Simmons 1971

SIMMONS CO.

The Simmons Mattress Company was started by Zalmon G Simmons.  Simmons built his first factory in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1870, making it one of the oldest in the United States. The Simmons factory originally manufactured wooden insulators and cheese boxes. In 1876 Simmons changed the mattress industry with his decision to mass-produce a woven wire mattress.  Woven wire mattresses had been in use during the 19th century and were essentially a wire mattress that had a surface made of interlocking (woven) wires upon which the sleeper would lay. This created a mesh-like surface that provided support.

The impact of mass-producing the mattress lay in the fact that the cost to produce the mattress, and ultimately what the general public would pay, dropped dramatically.  Thus allowing a much larger portion of the public to have access to the product. The Simmons company was working on a number of things throughout the 1880s and as a result, by 1889, they had been able to reduce the price of a woven wire mattress from about $12.00 to around 95 cents- via the efficiencies of mass production.  Simmons had also introduced a spiral coil spring for the woven mattresses.

Much happened at the Simons Corporation in the ensuing years.  Simmons launched its first national advertising campaign via the Saturday Evening Post in 1916.  In 1918, after World War I, Simmons introduced the cotton felt mattress, bringing a new level of comfort to sleepers.  By 1919, Simmons had acquired or built manufacturing plants across the United States and Canada with facilities in cities like Seattle, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver to name a few. In 1927, prior to being the first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt was featured in print advertising for the Simmons Beautyrest mattress line, and she continued to be an advocate of the Simmons Beautyrest mattress through her radio show into the 1930s.  During this time, Simmon was developing quite a following and used testimonials from Henry Ford, H. G. Wells, Thomas Edison, Guglielmo Marconi and George Bernard Shaw in its advertising.

Simmons continued its focus on research by partnering with sleep experts like Dr James Maas and Dr James Wellman to further sleep research.  Simmons also became the official bedding sponsor of the Summer Olympics that year in Atlanta, Georgia. Today Simmons has 18 manufacturing plants in the US and Puerto Rico, as well as 23 international licensees and sublicensees.  Simmons continues to push the envelope in research, products and comfort through its Better Sleep Through Science philosophy.  Simmons believes the mattress you sleep on can improve the quality of your life through more restful sleep.  Newer Simmons mattress lines include the BeautySleep line, ComforPedic collection and the Simmons Natural Care collection.