“He gave me an excellent price for the mattress, box spring, frame, delivery, AND removal of my old piece of garbage Temperpedic.” “Once we had made our selection, he loaded the mattress and box spring into our truck and tied them down for us.” “Walked in and Dan & Jose were very helpful, they asked my price range and didn't try to push me into something I couldn't afford.” Yelp users haven’t asked any questions yet about Mattress Man of Arizona.Sleep is not a single activity, but an ongoing cycle where your brain and body work in concert to refresh and renew themselves. We all know that a good night’s sleep is important. But, as a culture, we’re not getting enough of it: A study of more than 1,200 people conducted by the National Sleep Foundation found that less than... In simple terms, a sleep system is an entire set of products that can have an effect on your quality of sleep. It can include things typically thought of as parts of a bed (mattresses and frames, for ...
Imagine drifting into your best night's sleep Feel weightless with a mattress that adapts to your body Experience advanced performance in every detail Dive into the deeper layers of your sleep Discover our TEMPUR sleep range Experience TEMPUR for yourselfHalowishes Hand Block Both Side Print Pure Cotton Jaipuri Double Bed Quilt EMI: Option to pay in 3/6/9/12/18/24 months availableDelivery in 7 working days [within India]When Scott and Missy Tannen were putting the final touches on their home renovation in Summit, N.J., a few years ago, they embarked on a seemingly pedestrian chore: choosing sheets for their new king bed.Ms. Tannen set off to the mall in search of quality bedding but quickly fell down a rabbit hole. Where were the sheets made? Were the cotton farmers well compensated? Were the factory workers well treated?With consumers increasingly concerned about such matters, Ms. Tannen expected sales associates at stores like Bloomingdale’s and Bed Bath & Beyond to be fluent in answering such queries.
Instead, she said, “When we started looking for information at the retail level, we realized that no one knew what they were talking about.”Nearly five years later, the Tannens’ quest for answers has made them unlikely entrepreneurs in the luxury bedding industry. They are partners in a three-year-old company, Boll & Branch, that they say is on track to sell $40 million worth of sheets and towels this year and is profitable. In building Boll & Branch, the Tannens have tried to create a supply chain that improves the livelihoods of farmers and factory workers in India. They also have followed the lead of recent consumer goods companies like the eyeglasses maker Warby Parker and the mattress maker Casper by going all in on e-commerce. Mr. Tannen, 38, previously founded a video game company and worked in the marketing departments of Wrigley and Kraft. Ms. Tannen, 39, was a third-grade teacher who had become a full-time mother. But once they began thinking about where their sheets came from, the problem nagged at them, provoking radical career changes.
In 2013, they decided to take a gamble and use the profits Mr. Tannen had made from the sale of his video game company to start Boll & Branch. Their goal was to make high-end sheets while using good farming and labor practices. Doing so would put them on the moral high ground. Just as important, it would make Boll & Branch stand out in a crowded marketplace. (Other companies, including Parachute, also sell bedding directly to consumers, and some boast that they follow socially responsible practices.)The Tannens began buying thousands of dollars’ worth of sheets to examine different weaves, and spent their spare time researching the cotton industry. The more they learned, the less they liked what they found. In India, one of the largest cotton and garment producers, many farmers are dependent on genetically modified crops. Those seeds and the necessary pesticides may increase yields, but they also cost the farmers money, further eroding their slim profits.It does not get much better further along the supply chain.
According to a recent report by the Center for Research on Multinational Corporations, a Dutch nonprofit organization, and the India Committee of the Netherlands, forced labor, child labor and poor working conditions are common in Indian garment factories. If the Tannens were going to create a high-minded bedding company, they would have to do better than the status quo. The first step was to find a reliable source of organic cotton. Besides being more expensive for farmers, conventional cotton farming methods — particularly the use of pesticides — may be taking a toll on the health of field workers. After some searching, the Tannens found Chetna Organic, a nonprofit organization that works with cotton farmers in central and southern India. The Chetna members grow their crops without genetically modified seeds or pesticides, and they use significantly less water than conventional farmers. Chetna is certified by Fair Trade USA, the Global Organic Textile Standard and Fairtrade International, and it maintains stringent internal controls.
The Tannens had already settled on using organic cotton when a tragedy prompted them to raise their sights still higher. In April 2013, the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people. That disaster, and others in recent years, prompted many big retailers to pay closer attention to conditions in garment factories. The Tannens hopped on that bandwagon, resolving to carefully scrutinize their factories, too. They opted for Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills, an organic and Fair Trade certified textile factory in Kolkata, India, with which Chetna has a partnership. The approach they are taking has its costs. Mr. Tannen estimates that using organic cotton and Fair Trade labor doubles those expenses, and so far the demand for organic sheets is not great in the United States. But they have resolved to press on.Nicole Bassett, former director of sustainability at Prana and former manager of social responsibility at another apparel company, Patagonia, said Boll & Branch had a leg up on many other retailers.
“People are creating brands all the time these days,” she said. “But they asked if there was a better way to do this. At Prana, we were taking years to convert these supply chains. They got to start from the beginning.”In May 2013, the Tannens placed their first order, for 1,500 sets of ivory and white sheets. The ivory sheets arrived with a green hue. But after eliminating such kinks, Boll & Branch sold its first sheets in January 2014, and it has been growing fast since. Sales were about $1.7 million that year and jumped to $13.5 million last year, the Tannens said. This year, they predicted, sales should roughly triple.For Chetna, Boll & Branch was a godsend. Previously, demand for organic cotton was spotty at best. “Cotton is a commodity at the end of the day,” said Arun Chandra Ambatipudi, one of the founders of Chetna. “If you don’t show access to markets, interest will wane.”But now, Boll & Branch is buying more than half of the organic cotton Chetna’s 15,000 farmers produce, about 1,200 metric tons this year.