How This Purple Mattress 20 Years in the Making Became an Overnight Success

Purple Innovation, Inc., founded by aerospace engineer Tony Pearce and materials science expert Terry Pearce, revolutionized sleep technology with their patented Hyper-Elastic Polymer™ material. This ultra-stretchy, gel-like substance forms the foundation of their GelFlex Grid technology—a grid structure design that provides both support and pressure relief simultaneously.

"It's something that took them 20 years to perfect," says Dan Bischoff, Purple's Director of Communications.

The comfort company Purple has created the most innovative sleep technology in decades and achieved phenomenal ecommerce success in just six months through their direct-to-consumer business model.

Tony Pearce brought aerospace engineering expertise while Terry Pearce contributed materials and manufacturing knowledge to solve a universal problem: poor sleep quality.

From Pain to Purple

The Pearces' two-decade development of comfort products originated from their commitment to helping others with pain and sleep issues.

"They want their inventions to do good," Bischoff says. "Tony and Terry want to help people who have problems with pain and sleeping."

The Pearce brothers initially created cushioning technologies that Fortune 500 companies licensed for wheelchairs, shoes, and medical devices.

The brothers recognized greater potential in their technology.

Although they were already helping millions of people live more comfortably, the pair developed the perfect mattress—one that combined firm and soft mattress benefits to alleviate pain, provide optimal sleep, and cost thousands less than leading mattresses.

After 20 years of discoveries and product developments, the Pearce brothers invented what they determined was the world's best mattress technology. They called it Hyper-Elastic Polymer™ and Purple was born.

A Bed, a Video, and Goldilocks

Purple Innovation, Inc., headquartered in Lehi, Utah, named the company after the color of the patented Hyper-Elastic Polymer™—the ultra-stretchy, yet durable, gel-like top layer of their signature product: the Purple™ Bed.

This material delivers superior comfort and support compared to traditional beds made of latex, foam or springs.

The Pearces organized the material in small columns in a grid formation, creating the GelFlex Grid technology that provides excellent support and pressure-relieving comfort. They developed seat cushions and a mattress featuring this comfort technology innovation.

"This is the culmination of their life's work," Bischoff says of the mattress. "When you sleep on a Purple™, you're sleeping on multiple patents and a dream come true for the Pearces'."

To validate the product, Purple created a Kickstarter video last October. The company hit their goal of $25,000 within a few days and reached $175,000 by the end of the campaign.

Purple launched their "Goldilocks" video in January, demonstrating the "Raw Egg Test." This test determined which of the world's top mattresses would absorb and prevent fragile eggs from cracking under hundreds of pounds of weight.

The video has over 50 million views on Facebook and over 5.8 million views on Youtube. The company now sells hundreds of mattresses daily.

Purple represents more than a viral phenomenon; they are industry leaders. A recent KeyBanc report identifies Purple as the mattress company to watch in 2016, revealing that Purple rivals other leading ecommerce mattress companies within months of launch.

Purple delivers on its promises.

"I sleep on a Purple™, and my shoulder pain is gone," Bischoff says. "It took a week or so to get used to, but my spine is aligned properly so I can rest now as I should and I no longer have any lower back pain."

Customers have responded positively to the mattress. More than 1,300 online reviews discuss how the mattress relieves pain and improves sleep quality.

This tweet from actor Stephen Bishop (who played David Justice in Moneyball) is typical:

I am. Sleeping much longer and waking up with no pressure point pains like i did with the remote.. Body regenerating https://t.co/mgzUMOaJJy

— Stephen Bishop (@stephencbishop) July 11, 2016

The Future of Comfort

Purple is developing new products designed to complement a mattress that Bischoff calls "a threat to the industry." Those new products include:

• Sheets
• Pillows
• Mattress protectors
• Foundations

"The Pearces' are conducting research and development," Bischoff says, referring to the manufacturing facilities in Alpine, Utah where Purple™ products are made. Purple also operates manufacturing locations in Grantsville, Utah and McDonough, Georgia. "We're testing products and plan to launch as soon as we're confident they're of the same caliber as the mattress."

How Shopify Helps Purple Meet High Demand

Six months after launching on Shopify Plus, an enterprise ecommerce solution for high-volume merchants, Purple became one of the most popular direct-to-consumer online mattress companies. Purple's direct-to-consumer sales approach, combined with retail partnerships, has created unprecedented demand with customers experiencing three-week shipping delays as of this writing.

"Right now we only have one machine [which the Pearce brothers invented called 'Mattress Max'] that makes the Hyper-Elastic Polymer™," Bischoff says. "We're backlogged, but we'll be getting new machines soon and believe we'll be able to ship orders within a week shortly. It's a really good problem to have. We had no idea how big this was going to get. In a very short period of time it has exploded."

Bischoff's team credits Shopify with helping it launch quickly and scale rapidly. Purple uses embeddable "buy" buttons in blog posts that enable commerce across multiple platforms and reduce checkout steps.

"We chose Shopify because we had limited IT resources and needed a platform that would scale in case Purple blew up," says Alex McArthur, Purple's Chief Marketing Officer. "We're pleased and surprised Shopify scaled as quickly as it did to handle our growth."

The company also credits Shopify's robust applications store—including an app that offers a pop-up incentive to visitors who have been on the site a while but have yet to checkout—with stimulating the accelerated growth the company is experiencing.

Purple's bet on Shopify has paid off in many other ways. For one: mobile conversions. Unlike other platforms where mobile checkouts must be custom coded, Shopify's mobile checkout is ready right out of the box, which allows entrepreneurs to focus on marketing rather than technology:

• 70% of Purple's traffic comes from mobile devices
• 25-30% of sales occur on mobile devices

"Shopify's mobile friendliness really helped us with conversions," says Bryant Garvin, Purple's Digital Marketing Director. "The simplicity helped us launch quicker and save money on development costs."

Easily integrating with third-party systems and platforms like Facebook has also helped Purple use Shopify to rapidly establish additional sales channels and remarketing efforts. "We love Shopify," Bischoff says. "The dashboard is easy to use, and we check it at least three times a day just to see our sales totals."

Just the Beginning

This success continues accelerating. The Purple™ Bed represents the beginning, according to Bischoff. The Pearce brothers envision a larger company with a purpose and vision of helping people live more comfortably regardless of location or activity.

"The future is beyond a mattress company," Bischoff explains. "Ultimately, the goal is to become a comfort company."

Purple will offer next generation products designed to make life more comfortable whether sitting, sleeping, or standing.

"The idea is to improve people's lives everywhere," Bischoff says. "That's where we're going."

The Pearce brothers have additional innovations in development.

"They walk around with big smiles on their faces," Bischoff says.

That represents overnight success.

Twenty years after it began.