How our customers designed the perfect mattress

Many mattress companies like to spend hours talking about all the time they spent designing.

Us? We like to talk about the years we’ve spent testing.

Instead of pseudoscience, we put our work to the test with real people. Hard science!

Looking back, we have a lot to thank our customers and beta testers for. Specifically, their role in the shaping the Koala mattress through the years.

Because of them, we’ve developed a product we’re proud of and that people love.

But how did they do it?

Well, it started with a good question:

Can we make a mattress that provides the best night’s sleep for the most people … while stripping out the jargon, the ridiculous technology, and the horrible retail experience from mattress buying?

To answer, we decided to ask ‘most people’.

RESEARCH … AND LOTS OF IT

We asked an initial sample of beta customers about what they wanted from a mattress.
The answers:

1. I want to fall asleep and stay asleep
2. I want to feel good when I wake up

We also travelled Australia and overseas, sampling hundreds of mattresses and thousands of materials. Out of that process, the original Koala was born, but that was just V1 in a long line since.

CRITERIA 1 – I WANT TO FALL ASLEEP AND STAY ASLEEP

Comfort

A lot of mattress companies will tell you that they have invented a set of space-age materials that will instantly put you to sleep. We’re a skeptical bunch.

The truth is, comfort and ‘falling asleep’ is subjective. Everyone is different. We just happen to make the bed that works for the biggest number of people.

We use numbers to our advantage by tweaking and refining with our beta customers.
When they found the mattress needed to be more plush and luxurious we softened our top layer. When people thought that had gone too far, and they were sinking, we added support to the base layer. We did this (and still do) in a continuous process.

Temperature Control + Materials

This was crucial for us, and a uniquely Australian challenge. This was why we ruled out latex and memory foam. Their ‘sinking feeling’ and tendency to retain heat mean that while your first 15 minutes on the mattress might feel great, you are resigning yourself to tossing and turning to find a cool spot the rest of the night.

The answer for us was to focus on the development of open cell materials that promoted airflow, and minimise the amount of glue required as that is where the majority of heat is trapped. The result for us has been a mattress that sleeps cooler than almost anything on the market.

That’s why we quickly ruled out “plush toppers”, “cooling gel” and other gimmicky names for features that do nothing except feature in our mattress. Instead, we focused on what would provide our customers with the ideal sleep – and that magical ingredient turned out to be our own unique proprietary blend of Australian made foams.

It won’t form a crater where you’ve slept after a couple of months, nor will you feel like you’re sinking into quicksand or sleeping on the sandy banks of the Sahara. Instead? You’ll feel like you’re gently drifting off into a deep, relaxing sleep on a bed of clouds, gently providing you with the support you need combined with the utmost comfort possible.

Dealing with restless sleepers

Forget tossing and turning, being woken by your partner, dog or that pesky ghost that haunts your hallways.

The great thing about the materials that we use – and specifically our own unique cell structure – is that movement is transferred vertically and not horizontally, giving the Koala Mattress its Zero Disturbance properties.

We were so proud of this characteristic in our mattresses we even trademarked it (hence the capital letters).

CRITERIA 2 – FEEL AMAZING WHEN YOU WAKE UP

Waking up is where we see the biggest impact of our mattress.
A better sleep means a better morning. A better day can change someone’s life … or the course of the universe. It’s something we take pretty seriously.

1. Relieve Pressure Points

Sleep is incredibly vital because your muscles relax and repair overnight. Certain foams like a low recovery foam or visco-elastic foam offer great pressure relief properties, but how could we engineer these exact properties into a high resilience foam?

We partnered with Australian foam manufacturers and designed an open, irregular cell, foam comfort layer. It means that our unique foam comfort layers will keep you both elevated and supported whilst allowing you just the right amount of that *ahhhh* moment of sinkage that targets your pressure points during your sleep.

2. Correct Spinal Alignment

In order for your muscles to completely relax and be at ease, you’ll need your spine to be aligned perfectly upon your mattress. We didn’t know the first thing about spinal alignment, which is why we turned to the experts.

These guys then worked with us, iterating several times. We looked at all types of body shapes, sizes and sleeping patterns, and educated us how individual spines react to different surfaces.
Side sleepers, back sleepers, etc.

We noticed early on that without an extremely solid foundation our testers would sink in too much, leaving the hips in a V position that can be extremely detrimental to your spine. We needed more underlying support, so we went away and tweaked our foams (again & again & again) and also introduced zoning to our mattress.

It was this proprietary zoning (we have 5 different zones in our mattress), combined with our secret recipe for density and hardness that really made the Koala what it is today. They all contribute to give your hips, shoulders, legs and most importantly, spine, the ideal amount of support, alignment and comfort!

SO WHY CHOOSE A KOALA?

We’ll deliver you the world’s best materials, engineered to what you need from a mattress. Getting to sleep and staying there, then waking up feeling amazing.

It’s a product designed by customers, for customers, with constant refinement… and a product you’ll love.

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