Two brothers, John and Rob Merwin, started their journey as mattress liquidators. Driven by curiosity and determination, they began taking apart mattresses and visiting factories to learn how to make better ones.
Back in 1995, their adventure began with a refurbished Wonder Bread truck and a Motorola brick phone. Rob would deliver mattresses all around Phoenix, Arizona, no matter the time of day. John, who was about to get married and struggling with his college plans in Montana, decided to join in and help. Together, they combined their skills and passion to create high-quality mattresses at unbeatable prices. Today, their dedication means you get the perfect mattress without breaking the bank.
Eventually, they opened a shop… a real retail shop. Then another, and another—until they had fourteen stores throughout the Phoenix Valley. But it was the online business that really put the Merwin brothers on the national map.
At his wife’s suggestion (and to keep peace at home), John began selling mattresses on Amazon. The venture was so successful that he soon transitioned to selling directly on BrooklynBedding.com.
A family man with a visionary mind, John was one of the first in the industry to introduce the bed-in-a-box concept in 2008. It involved many sleepless nights, but after seeing three guys struggle to hand-roll a flattened mattress, John decided to invest in a $135,000 machine from Italy that could do it all. This move allowed Brooklyn Bedding to become a pioneer in the mattress-in-a-box space.
The family rebranded the business, naming it after John’s daughter, Brooklyn. His oldest daughter Kayli wasn’t thrilled at first, but Brooklyn Bedding had a nice ring to it. Sometimes, parents have to appease the middle child. Plus, the company quickly became popular in New York City.
John Merwin was determined to make Brooklyn Bedding one of the few mattress retailers in the country to manufacture its own beds. So, they built a factory. This rare move ensured the brand’s affordability and high quality. Brooklyn Bedding designs and ships mattresses directly to customers, cutting out the middleman and offering top-notch products at a fraction of the price of the big brands. The state-of-the-art factory in Phoenix, Arizona, also manufactures many top private-label mattress brands. In 2018, they opened their first permanent showroom at the Las Vegas Market trade show, marking a significant milestone for the company.
Brooklyn Bedding is a true American dream, American-owned and operated. Despite celebrating their 25th anniversary in March 2020 during a global pandemic, John Merwin quickly adapted. He repurposed part of his factory to produce masks for essential workers and developed a hospital bed prototype based on a trucking industry solution he’d invented 16 years earlier. This decision not only supported essential industries but also helped save jobs during an economic downturn.
At Brooklyn Bedding, where there’s a will, there’s a way. In the last two years, the company has doubled its production capacity. To meet growing demand, they built a new 600,000-square-foot factory in Phoenix, Arizona, allowing even more mattresses to be designed and shipped directly to customers’ doors.
