As promised, here is a rundown of what I've found - so far - at this summer's Las Vegas market, which is pretty much the largest for bedding in the United States.  There have been many new introductions here that I've had a look at and spoken with the company representatives and some concepts that might be a little hard to work through for organic customers, so hopefully I can cut through the technical stuff and give you a real world view of what things are and what makes them different.  So, keeping that in mind - here we go!

Natura:

Natura's new showroom is really cool!  They have created a concept environment that is relaxing as well as informative and if you have a Natura dealer in your area and they bring in this new package, you are definately in for an experience!  As for product introductions, it has been rather light and, with a couple of exceptions, limited in the organic catagory.

First, they have introduced a whole line of beds with soy content foam.  The thing about soy is that there really is only a limited amount that can be put into foam for mattress use before you start dealing with odor and longevity issues.  They have been able to get a 20% soy content foam from the top company in that catagory, which absolutely busts the usual 10% to 15% soy content that everyone else has.  But remember, the foam is still 80% polyurethane - therefore you still are not going to be on a chemical free product.  Natura, as a company, understands this and is not in any way marketing this as a "all-natural" or "organic" bed.  This is a departure from others, by the way, so as a consumer you really know what you are getting.

Apart from that, the biggest news here is a bed for youth that is totally chemical free with organic cotton and wool (the same 36oz. as found in the Eco line) that is going to be available at under $1000 to consumers.  This is a first for an all natural latex, chemical free organic bed and a huge plus for consumers.

Other items that are new from Natura are a kapok pillow, extending the washable wool to a mattress topper and a stain removal spray based upon the active cultures found in yogurt which actually consumes the bacteria in a stain, not only removing the stain but any odor as well! 

Kluft:

Before I go forward with this review, let me give you a little background and information on this company and their beds.  Kluft/Airloom produces very high end, gold standard mattresses.  They are really at the top of the luxury scale in terms of Amercian made standard (meaning non-natural/non-organic) beds.  They have entered this catagory with a slate of 4 beds in organic.

For a company like Kluft, there is a "look and feel" of beds that has to be maintained and their organic beds do maintain that look and feel.  It is difficult, in fact impossible, to do something like this in a totally organic/chemical free bed and, in so doing, have to make some choices. 

For example, all organic beds don't look visually "perfect".  Without tacked covers, the tape edges (the sewn enclosure that runs around the side of the mattress) will rotate around a little, or the topper layer doesn't quite match size and position with the base if you are avoiding laminated layers. 

Kluft beds, however, do look visually perfect and for this company they really shouldn't accept anything less, at least in my opinion.  To do this, they have sacrificed some of the organic purity such as tufting with straps that contain wide yarn loops, using the JOMA wool from New Zealand (which is natural but not organic certified) and supporting the edges with a firmer natural latex so they don't collapse.  This process is known in the industry as "racetracking" but that term really applies to using polyurethane foams and not natural latex, but that's about the only technical term that I can apply to this.

As such, for those that don't want to give up that look of luxury, these beds from Kluft just really jump out at you.  They don't offer the purity standard of a Natura, Green Sleep or even the organic Royal-Pedic (innerspring anyway), but they are definitely a gold standard of luxury.  

In their top model, they are using a curled horse hair in the center of the mattress.  Many animal rights people are going to cringe at this, but let me say that in the days of artisan/craftsman made mattresses - when builders had to apprentice for years with a master before being allowed to make mattresses on their own - horse hair was a staple material.  For this mattress, it gives the bed a nice and natural spring coming from the core that most natural latex beds do not have.

Make no mistake, these organics are at the very top of any price scale - higher than the Green Sleep, much higher in fact.  For luxury they definately get an A+ from me.  For organic purity, well (and it really pains me to say this) I can only say that it's at the C average. 

Land and Sky:

Finally they have departed from the velour fabric and are using a more organic fabric on their beds.  They have some new innerspring models that are intriguing and I think are better than the others that have available from current innerspring manufacturers (other than Royal-Pedic and Kluft, of course).

I still have my doubts about how they are passing the flame retardant testing using only wool, especially in the side panels of the beds. 

In order for them to truly arrive, however, they really need to offer the whole bedding package (pillows, toppers, comforters, etc.) to go with their beds.

Englander:

This major brand name has entered the organic market with two mattresses - one innerspring, one natural latex.  They are very up front with their organic certifications - actually attaching a little booklet that has the certificates printed in it on the beds. 

The innerspring is almost an exact clone of the Vivetique Organic Caress Pillowtop.  The latex is a new concept because it is two sided so it can be flipped - something nobody else in this catagory does.  In all honesty, it is totally unnecessary, but for consumers it is an option that is probably nice to have in the long run. 

As far as organic purity goes, they have really taken steps to make sure their bases are covered in this area.  Natura is the only other manufacturer that I know of that is at least as pure as Englander from a documentation standpoint, but Natura does so much more in-house that I still have to give them the edge.

The Englander beds are quite firm, so they clearly have a way to go in perfecting their feel.  So far, these beds are only available on the east coast - specifically the northeastern market.  They clearly have more work to do to perfect the beds, but they are doing things correctly from an organic standpoint at this point.

Green Sleep:

Nothing new from Green Sleep.  It is still a great bed and very pure, so why change?

OMI/Lifekind:

While they have not met with me, the buzz here is that they have solved and eliminated the silca fiber fire barrier in their beds.  This, if true, would be a nice move for them but we are still missing the certified organic wool and the use of Talalay latex that meets the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certification without using the laminated glue seams in full and queen sizes (you can't avoid it in king by the way).

So, that's what I've got for you so far.  There is still more to see, so expect something more either tomorrow or Monday!