In June 2020, Gwyneth Paltrow launched “This Smells Like My Vagina,” a candle that started as a joke, but became a huge hit when it sold out on her Goop.com website. She described the candle idea as “a little punk rock.”
Naturally, her next step was getting into the mattress business.
The actress who’s starred in movies like The Royal Tenenbaums and The Avengers is the CEO of Goop, a lifestyle brand that started as a blog.
According to Goop.com, “In 2008, Gwyneth Paltrow launched goop from her kitchen as a homespun weekly newsletter. It’s grown a lot since then. We operate from a place of curiosity and nonjudgment, and we start hard conversations, crack open taboos, and look for connection and resonance everywhere we can find it.”
The newsletter became a huge hit and last year Paltrow’s band of wild-eyed Southern California culture explorers landed a Netflix series. On The Goop Lab a group of staffers “explore ideas that may seem out-there,” such as psychedelic drugs, Wim Hof’s cold therapy, female sexuality, anti-aging diets, energy healing, and communication with the dead.
The show signed on for a second season and we’re holding out hope there’ll be an episode about sleep. After all, Gwynnie is now in the bedding business.
The star turned CEO has become a tastemaker in the beauty and health space and now every year Goop publishes a ridiculous guide of over-the-top, often eye-poppingly expensive items typically reserved for the ultra-wealthy—or for those willing to spend more on must-haves.
A recent Goop guide included a $22,000 bed developed in collaboration with Avocado Green Mattress. That’s the starting price point. The king size with all that good mattress goop inside is $58,000.
Gwyneth and her team partnered with Avocado Green Mattress on her first product collaboration. She called it the “trip to the moon of beds” and it’s made by hand in Los Angeles from materials that are climate neutral.
Brett Thornton is Avocado’s Vice President of VX and Retail and he’s one of a handful of people designated to sell these beds.
It’s 29 layers. Every single element is made by hand. It takes 16 different people about three weeks to make one.
You heard that right, over a three-week period sixteen workers are dedicated to layering, stitching, and crafting one sleep system. Each component is fully sustainable and 100 percent organic. Brett says you can track every piece to its origin, affording owners unparalleled visibility into where it comes from.
Some customers have even flown to Southern California to see the beds in person.
Brett understands the sticker shock most people experience when they see a $22,000 mattress, but says this bed, of course, wasn’t created with everyone in mind. He says it’s similar to what’s happened with high-end electric cars, like Tesla.
“The people who are spending a hundred grand they were already spending a hundred grand on a car. It’s just it used to be the Porsche SUV or this new Lamborghini SUV and they were already spending that money. But now, they can feel good about spending that money.”
And for customers considering a Goop x Avocado, they’re typically willing to pay more to feel good knowing their purchase didn’t have a negative impact on the environment.
Why not provide people with that type of next-level wealth the opportunity to say, hey I want to do something that’s going to give back to the planet. I want to buy something I know was made consciously, fully sustainably, from a company that’s carbon net negative.
Yes, it’s nuts to the average consumer. But at least one person has this 29 layer behemoth who isn’t a platinum artist or a movie star.
Avocado’s CEO, Vy Nguen sent CK Ong home with one. CK’s an area manager with Avocado.
“So I said to her, you’re probably the only area manager in the entire world that’s sleeping on a $50,000 bed.”
The mattress was definitely a nice gift, but CK is one of only seven people trained to sell the Goop bed. Their team provides concierge services for clientele and are able to take a deep dive into each layer, while also demonstrating the human side, showing how coils are made by hand.
And all that craftsmanship is on display, in real time, for anyone who wants to watch their bed being made. Avocado’s Orange County Factory Experience Center has giant glass windows where people can peer into the factory and watch Gwyneth Paltrow herself sew the final stitch into each mattress—okay, so that’s not true but if this were a mattress movie, that’s how I’d imagine it ends. How about this as a working title for our blockbuster bedtime film, “This Smells Like I Wallowed Around For Eight Amazing Hours.”
To see this supremely sustainable $22,000 sleep system, head over to Avocado’s website. Gwyneth’s waiting there to welcome you. With her dog, of course.
