Why Cardboard is the Latest Mattress Trend

You know what they say, “good things come in small packages.”

Now good sleep is among them. You’ve probably heard of the bed in the box at this point—an entire mattress that ships straight to your door in a tiny cardboard box, no trucks or complicated delivery schedules required. Seriously. No more trudging down to the mattress store on the corner and shrugging through sales pitches, hoping you made a good choice.

Traditional shopping is out, and online shopping is in, but how did the online mattress industry explode into its current state and is it here to stay?

How did all of this even start?

In 2006, BedInABox was founded. They shipped memory foam mattresses straight to the consumer online, which was the first of its kind. For their first 6 years, they were the only prevalent company offering this service.

In 2012, when Tuft & Needle was founded, we adopted an online model as well. We weren’t sold on memory foam as the best material to sleep on, so we got to work and invented our very own foam. Tuft & Needle Adaptive® foam is unique in that no one else uses it, and we created it as a solution to a set of problems that we felt weren’t being addressed—we wanted to offer something that combined all the benefits of existing materials without the high price tag, middlemen, or confusing jargon.

We set out to solve a problem we saw in the mattress industry as a whole and could have never predicted the boom in the mattress world that followed quickly after.

Where are we now?

In 2014, most of the big names in e-commerce mattresses found their way onto the scene. Casper, Leesa, Yogabed, Bear Mattress—the sites were popping up left and right as everyone put their own spin on the “bed in the box” business.

Even in 2018, over five years after we started, we’ve seen dozens of new companies crop up on a near-weekly basis. At our last count, there were over 100 digitally-native mattress companies all fighting to be the one you choose. The logical question is one that’s hard to answer—is this all just a passing fad?

Obviously, we don’t believe so, we know that mattresses belong in boxes and not in an endless row on a showroom floor. But it’s more than just hoping that the industry keeps trending away from traditional experiences, we’re investing our time and energy into constantly improving every aspect about how we sleep, and we’re just getting started. We don’t think that we should just stop at mattresses, and we’re excited to keep creating and innovating on all things comfort. We’ve grown into leaders in this industry, and others.

While many of these companies are simply copy-cats, there are plenty putting their own stamp on the industry, and those who are taking a unique approach to mattresses have seen remarkable success.

We’re proud to be one of the companies leading the charge and see the response and support from customers as a sign that we’re on the right path. We know you could make one of hundreds of choices, but we’ve created a product that over 95% of our customers keep after their 100-Night Sleep Trial, and that’s a pretty good indicator to our team that we’re on to something good.