by Notes from the January furniture market
LAS VEGAS — We can have fun in such different ways, and few places put this on such gaudy, garish display as does Sin City, which I recently learned is a rough translation of “Cincinnati.”
Unlike Ohio’s third-largest city, Las Vegas recently featured a furniture market, not to mention a Trump rally, the Eagles in concert at The Sphere and food prices that had me quoting Dorothy (“There’s no place like home.”). A $20 piece of avocado toast?!?
I had never been to this particular market, and thanks to the good people at Therapedic, last week I got my chance. The sleep specialist asked me to speak at the company’s annual meeting on the eve of the market, a delightful experience highlighted by a tour of The Mob Museum with moonshine in the speakeasy, the world-class hospitality of Therapedic’s Gerry Borreggine and Susan Mathes, and the chance to reconnect with erstwhile colleagues from the old Furniture/Today days. These colleagues include David Perry, Sheila Long and Mynda Swaim, three of my favorite people. To quote Ted Lasso, I felt like I had fallen out of the lucky tree and hit every branch on the way down and landed in a pile of cash and Sour Patch candy.
The topic of the presentation was de-stigmatizing and re-humanizing AI, and I’ll recap that session in a future column. Today, I thought I’d share a few postcards from the annual meeting and the eve before market opened, which looked everything like an “open for business” market day to me. I had to boogie before the official open to get back to my day job teaching college students.
‘Wish you were here!’
Before I send my first card, a disclaimer: What I know about the bedding industry you could fit into a thimble and still have room for whatever is supposed to go into a thimble, presumably a finger. Fortunately for me, I was virtually surrounded by experts in the category, including Dave and Sheila, as well as ISPA’s president, Alison Keane, among many others.
One of the themes of Therapedic’s annual meeting, or at least a word that several people used to describe their approach to growing the business this year, was resilience.
“We are resilient,” Borreggine said in his prefatory remarks.
Therapedic counted among its customers both Bed Bath & Beyond and Big Lots, which is to say a lot of Bs and a lot of bankruptcy. Bed Bath & Beyond alone represented $200 million in Therapedic business; Big Lots was another $50 million. And yet Therapedic has “held serve,” as Borreggine put it, and that’s kind of amazing. The company has done this by being creative, trying new programs with new customers, but also by judiciously staying on brand.
Bedding manufacturers in general have had to be resilient in the face of sluggish housing starts, the multiplicity of bed-in-a-box marketing companies going direct to consumers, and rafts of government regulation for, among other things, flammability. Speaking as a member of a press panel at the meeting, Perry said the bedding segment is hopeful of a growth year in 2025 after three years of really tough sledding. This prediction gave the January market some added excitement because the January Las Vegas market is the bedding industry’s biggest show, the launch market for new product. I didn’t count, but there are probably 100 bedding exhibitors here gearing up for President’s Day and Memorial Day.
Another theme of the meeting had bedding executives scratching their collective heads for ideas for motivating Gen Z and millennials to replace their bedding with better product. As Keane’s data for the industry showed, the younger a person is, the shorter they expect their bedding to last. These up-and-comers also like to shop and buy from Ikea, giving the edge to the bed-in-a-box guys.
I suggested using hygiene as a motivator, because these younger generations are increasingly concerned about germs, viruses and personal hygiene and self-care, or so it seems to me. I’ve taught quite a big number of them. Ah, the thimble overfloweth.
Bi-coastal marketeering
From a more big-picture view, it’s interesting to see how the industry rationalizes the four big markets, the two in Las Vegas and the two in High Point for those scoring at home. If it is true that as much as 75% of the attendees at Las Vegas come from the West Coast and Western states, while about the same for High Point come from East Coast and Eastern and Southern states, then the four markets might be on their way to specializing in meaningful ways. I also heard from several execs that January seems to be mainly for bedding, while July’s edition puts more emphasis on case goods.
Also from that macro perspective, it will be interesting to track the generational shift underway in the industry, which already is changing the nature of conversations in showrooms at all four markets. Bob Maricich, chairman at Andmore, who was nice enough to spend a few minutes with us between appointments, said he could tell this shift is well underway. In other words, there is an old guard retiring and a younger generation taking the reins at a number of companies, both in retail and in manufacturing.
We (HNN publisher Rick Harrison and I) encouraged Bob to consider writing a book distilling and amplifying best business practices and wisdom based on his experiences leading complicated organizations. This book would inevitably be informed by the extensive reading Bob has always done. Heck, I’d read it, because even those few minutes with Bob on the top floor of the market center were like sitting in on a mini-Ted Talk.
Out for a Norwalk
Also delightful was meeting and getting to know Tim Newlin, newish president at Norwalk, who invited us into what is a beautifully appointed showroom on the second floor of Building A. Coming over from Flexsteel, Newlin has hit the ground running by, in his words, “refocusing on making it easy to become a Norwalk retailer.” He said Norwalk “loves the business to the trade,” but that the upholstery specialist wants to recenter the retail side in its product and programs. Quoting a 35-day delivery for even the custom stuff, and no doubt helped by all of the uncertainty surrounding tariffs and international trade in general, Norwalk would seem to be in a good position to do this.
I was also interested in Norwalk’s ownership structure, which is one of the industry’s few ESOPs. Valdese is another. Established in 2021, Norwalk’s ESOP is led by nine of the 12 local Norwalk, Ohio, investors who bought the company out of bankruptcy in 2009 in order to save it. These 12 and their families didn’t want to see the city’s second-largest employer simply disappear.
It’s 2025 now and the ESOP appears to be working, giving the company’s 225 employees an opportunity to fully vest in the future of the company. For a company that has counted among its presidents the legendary Jim Gerkin, the also legendary Caroline Hipple, and now Tim, we’re rooting them on. These are authentic human beings making an authentic product you can sit on, with no hedge funds or IPO specialists in sight. Suck on that, Authentic Brands Group! The industry needs more good stories like Norwalk’s.
Lastly, the highlight reel includes the chance to meet Gary Towning, vice president of marketing at Kingsdown. Gary showed us some of the ways his company is using AI to do market research and to render room-size visuals highlighting the textile-inspired print patterns on the company’s premium bedding.
AI and Italian textiles. Now that’s like cookies and cream. Two tastes that go good together. Keep the blue flag flying high, Gary!
And to all, here’s to the balance of 2025. I smell potential!
