MATTRESS FIRM TESTING PURPLE PRODUCT

Carrie and Tony Pearce of Purple touted the company’s messaging with the T-shirts they wore at the kickoff of the Mattress Firm annual leadership meeting.

HOUSTON — Mattress Firm, the nation’s largest bedding specialty retailer, announced that it will sell the Purple Bed, a bed-in-a-box offering, in select Mattress Firm stores.

The company announced the pilot partnership that will unite Purple, a fast-growing Top 15 bedding e-trailer, with Mattress Firm’s brick-and-mortar stores.

Mattress Firm CEO Ken Murphy talked about the new pilot program in his kickoff speech at Mattress Firm’s annual leadership conference, praising the company for its record of creating innovative products. He said the pilot program will begin in the next several weeks.

The move is part of Mattress Firm’s mission “to curate the best and latest in sleep technology,” the company said. Purple’s patented Hyper-Elastic Polymer is engineered for comfort and responds to pressure without making sleepers compromise between soft or firm designs, officials said.

“The Purple Bed offers people something more powerful and unique than any other mattress-in-a-box company,” said Sicily Dickenson, Mattress Firm’s chief marketing officer. “The product is backed by proven innovative technology. We’re excited to offer people the opportunity to try a Purple bed and purchase these products in our stores.”

Purple officials are also excited about the partnership.

“Purple has experienced tremendous success reaching customers online, however, there is an even greater opportunity when you intersect online with offline tactile store experience,” said Sam Bernards, CEO of Purple. “Mattress Firm is the largest brick-and-mortar specialty mattress retailer in the country and they are phenomenal at what they do. A partnership between Purple and Mattress Firm allows each company to do what they do best while reaching new and wider markets. We believe this will allow us to bring comfort to millions of people across the United States.”

Purple was launched by brothers Tony and Terry Pearce in January 2016. They have been granted 34 patents in the advanced cushioning arena, officials said.