#HTE

A Purple Attempt to Reinvent the Pillow

What makes a good mattresses is pretty subjective, and pillows might be even more divisive. Despite the nitpicky nature of the industry, the mattress startup Purple has launched a follow-up to their wildly successful first Kickstarter and this time they’re aiming for the head. 

Purple didn’t just break out thanks to its hip one-word name and promise to “disrupt” bad sleep experiences. Its colorful brand is based around the new honeycomb-looking material Hyper-Elastic Polymer™, which provides a decidedly different butt-feel than more familiar foams. In this new Kickstarter they’re putting their firm-yet-forgiving HEP to work as “the heaviest pillow ever.” The aggressively wacky campaign video spells out their tech promises.

The material’s key claim to fame is a lack of over- or under-compressing that is unlike foam or down. Regularity of consistency goes a long way in providing reliable all-night pillow comfort, though ideal consistency is a subjective window to aim for. It also boasts that people of all weights and shapes get equally satisfying support, which is a pretty bold claim.

Super scientific takedown of traditional pillow technologies

This pillow specs greater compression in the middle and stiffer structure around the outside, for dome-pressure relief without losing neck support. The design sounds a bit like popular double-lump foam pillows, but Purple claims the improvement lies in the lack of a predetermined radius, which they note can make the curvy pillows feel worse than normal if they don’t fit your angles right. And if you crave big fat spongy pillows? Add on their slablike air cushion that works like a booster seat.

Waterbeds are out. Air mattresses for your head are in.

The porous material additionally works as a cooling agent, pulling heat away from your sweaty meaty head through its polymer channels, instead of storing heat in compressed foam.

As a fidgety sleeper (the “undecided” example in the video hit a little close to home), I do wonder whether a heavy pillow is always a boon. If it keeps me from readjusting in the first place, great, but if it doesn’t I doubt it would be able to keep up with my cross-bed rambling like I’d want it to. I also wonder how the HEP holds up over time, if it can be cleaned, and whether the incorporated polyester pillowcase is enough to mask what might be a creepy crinkly air mattress lurking under your head. How does this tech really differ from buying a well made, you-fitting traditional pillow? They don’t really break it down that far.

Overall I’m intrigued by the new material possibilities and the team’s engineering chops, but it’s still a little outside my comfort zone. 

The already funded campaign runs through October 22, 2016. What would it take for you to try a new type of pillow?