Why I started Boring Mattress after Tuft & Needle
Back in 2012, I co-founded Tuft & Needle®, one of the earliest direct-to-consumer mattress brands.
We started Tuft & Needle with just our personal savings and grew it to over $200 million in sales by disrupting the traditional brick & mortar retail experience, which was way too complicated, full of gimmicks, and a real pain for anyone just trying to find a decent bed.
Tuft & Needle pioneered the concept of a single-model, universally-comfortable mattress sold at a fair price and delivered to your door. Customers loved the idea and the brand grew like crazy.
Then in 2018, we merged with Serta Simmons Bedding, a global company and one of America’s largest bedding manufacturers, and Tuft & Needle became one of Serta Simmons’ brands.
Today, the mattress market’s a total mess. All over again, it’s way too complicated, full of gimmicks, and it’s a real pain for anyone just trying to find a decent bed. In the past, back when we started Tuft & Needle, you only had to dodge the pushy sales guy at the local mattress store. Now, in addition to mattress stores, shopping online bombards you with too many brands and a crazy amount of mattress models.
Picture this: over 200 mattress brands online, each trying to one-up the others with the flashiest tech or the latest “revolutionary” material. They toss around phrases like “sleep technology” and “advanced comfort,” but mostly, they’re just sticking big price tags on ordinary mattresses.
Just when you think the mattress market can’t get any more crowded, every brand that’s ever sold a pillow, bedsheet, or piece of furniture decided they want to crash the mattress party too.
On top of all that, mattress review blogs made a bad situation worse. Try a quick google search - for anything mattress related, really. You get pages filled with so-called “Best Mattress” lists and glowing reviews that sound too good to be true. (Spoiler alert: these review sites slap five-star ratings on the brands that offer the highest sales commission.)
It’s a circus out there, and consumers are trapped in a cycle of hype and disappointment.
A year ago, having long departed from Tuft & Needle, I found myself ranting about how awful online mattress shopping had gotten. The brands that once shook up and “disrupted” the market had ditched their roots, chasing luxury pricing and slick sales tactics instead.
After Casper - one of T&N’s early competitors - was taken over by the bankers in 2021, their new CEO set the tone: “We’re not in the business of not making money anymore.” Purple - another early competitor - now sells a $12,000 mattress with 8 layers. Even Tuft & Needle, the brand I co-founded, began selling mattresses with diamond dust.
Once again, mattress shopping resembles a world that my favorite early T&N ad hilariously satirized. Except now there is an even wider and more confusing array of brands offering extravagant ingredients, features and layers, along with premium pricing - all of which aren’t necessary for a good night’s sleep.
Our original mission at Tuft & Needle - the fundamental concept of disrupting the industry by offering a comfortable, affordable mattress without any gimmicks had faded away.
That’s when Tyler, Corben and I had the idea: let’s make a “boring” mattress company. Our vision was simple: cut the crap and make buying a mattress easy and brutally honest. No more navigating through a maze of overhyped buzzwords and confusing jargon.
Tyler was our first employee at Tuft & Needle and head of product development since day one. Corben is an ethical hacker who thought mattress shopping was kind of absurd and brought a fresh outsider perspective on how to fix it. For me, I’m building the mattress company I would have started in the first place with the benefit of all that experience and hindsight.
So here it is, our first product: The Boring Mattress. It’s a 10” mattress with foam and springs. You know, the kind the industry likes to call “hybrid technology” to sound fancy and charge more. Our mattress is designed and assembled in Phoenix, Arizona with proven quality materials, and comes with a no-nonsense sleep trial, our “Won’t Sink” Bet, and a 10-year warranty.
We’re here to bring back the basics and focus on what really matters. We want you to have great sleep, and you don’t need all the bells and whistles to get that.