Dan Hauber laughs when he remembers testing out more than 27 different mattresses in his home. At one point there were a total of seven mattresses in the bedroom, three of them stacked on his bed.
“My wife and I had to basically take a running start and then jump into bed to get in,” says Hauber. “Mattresses leaned up against each wall, so it looked like a rubber room.”
Though it might sound like the couple was recreating a modern day version of “The Princess and the Pea,” Hauber wasn’t being fussy—he was conducting some serious research for his mattress and bedding company Wright, which officially launched last November.
A big believer that “your bed is the most important space in your life,” Hauber had been working in the mattress industry for years when he noticed how “thoughtlessly done” sales tended to be.
“Nobody really likes going to Sleepy’s or Mattress Firm,” says Hauber. “Serta, Simmons, and Tempur-Pedic—nobody really feels strongly about those brands. I was like, ‘Wow, you can just do this so much better—better products, better materials, better design, a better store, a better shopping experience, better everything. And do it at a better price.’”
Take Wright’s storefront on Lafayette Street in New York’s SoHo neighborhood, which resembles an upscale boutique.
“We really wanted to make the store not feel like a mattress store,” says Hauber. “You walk into our store as if you walk into somebody’s really nice home.”
Customers expect the showroom to contain a bed with a nightstand and pillows, but there’s also a homey lounge with a couch, chairs, and counter area with cocktails. Jack’s Stir Brew Coffee, Hauber’s favorite coffee, is brewed in the shop every Saturday and Sunday. (Hauber and the Jack’s Coffee team coincidentally became neighbors in their WeWork office—“That’s a WeWork friendship right there,” says Hauber.)
It’s this laid-back vibe that draws in shoppers off the street. The Wright team—nine strong, four of which work out of WeWork Soho South—has curated the “best” of each category: mattresses, pillows, blankets, sheets, and soon to be more products.
To figure out the definition of “best,” the Wright staffers spent years testing out prototypes themselves, as well as gathering feedback from friends and acquiring sleep data from activity trackers.
If you take a look at Wright’s heavenly Instagram, you’ll see delicious breakfasts, reading materials, and blissed-out, sleepy dogs, all atop fluffy white bedding. Hauber reveals this is not an accurate representation of his life, though “it’s a little bit aspirational.”
“We’re not really advocating that people spend more time in their bed,” Hauber says. “It’s more just we want people to get the most out of their sleep time while they’re in bed—sleeping better while you’re sleeping, so that you can live better when you’re awake.”
Wright offers a 20 percent discount to WeWork members. Click here for the special code.
Photos: Steven Brahms