Hi adrian,
They are certainly an interesting new entry into the market (and thanks for mentioning them :)) but there is also a fair bit of “marketing speak” on their site and some inaccurate or misleading information.
They are also a completely different type and design of mattress from the Tuft & Needle and use synthetic latex and 4 lb memory foam in the comfort layers which are more costly materials than the polyfoam in the Tuft & Needle (although synthetic latex is the lowest cost type of latex and 4 lb memory foam is in a medium density/quality range for memory foam) so of course more costly materials leads to a mattress that has a higher price.
Reviews are also among the worst ways to choose a mattress because they can’t tell you what you really need to know to make an informed mattress choice (see post #13 here).
The most important part of the “value” of a mattress purchase is making sure that it’s a good match for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences). Each person is unique based on their body type, sleeping positions, individual preferences, and physiology so what is “perfect” for one or even many people in terms of PPP may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on. When you can’t test a mattress in person … then you are completely dependent on the knowledge and experience of an online manufacturer or retailer along with the information you provide them and the results of your own personal testing on similar mattresses to help them help you choose a mattress that would likely be the best “match” for you and if there is only one option then it’s an “all or nothing” choice (see post #2 here). With an online purchase that you can’t test in person … then the options you have after a purchase to fine tune, exchange, or return the mattress may also become a more important part of your personal value equation. In their case … they do have a good 40 day return policy but your own testing or sleeping experience experience will tell you more about how suitable a mattress is for you than any reviews that only tell you how other people feel on the mattress which may be very different from your own experience.
The next most important part of the “value” of a mattress purchase is the durability of the materials. No matter how well a mattress matches your specific needs and preferences in terms of PPP, if it uses lower quality materials they will soften, compress, or break down more quickly than higher quality and more durable materials. This can lead to the premature loss of comfort and support and the need to replace a mattress more quickly than you would otherwise hope (and the loss of comfort and support isn’t a defect that is covered by a warranty). Once again … reviews won’t tell you about how durable a mattress will be for you. The only way to be able to assess the durability of a mattress is by knowing the type and quality of all the materials so you can identify any weak links in the design and make more meaningful comparisons to other mattresses. There is more about the variables that can affect durability and the useful life of a mattress relative to each person in post #4 here and the posts it links to. There is also more in post #4 here about the guidelines I would suggest to assess the quality and suitability of the materials in terms of durability. I would want to know the density of the base foam in the mattress (note added: … it’s 1.8 lb density) but for most people of average weights there wouldn’t be any obvious weak links in the mattress.
While reviews will tell you very little about whether a mattress would be a good choice for you … they can tell you more about the knowledge and service of the business itself. It’s easy to get a flood of good reviews initially because reviews are relatively easy for marketers to manipulate at first (and marketing people are well aware that even though they aren’t particularly useful that reviews can highly influence people’s purchase choices for a mattress) … over the course of time they can give you some insights into how they tend to deal with some of the issues that can arise after a purchase but but this also takes some time for patterns and trends to become clear after the initial “buzz” dies down.
This is one of several examples of incorrect or somewhat misleading information on their site and it seems that the marketing people had more to do with some of the information there than “mattress people”. Compression modulus is a foam specification that tells how quickly a material becomes firmer as you compress it more deeply and it has several other names including “sag factor” which is what they probably mean. Of course it’s also possible that “sack factor” is mentioned in humor but it’s unlikely because only someone who knows about compression modulus would “get it” which is a small percentage of the population so it’s more likely that this and some of the other information on their site was the result of marketing people not completely understanding what they were putting on the site.
Overall it’s an interesting option and on a personal level I do like the “feel” of a thin layer of latex over memory foam (although there are other designs I prefer more) but this is also just a personal preference of mine and would also have nothing to do with what any other people may prefer.
Phoenix