Kingsdown Kingsdown 2/5 stars, based on 4 reviews
2 based on 4 Review(s)

 Kingsdown

Kingsdown began manufacturing beds and bedding in 1904 under the name Mebane Bedding Company. The Mebane Bedding Company, based in Mebane, North Carolina, was an industrial-revolution era company, and originally started manufacturing mattresses and box springs by hand. Kingsdown states on their company website that this practice still forms the foundation of their manufacturing process. Along the way, the Mebane Bedding Company becomes the Mebane-Royall Company, and existed under this name until the 1970’s, when the name was changed to Kingsdown, Inc., in recognition of their most popular product, the Kingsdown mattress and bed set.

As scientific standards and testing became available in the manufacturing of beds, Kingsdown seems to have stayed one step ahead of the marketing and manufacturing standards. In the 1990’s, Kingsdown began using a sophisticated computerized system to take measurements of individuals and run thousands of complex equations to help recommend a specific configuration of mattress and box spring. The original system, the DormoDiagnostics System, evolved into the BodyDiagnostics System used today.

The BodyDiagnostics System uses various comfort sensors and questionnaires to help determine which mattress is optimum for your conditions. While nobody outside of Kingsdown knows exactly what all of these measurements are, we can easily assume that pressure mapping (the same type of pressure mapping done by Beds.org) plays a big role in helping to make a determination on which mattresses should be recommended for their customers.

In 2013, Kingsdown listed six mattress brands/collections on its website: Sleep to Live, BedMatch, Blu-Tek, Sleeping Beauty, Kingsdown (Tradition), and Sleep Smart which was introduced mid-2013. The first two and Sleep Smart are really mattress-matching systems.

My Side has been re-branded as Sleep to Live after Kingsdown's research branch, The Sleep to Live Institute. The S-T-L Institute was established to keep Kingsdown at the forefront of sleep research and technology. The purposes of this are to let consumers feel that they are in control of their mattress shopping and to provide greater user satisfaction with Kingsdown mattresses. Originally, My Side let a couple use bedMATCH to choose the ideal structure for each side of the bed, but now that also includes a more blended approach with one core.

Sleep Smart has its own website. Sleep Smart, introduced at the beginning of 2013, is both a brand of mattresses and a design/selection system. More than that, the Sleep Smart mattress is called "The world's SMARTEST bed." According to Kingsdown, it "is engineered to be intuitively responsive to specific regions of your body."

2015 Update

For 2015 Kingsdown revised its website. The top tabs are Discover, Compare, Buy, bedMATCH™, About, and Support. The Home page displays a video, Sleep Made Smarter. Scrolling down, one finds an introductory statement:

Quietly making the world's smartest mattresses Our commitment to sleep research, data collection and meticulous testing is evident in every mattress we make. When you sleep on a Kingsdown, you'll feel the difference a smarter mattress makes on your quality of sleep, and more importantly, on your quality of life.

Then: Discover your Kingsdown.  In this section are three columns —
     A. Browse mattresses by type
     B. Or browse mattresses by feature
     C. Or browse mattresses by collection.

Browse mattresses by type

Kingsdown lists five types of mattresses: Foam Coil, Innerspring, Intelligent Mattresses, Latex Foam, and Memory Foam. Under each of these types are listed the collections of that type of mattress. Three of these types are familiar, but two (Foam Coil and Intelligent Mattress) need special attention.

Foam Coil mattresses use foam coils. The timing of the unveiling of this type is interesting, since it follows the introduction of Dormeo Octasprings to North America. Foam coil mattresses are in the Elliptica Collection. At least three kinds of foam springs are used: DNA Foam Coil, Qualatex Foam Coil, and Omalon Foam Coil.

The Intelligent Mattresses (IM) type is found in the current Sleep Smart Collection. According to Kingsdown, "Sleep Smart is the first, and only, mattress that stays actively 'awake' while you sleep, continually making adjustments to maintain correct alignment and provide ideal support and pressure relief that’s personalized for you."

IM models rely on "air, active air or pro-active air technology" for support and adjustment. Air is air support which is fixed, cannot be adjusted. Active air can be adjusted manually. Pro-active air is adjusted by the Sleep Smart App on a tablet.

Kingsdown compares its Sleep Smart Collection to Sleep Number's x12, TEMPUR-Pedic's TEMPUR-Choice Luxe, and Simmons' Comforpedic IQ.

Browse mattresses by feature

The browsable features listed by Kingsdown are Airflow Technology, Gel, High Coil Count, Ideal Temperature, Natural Luxury, Personalized Support, and Pro-active Support. As with mattress types, the description of each feature lists the collections with that feature. As should be expeced, there is a lot of overlap among collections for some of these features.

Browse mattresses by collection

Kingsdown lists twelve mattress collections for 2015. A few of the names have carried over from the 2013 and 2014 listings (*), but most of the names are new: Diamond Royale, Elliptica, Handley, Haute Couture, Miro, *Passions, Sleep Haven, *Sleep Smart, Sleep to Live, *Tradition, *My Side, and Kingsdown Kids.

Kingsdown does not sell its products from its website. Clicking the Buy tab prings up an invitation to "Find the Kingsdown mattress that fits you best at your local mattress retailer." A search query has boxes for Zip Code, Distance (5, 15, 30 or 60 miles), and "bedMATCH only" (for finding only retailers with the bedMATCH setup).

New Collections

Kingsdown introduced two new collections in 2015.  In the Winter 2015 Las Vegas World Furniture Market, the company unveiled its Diamond Royale Collection, These are extra luxury mattresses along the lines of the American luxury bedding brands ES Kluft and Aireloom.

Kingsdown's newest collection was shown at the 2015 Summer  Las Vegas Market. The Downton Abbey Home Collection takes its inspiration from the award-winning BBC television series (also shown on PBS). Kingsdown has signed with Knockout Licensing to produce mattresses for the lifestyle brand based on the show and its characters.

 

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