent a brief stint with a public relations agency where I worked with some of the industry’s leading bedding brands. I rejoined Furniture Today in December 2020 with a focus on bedding and sleep products. It’s a homecoming for me, as I was a writer and editor with Furniture Today from 1994 until 2002. I’m happy to be back and look forward to telling the important stories impacting bedding retailers and manufacturers.

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