DALLAS — Bedding producer Sleeptronic is about to unleash some colorful animals into the vast forest of white mattress ticking that’s prevalent these days.
Animal prints, that is.
Ticking featuring leopard prints, zebra stripes and tiger lines will soon be covering Sleeptronic mattresses in the company’s Seven Continents collection. Anthony Klatt, director of marketing and sales for Sleeptronic, promises that the collection “will visually take consumers around the world.”
“We’re taking our cues from women’s fashions,” Klatt said. “Animal prints are everywhere, and we’re bringing these in-demand designs to bedding.”
Sleeptronic entered the animal kingdom earlier this year when it introduced a leopard print model in its Kilimanjaro Dreams bed. After shipping thousands of those beds to retailers, the company realized it has a winner.
“We were testing the water,” Klatt said. “Now we’re jumping in.”
In a marketplace flooded with white, off-white, cream and ivory ticking, he admits that animal prints are not for everyone.
“Our mainstream furniture and sleep shop retailers prefer white and cream,” he said. “In fact, white and cream ticks appear as firmly entrenched in mainstream retailers today as they were yesterday, and will be tomorrow.”
But, he continued, “An entire alternative group of retailers market predominately to socioeconomic minorities, and color plays a major factor among those retailers and their consumers. We are one of the few producers continuing to offer a range of colors. For Sleeptronic, there will never be enough white ticking offered by our competitors.”
Klatt said color works best at lower price points. “Above $699 or $799 retail,” he said, “we are predominately white and cream like the rest of the industry.”
Sleeptronic says it first gained attention by introducing black ticking. Its jet-black Back Beauty bed “put Sleeptronic on the map,” Klatt said. The model has been a top seller for Sleeptronic for more than 15 years. The marketing campaign carries the message: “Don’t be afraid of the dark.”
The new Seven Continents collection will feature 12 beds at price points from $299 to $999. A variety of coil units will be used. The ticking is what Klatt calls a “sueded brushed knit” that provides the hand that corresponds to how the consumer thinks an animal print should feel.
Himalaya Dreams, the top model in the new line, will feature a white fur ticking enclosing memory foam in a Euro-top design.
Sleeptronic also is developing ticking patterns with Latin and Caribbean-inspired themes.
“Nothing else like this is available in the market,” Klatt said.
The Seven Continents collection will debut at the next Tupelo Furniture Market, Jan. 10 to 13.
