Hi nancy361,
There is absolutely nothing about a particular brand that is inherently better than any other because the “brand” is not important when you buy a mattress. The way to know the quality or value of a mattress is by knowing the materials that are in it on a “mattress by mattress” basis and each manufacturer makes a wide range of mattresses. Some of the larger “alternative” brands such as Therapedic, Eclipse, Restonic, Englander (all of which are in the top 15 manufacturers by size) and others are made by a group of independent licensee factories and there can be differences between them from factory to factory. Dealing with a good privately owned licensee factory is like dealing with a smaller manufacturer in many cases.
With some of these licensee factories … the odds are better that they will disclose the details of the materials in their mattress (to their retailers) and if the factory that makes them makes this information available and the retailer that sells them is willing and able to give them to you the consumer … then you have a way to know the quality of any mattress you are looking at. These “alternative” brands made by good licensee factories or by smaller independent factories who sell factory direct or through better sleep shops tend to use higher quality and more durable materials in each price range than the largest brands do which is the main reason they are better quality. A mattress that is two sided is also a bonus because it will last longer.
The bottom line though is that even though your odds are better of being able to find out the specs of the materials in your mattress when you are dealing with a good licensee (or any good factory) in combination with a good retailer, if either of them make this information difficult to find and/or don’t understand its importance … then I would pass them by no matter what the brand. This is the most important part of researching different retail outlets (along the lines of this article) If they “pass your interview” … then I would be likely to deal with them. If they don’t (and either can’t or won’t provide you with meaningful information about their mattresses) … then I wouldn’t. It’s really as simple as that.
All the major brands like Sealy, Simmons, Serta, Kingsdown, and others tend to make this information difficult if not impossible to find. If you are able to track it down … you will almost always find the quality of their materials and foam is inferior in each price range (especially in the most important upper layers of the mattress). They sell their mattresses by “advertising stories” and because so few consumers even know the questions to ask or how to determine quality … they have been able to do this for many years as the quality of their materials has decreased and the influence of their advertising stories has increased.
The mid size brands or licensee factories can range from being very open about their materials to just as “closed” as the major brands and which “group” they fall in and how well the retailer that sells them understands the importance of knowing and providing this information is one of the most important parts of deciding who to consider when you are making a mattress purchase. Again … if both the manufacturer and the retailer is able and happy to tell you what is in their mattresses … I would include them in my research. If either one isn’t (meaning that you won’t be able to find out) … then I wouldn’t include them in my research or give them any consideration. Smaller factory direct manufacturers and retailers who insist on only dealing with “open” manufacturers are the places where this information is easiest to find and better yet … the people who own and work at these stores will tell you what the information really means so you don’t have to be an “expert” to understand it. They sell “quality and value” not “stories and profit margin”. These are the places I would deal with.
So the most important comparisons before you even start to choose a mattress should always be based first on comparisons between retailers and which can and will tell you what you need to know as an “educated consumer”. Once you have found these (the better retailers or factory direct outlets) then you can make comparisons between mattresses based on real information about the quality of materials that are in them.
It is made from Talalay latex which is among the highest quality material that can be used in a mattress. They are a smaller nationwide manufacturer that is owned by the manufacturer of a lot of the Talalay latex used in North America. They can be better value than comparable mattresses (and there aren’t many of these) made by major brands which use similar materials or a mix of latex and other lower cost materials in their “latex” mattresses although smaller independents that also make latex mattresses may be better value yet. The guidelines I linked to earlier and the sections of the website that they link to will tell you much more about which materials are better or worse quality. There is also an article here that talks in more depth about the pros and cons of latex.
Again … I would suggest using the “formula” suggested in post #10 here. first find the better retailers and manufacturers (that are more open about their materials) … then use the experience and knowledge of the better retailers and factory directs in your area to “educate” you so you can make the best choices. All the time you spend in retailers that in the end can’t give you what you need to know about a mattress will end up being wasted time and lead to more frustration than anything else if there is no way to know the quality of what you are buying.
Dr Breus mattresses (made by Comfort Solutions) are another example of a mattress that is sold by stories. In this case the “story” is about a so called “sleep expert” who has suddenly become a “mattress expert” and yet they still won’t tell you the details of what is in the mattress. Once again, buying a mattress like this means you are buying a story that was carefully constructed to entice consumers that don’t know how to tell the quality of the materials to buy a mattress that 'sounds good". What you want to know is that it IS good. In many cases … retailers will call this a “latex mattress” when latex is only part (and in some models only a small part) of what is in the mattress.
To “cut through” all the confusion and frustration … deal with people have the knowledge and experience to tell you what you need to know to find real quality and value and then work with these people to make the choices that best fits your needs and preferences. Walk past manufacturers or retailers that only offer stories about their mattresses and none of the real information and you will save yourself a LOT of grief and end up with a much better choice 
If all you take away from this website is to only deal with manufacturers and retailers who focus on and disclose the real information about the quality of the materials in a mattress … then you are already ahead of over 90% of the consumers in this country who are only buying “stories” and then in a few years (or much sooner) discover that the ending of the story they “bought” isn’t quite as happy as they hoped…
Phoenix