We’ve Been Sleeping on a Purple Mattress For Over a Year — Here’s What we Think

2016 could be dubbed the year of the online mattress. Even though they didn’t all launch this year, the bed in a box type mattresses such as Purple, Leesa, Casper, Tuft & Needle and Ghostbed are growing in popularity.

The Launch of Purple Mattress: Fall 2015

The mattress in a box niche started to take off around 2013. That’s also when Purple mattress invented a machine that could create and mold large pieces of Hyper-Elastic Polymer (the purple stretchy stuff in the top 2.5" of a Purple bed) into a king-sized mattress. This was new and it made it possible to create a mattress, roll it into a holder and mail it. It also made the price drop and that led to huge growth in online mattress sales.

Here’s the stuff they call a hyper elastic polymer that takes up the first 1.5 inches of a Purple mattress. It’s stretchy and bouncy on its own. On top of a mattress this is like a shock absorber. Great for not waking up the person sleeping next to you if you’re getting out of bed or tossing/turning. It also means you’re not sleeping on a solid state (helping airflow, cushioning your pressure points, etc). This mattress isn’t soft, but it’s not firm either. It’s more middle firm.

Purple mattress was launched via a very successful Kickstarter campaign in September of 2015. A month later the company raised $171,560. I organized a blogger outreach campaign to spread the video and get mattress reviews. So I was one of the first people to get a Purple bed.

Perhaps one of the biggest contributors to Purple’s success was The Harmon Brothers team (it wasn’t all them). They created an incredible viral video featuring goldilocks and the raw egg test. Before we saw it, I had bloggers each create a video that they shared on Facebook with a raw egg test. That is, you sit on a Purple cushion and place an egg on it. Instead of breaking the egg gets absorbed into the mattress. This illustrates a point that just like your body, the polymer cradles your pressure points and stops you from tossing and turning to get comfortable. That means you sleep better. Purple’s videos got 18 million views on YouTube and 86 million views on Facebook.

My husband and I created an unboxing video when we got ours. It now has over 200,000 views on YouTube and a lot of comments! Here it is:

After almost a year, I wrote my Purple mattress review and we created a video review.

This mattress revolution means that you don’t have to go mattress shopping at a mattress store. You don’t have to wonder if you will like your mattress when you get home. They let you sleep on it for 100 days or more and ship it back free if you don’t love and want to keep it. Plus, there aren’t a zillion names and combinations of mattresses that are just about impossible to compare. Prices are very reasonable.

In the past you had to go to a mattress store and lie on a bed to see if it felt right. The problem is lying on a mattress in the store it not the same as sleeping on a mattress. Try returning a mattress you hate. It’s not going to happen. So all of these mattress companies could afford to offer a killer guarantee. Sleep on the mattress for 100 nights and if you don’t like it, return it for a full refund. They also offer free shipping.

These are the main reasons I love Purple mattress:

Purple sleeps cool — and I sleep cold. Again, I think it’s from the airflow. I have an electric blanket, the kind that has dual controls. In the winter I like warm jersey type sheets like the ones that Purple sells. Or here are the things you need with a Purple bed. Like most big purchases that should last a decade or more, once you buy the bed you need more. You need a mattress protector, platform, sheets and everything else to get the most performance from it. The thing about these beds is they don’t usually have box springs. So you need a platform. They have one. Purple says using box springs voids the warranty. I think it’s ridiculous because I’m not ditching my bed frame or box springs for a platform. However, it may work for you if you’re limited on space or need something that can pack or store easily.

I have to admit when I first heard the term “Purple” as a mattress company, I thought it was comical in the same way I thought OrangeSoda was (an online marketing company I worked for). But it works. We’re really happy with our mattress and plan to replace our guest bedroom mattress with a Purple when it’s time to replace it. I want to warn you though. You may not want to sleep on other mattresses once you adjust!

Visit Purple’s website here.