Hi dbergan,
This certainly wouldn’t be the case if all he disclosed is the type and quality/density of the materials in his mattresses because he wouldn’t need to disclose the “comfort specs” or other information that would be the biggest part of how a mattress feels (see the previous posts I linked about disclosing so called “proprietary” inforamtion. Any manufacturer that was truly interested in “duplicating” one of his mattresses also would have no trouble buying one if they wanted to and “reverse engineering” it anyway.
Mattress manufacturers generally try to differentiate their mattress from the mattresses made by other manufacturers anyway and don’t normally try to “match” another mattress that is made by a different manufacturer.
Yes he emailed me as well and over the course of the next few days I will give him a call and talk with him when I have the chance but he would need to be more transparent and accurate about the materials he uses in his mattresses in order to qualify for membership here (transparency about the type and quality of the materials in a mattress is the single biggest criteria for membership in the site).
[quote]Quickstrike, feel free to ask Chad directly, but I can tell you this. The foam is not latex. It’s 100% poly. As far as I can tell, the poly is of high quality and exceeds the Phoenix’s guidelines.
Most of this thread was a confusion over the term “synthetic latex” because Phoenix uses it to mean “latex made from styrene butadiene” and Chad uses the term to mean “a synthetic substance with latex-like properties”.[/quote]
“Synthetic latex” has a very specific meaning which isn’t really a matter of “confusion” at all. If the foam isn’t latex (either natural or synthetic or a blend of both) then I believe that it’s misleading to call it “synthetic latex” when it isn’t because people will compare it to other mattresses that use synthetic or other types of latex which is a much more costly material.
NOTE ADDED: I have talked with Chad and have confirmed that none of the materials in any of the Beds by Design mattresses are either synthetic or natural latex and they are versions of polyfoam. Some of the materials are high performance polyfoams that are certainly a good quality material and have many of the properties of latex but are less costly than “real” latex (synthetic or natural).
I would agree with this as well and again I don’t believe that disclosing accurate information about the type and quality of the materials in a mattress would allow others to “attack” his products or “steal” his concepts (there are many components mattresses available in the market) and it would certainly inspire a higher level of consumer trust and confidence about the accuracy of the all the information they provide.
I would agree that there is little point in “bashing” competitors in either direction since it just strains credibility and I believe that it’s better to just focus on the specific benefits and materials of your own mattresses and let consumers make an “informed choice” about which mattress represents the best “value” for them (regardless of whether anyone else would make the same choice) based on all the parts of their personal value equation that are most important to them.
Phoenix