• by Les Luchter , August 13, 2024

The beds in the Olympic Village at the recent Paris games received somewhat of a bad rap, so Mattress Firm -- which had nothing to do with those beds -- is offering returning U.S. Olympians a free premium mattress.

“We heard that you could use a good night’s sleep,” the mattress retail powerhouse posted on X to kick off its campaign Tuesday morning. “Since we know a thing or two about mattresses and the importance of quality sleep, we want to help.”

That help is designed to help the athletes recover from what have been termed “cardboard beds” in articles and social postings.

In truth, only the bed’s frame was made of cardboard, while the mattress consisted of recycled materials: “thin,  but it can be flipped over to choose between a harder and a softer side,” according to The Athletic.

Lest you think the big names of the games didn’t stay in the Olympic Village and thus didn’t have to put up with those beds, that New York Times-owned publication also quoted superstar Simone Biles herself via TikTok: “The bed sucks, but we are getting mattress toppers so hopefully it’ll get better.”

On the other hand, fellow U.S. medal-winning gymnast Frederick Richard must have suspected something would be amiss with the Olympic beds. He brought his own mattress with him in his luggage!

U.S. swimmer Torri Huske, who won five medals at the games, would hardly agree with the gymnasts. That’s because she’s an influencer partner for Airweave, supplier of the beds for both Paris and the previous Tokyo Olympics.

“We’re actually going to be sleeping on these when we’re in Paris,” Huske proudly proclaimed after assembling an Airweave bed in a pre-Olympics video post. “Good sleep is really important to recovery when you’re in heavy training and when you’re competing.”

Airweave has been selling its mattresses, toppers and futons, if not its cardboard frames, in the U.S. for the past few years. Sales are largely online, though the company does have its own showroom in Culver City, Calif., and also presents product via two Manhattan Calligaris stores.

Now Airweave has come up against Mattress Firm, which says it will offer every U.S. athlete who competed at the Paris games – plus those who will do so at the upcoming Paralympics – a free high-end mattress. That’s a target audience of more than 700 total athletes.

Like Huske and Airweave, Mattress Firm stresses the importance of good sleep for athletes, citing preliminary results from a study done with its partner SleepScore Labs which found that 86% of respondents reported “a moderate to significant decrease in overall athletic performance following a bad night of sleep.” Thus, the company says in a statement, “Mattress Firm is on a mission to provide America's top athletes with superior sleeping conditions.”

The Olympians have until Sept. 30 to fill out a form at MattressesforChampions.com, in order to receive a newly launched product – called Sleepy’s by Sealy Premium Memory Foam Mattress -- in the size of their choosing. “

The retail value of each mattress runs from around $2,050 for the smallest size (hello gymnasts) to $3,000 for the largest (did someone say Lebron James?). If all 700 athletes claim a mattress and also choose the largest size, the total value of the giveaway would top $2 million.

That depends, of course, on U.S. athletes first learning about the offer, which is being promoted via public relations and social media posts.