**Family trip to Italy in 2019 with our sons Alessandro and Stefano. This picture was taken in Amalfi in the countryside.**

Imagine yourself surrounded by beautiful and calming ocean views – the sound of the waves lapping at the shore, the feel of the sand between your toes, and the smell of salt water. Looking out, you catch a glimpse of all the vibrant colors of the rainbow – brilliant reds, golden yellows, pastel pinks, sea-foam greens, light lavenders, saffron oranges, and electric blues.

These sensory references encouraged Blu Sleep’s husband-and-wife co-founders, Alex Ciccolella and Elizabeth Dell’Accio, to develop the company’s wellness-oriented sleep products. Using European engineered Italian colorful foam, Blu Sleep’s pillows and mattresses are made with distinctly unique technology and materials including essential oil infused foam, washable memory foam, water expanded memory foam and foamed gel.

“Some of our best memories were our summer trips to the south of Italy. We were both drawn to the calm and soothing feeling of the water and the sand,” says Dell’Accio. “We wanted to share the experience that brings us back to those beautiful landscapes, culinary experiences, and the vivre of the culture which truly inspired us to create what Blu Sleep is today. Everything from our patented technologies, essential oils, and even the signature ‘blue’ in our logo echo the personal homage we pay to those memories.”

**Ceramo is the latest in Blu Sleep's innovation. This ultra-breathable machine-washable foam has a cooling bio-ceramic layer that gives the body benefits of an infrared spa.**

THE BIRTH OF A BRAND

Raised in a family of luxury Italian furniture craftsmen, Elizabeth inherited her eye for quality from her parents. Alex, who was educated as a bio-chemist, had the imagination of an inventor, the gift to question standards, and liked to invent new solutions to existing problems. When the two married, the couple realized by bringing their experiences together they opened the door for new business opportunities in the home furnishings industry.

In 1997, before the birth of their children, Elizabeth noticed that baby mattresses, made from plastics that were not breathable or cooling, were not comfortable for infants. The couple worked together to create a new category of memory foam – one that was both breathable and safe – marking the beginning of a journey that would eventually become their life’s work.

Alex and Elizabeth started Blu Sleep, a latex foam supplier for the mattress industry, in 2006. The company’s principles focused on the belief that advanced chemistry, quality manufacturing, innovation, and strong R & D can improve the way people sleep. Realizing that pillows were an important yet underdeveloped part of the sleep products industry, Blu Sleep shifted its focus to making finished pillow offerings for small manufacturers and retailers which, through private labeling, led to success in their Canadian homeland. When distribution expanded into the United States, the company started selling mattresses and pillows under the Blu Sleep brand.

**Our CONFORMA mattress is our most innovative offering that provides luxurious supportive sleep with the best technology Blu Sleep has to offer.**

WHEN SCIENCE AND SLEEP MEET

After three years in development, the company’s first breathable and cooling foams were brought to market as the Blu Sleep AIRFLOW pillow. The introduction surprised and delighted industry professionals and encouraged Blu Sleep to partner with Italian foam suppliers to develop innovative products – specifically designed to provide the same kind of restorative and refreshing night’s sleep Alex and Elizabeth experienced during their trips to southern Italy.

“Our products are made with water expanded foams – a process that uses water instead of chemicals to expand our pillow foams for a more natural product,” explains Alex. “Each Blu Sleep offering is designed with Sleep Cool Technology which works by using breathable and heat dissipating materials to keep your body at the perfect sleeping temperature. This technology is specially engineered in our pillow and mattress foams as well as our covers to absorb body heat, keeping you cool all night long.”

**CONFORMA wins the approval of even the fluffiest of critics**

The company started manufacturing and marketing a whole line of breathable foams that include best sellers ICE GEL and BIO ALOE. These breathable foam and gel products continue to win accolades and praise from editors and industry critics alike. Today, Blu Sleep offers an entire range of sleep products including mattresses as well as accessories.

While many home furnishings companies use foams that produce off gassing, Blu Sleep’s foam pillows and mattresses are Oeko-Tex certificated, which ensures they have been tested for harmful substances and have met all safety standards. Because it uses water as an expansion agent, Blu Sleep’s memory foam, latex and gels are cleaner and more environmentally-friendly. Each product also features an open-cell structure, so they are non-temperature-sensitive ensuring you stay cool as you sleep.

Today, Blu Sleep’s pillow lineup includes memory and gel foam, infused with essential oils including sleep inducing scents such as chamomile, lavender and green tea. While both breathable foams are designed to support both your head and neck, each has its own unique feel. The company’s memory foams are quick responding and envelop you so you feel cozy while the gel foams are more breathable than traditional memory foam and have a softer, bouncier feel.

The company’s breathable mattresses are designed from “the base up” using advance foam technologies to better suit your individual sleep needs. Shaped into adaptive columns, or Air Pods, Blu Sleep’s base foams keep the spine aligned and lets air flow through up and out. Each Air Pod is adaptive and moves independently to conform to the unique shape of the body and pressure points.

Blu Sleep’s husband-and-wife co-founders, Alex Ciccolella and Elizabeth Dell’Accio

PROMOTING BEAUTY SLEEP

With the company’s streamlined logo, Blu Sleep wanted to pay homage to Italy, where its foam is manufactured. A refreshing blue hue was selected to represent the vibrant ocean water of Southern Italy. On its side, the stylized “B” of the insignia evokes the shape of a plush mattress and pillow and the bold typography marries style with functionality. The new point-of-purchase (POP) and packaging highlights Blu Sleep’s unique construction and materials such as water-expanded foam, essential oils, aromatherapy and breathable fabrics.

Blu Sleep’s branding and marketing campaign focuses on the company’s innovative features and technologies that help transform sleep into part of a beauty and wellness ritual. Designed to emphasize the spa-like feeling consumers can experience each night on Blu Sleep mattresses and pillows, the company believes the simplified narrative on the POP and packaging tells a visual story to which consumers can emotionally connect.

Blu Sleep began their sojourn with the Specialty Sleep Association in October 2011, when they exhibited in the SSA’s High Point showroom. SSA Executive Director Tambra Jones remembers, “They were part of the SSA’s showroom neighborhood in both Las Vegas and High Point until January 2014 when they opened their own showroom in Las Vegas. We are elated at their success, however we miss them!”