Hi 5150evh,
You can read my thoughts about “fake sales” in post #5 here. Better retailers and manufacturers have good value every day of the year and don’t need to create a false sense of urgency or “fear of loss” to sell mattresses that are already better quality and value than the best sale prices at most mainstream stores.
A mattress is only as good as its construction and the quality of the materials inside it regardless of the name of the manufacturer on the cover or law tag and I’m not “impressed” with any mattress or manufacturer where you can’t find out the specifics of what is in it or identify it’s “weakest link”. Brand shopping is among the worst ways to choose a mattress. If you are able to find out the specifics of all the layers in an Aireloom you are looking at then you would be able to make informed choices and make meaningful comparisons with other similar mattresses that have a similar design and use similar materials. Without this you are making a completely blind purchase … probably overpaying for a mattress compared to others that are similar … and substantially increasing your odds that the mattress you buy will have lower quality materials in the upper layers (which are the most likely weak link of any mattress). There is more about the risks of “brand shopping” in post #12 here.
The quality/density of a material is the biggest factor in its durability although firmness and softness have an effect as well (see post #4 here for more about the factors involved in the durability of a mattress). A firm material that is low quality (low density in the case of polyfoam or memory foam) is more likely to develop soft spots or impressions than a softer material that uses higher quality materials (such as higher density polyfoam or latex). The firmness of a material or a mattress is not the most important part of durability unless the other factors that affect durability are equal.
The mattress shopping tutorial here has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choice but it will also change how you look at mattress shopping.
The brand of a mattress is not a particularly relevant factor for me. The brands I like the best are the ones that disclose the type and quality of the materials inside them and again … brand shopping is among the worst ways to choose a mattress (although I would avoid any manufacturer or major brand that doesn’t disclose the type and quality of all the materials and components that they use in any mattresses you are considering).
Phoenix