It hardly seems possible, but it is time once again to head to Las Vegas, NV, the world's greatest bastian of excess, to see what the movers and shakers in the organic bedding world are rolling out to tempt current and new dealers from around the country.

Las Vegas has emerged, in recent years, as the place to go for bedding - of all types - so the organic bedding manufacturers look to make thier biggest introductions here. 

This is likely to be a small show, however, due to the state of the economy.  The World Market Center, where the market is held, has greatly reduced its exhibit space from past markets due to the number of companies that have either gone under or simply have elected to skip this show due to the lagging economy.

As organics heads into what is traditionally the busiest season of the year, however, there should be no shortage of news for new items at this show.  So this blog, which has suffered from lack of posting this summer, is likely to be buzzing this week with product news!

Of course, no market would be complete without some pre-market hype, so here is what is known going in:

Organic Sleep Products has purchased the fine organic bedding company High Desert Naturals.  This just happened not even 2 weeks ago, thus HDN will not be exhibiting at the market this week.  The purchase, it is stressed, was not economically driven, but based on personal reasons on the part of the former owners of HDN.  The consensus from both HDN and OSP was to see the brand continue, and since OSP is one of HDN's oldest dealers, it worked out.  OSP has pledged to continue the brand and add almost all of the previously announced new products in the coming weeks and months.  HDN has many Internet dealers, including OSP, and OSP head Brian Seed has pledged that the OSP Internet operation will not conflict with other dealers and plans to continue Internet and in-store HDN sales at the current pricing formulas it has always used.

Natura has more than doubled its market presence and that space is likely to generate the biggest buzz, at least at the start of the week.  There have been hints at a new line of beds designed specifically for kids, which would be welcome news to parents who have traditionally had difficulty paying the high prices for organic beds for their children, especially the limited time period the kids will be using them.

Sleeptek, manufacturers of Green Sleep, recently changed their U.S. distribution structure and it remains to be seen exactly what this will mean to U.S. dealers.  They are no longer warehousing or shipping in the U.S., at least to our knowledge, which could make an already somewhat difficult bed to get even more difficult.  Early news hints at getting dealers to stock the Green Sleep bed, but for a bed with multiple options which are consumer driven, this becomes a major chore for dealers, so we'll have to wait and see how successful this strategy is.

Skipping this market, although they will be here walking the halls, are the Suite Sleep folks, who used to be the U.S. distribution arm of Sleeptek.  They have talked up a new line of their own mattresses that looks quite promissing - competing at a level commencerate with the Savvy Rest and Obasan labels more common on the east coast.  The west, as most of us out here are aware, are largely in want of a regional organic manufacturer/distributor that is capable of delivering product in a timely fashion - something that doesn't seem to exist at this point.

Land and Sky will be in a permanent show space for the first time.  Their oft-changing models are sure to have a new tweaking and hopefully the saga of month-to-month changes is going to come to an end.  The "Rainforest of the Month" mentality certainly does not work in this economic climate and so we'll have to see how Ron and the boys are addressing this. 

Vivetique, as always, will be anchoring the Specialty Sleep area and are sure to have something new and expensive - as usual.  For these guys, it's almost a "concept bed" show, but they are able to generate lots of buzz.

Finally, it seems the buzzword going into this market is "soy".  Everyone is talking about it, but the key with soy use in foam products is how much actual soy is in the foam.  In many circles, unless you are getting product from Cargill, you are talking 15% to 20% soy content (Cargill can get up to 50%).  Still, this is far less natural than even the regular Talalay latex we are seeing from sources like Dunlopillo, which have a 60% to 70% natural content.  We'll see where this goes.

It looks like it's time to head for the not-to-friendly skys and catch that final leg to Sin City.  Man, one of those resorts must use enough electricity to power my home town...

Check back for more as the week unfolds!