Online mattress brands are ruining your sleep

TL;DR

DTC foam mattresses are largely identical, overprice, and trap heat, recreating the same monopolistic industry they disrupted.

Key Points

• 1.Mattress Firm built a near-monopoly before DTC brands destroyed it. Mattress Firm peaked at $70/share and a $2.5B market cap in 2014, but Casper's mattress-in-a-box disruption helped drive it to bankruptcy in 2018.
• 2.All major foam mattresses are essentially the same product. Cross-sections of Casper, Purple, Nectar, and Saatva show nearly identical foam-block construction; blind tests across five best-selling brands produced nearly uniform comfort scores.
• 3.Foam mattresses trap heat, directly worsening sleep quality. Unlike innerspring mattresses which circulate air, foam radiates body heat back — a 30-minute test showed foam beds running 5°F hotter, correlating with a 500% rise in sleep aid sales.
• 4.DTC brands have reconsolidated under a handful of parent companies. Helix, Birch, Bear, and Leesa share one parent; Nectar, DreamCloud, and Sienna are owned by Resident; Casper was acquired by private equity that also owns Bojangles — mirroring the old monopoly.
• 5.The cheap-disruptor model has collapsed — prices and middlemen are back. Foam mattresses now cost ~$1,000, Casper opened physical stores, and Purple, Nectar, and Tulo are all sold at Mattress Firm, which was acquired by Sealy in 2025.