From the PR Pile... No more cardboard beds for Olympic athletes?

Plus, see which sneaker brand is entering the mattress market — and learn about a stylish new wearable that could give Oura a run for its money

Images L-R: Saatva, Incora Health, Adventure Mattresses

Welcome to the PR Pile, a monthly roundup of sleep and wellness news from my inbox, LinkedIn feed, and other corners of the internet.

If you have a story you’d like featured in next month’s installment, send me a message!

Here’s what’s in the PR Pile this month…

1. Saatva: Mattress of champions

Luxury sleep brand Saatva is the official mattress and bedding supplier for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The brand said in a press release:

Saatva, known for its handcrafted, made-to-order mattresses designed and assembled in the USA, will work with LA28 to provide mattresses, linens, and pillows to athletes for the LA28 Games, ensuring they get the restorative sleep critical to recovery and overall well-being during the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Having slept on several Saatva mattresses myself, this sounds like a major sleep upgrade from the cardboard beds provided for athletes at the Olympic Games in Tokyo and Paris. (Surprisingly, the cardboard beds weren’t flimsy; if anything, they were allegedly very durable, to the point of being unyielding.)

But Olympians won’t be the only ones indulging in Smarter Luxury Sleep™. A few weeks after announcing its LA28 partnership, Saatva revealed that it’s now an official CrossFit sponsor and will be on-site at the CrossFit Games in August.

On one hand, you’d think smart bed brands like Eight Sleep and Bryte would be chomping at the bit to team up with these world-class athletic organizations to offer their tech. (It seems Eight Sleep focuses more on individual partnerships, as it recently named Ferrari Sad Boi¹ F1 driver Charles LeClerc as an ambassador.) 

However, I imagine it’s more practical to go with a traditional mattress that’s relatively easy to set up and haul away, especially for a temporary event like the Olympic Games. Most athletes likely rely on wearables to track their sleep and overall fitness anyway — and I’m sure there are other logistical details that I’m not privy to.

But I wonder what will happen to the Saatva beds in Los Angeles after the Olympics are over. The cardboard beds used in Paris and Tokyo could be recycled — in fact, that was touted as a major benefit of using them.

Will Olympians be able to take their Saatva mattresses home if they like them, if that’s even feasible? Or will they be donated?

2. Skechers: It’s the S(leep)

As a kid in the 1990s, I would always see the infamous Skechers sneaker commercial on Nickelodeon. It was effective marketing — I begged my mom to buy me a pair of Skechers. When she finally did, my life felt complete.

Now I’m in my 40s and eager to recapture that feeling of wholeness from my youth by getting my hands on a Skechers mattress. The shoe brand partnered with Adventure Mattress to create four memory foam hybrid models comprising 11 mattresses total.

While this endeavor may seem unexpected, Skechers has been evolving to become more than just a footwear company for quite a while. As Bedding News Now reports:

Skechers as a company is growing, and they are expanding outside of footwear into categories such as apparel and comfort accessories like seat cushions. With sleep products in the mix, the brand is poised to become a lifestyle brand — one that has a product for every part of your day.

All Skechers mattresses have a knit cooling cover, layers of memory and support foam, and individually wrapped coils with targeted lumbar support. Higher-end models add copper-infused memory foam for enhanced temperature regulation, Skechers' latex-style Luxe Foam, and wrapped microcoils (known as “Hyper Pillars”).

If you want to find out if Skechers mattresses are as comfortable as their shoes, you might be out of luck unless you live near one of the few retailers that actually sells them, let alone has a floor model for you to try.

Unfortunately, I can’t find a store near me that carries Skechers mattresses, so I’ll have to just settle for wearing out my Skechers UNOs until I can get my hands on a sample.

3. Incora’s new smart earrings: An Oura alternative for women?

My relationship with wearables is complicated at the moment — I’ll be sharing the reasons why in an upcoming post — but this story about 18k titanium gold smart earrings piqued my interest.

Tech startup Incora Health focuses on women’s health, a niche the brand believes is underserved by today’s wearables market. An excerpt from a story on Femtech Insider reads:

Perhaps the most fundamental difference in Incora’s approach is their recognition of women’s cyclical physiology. While most wearables on the market provide identical recommendations regardless of hormonal state, Incora’s technology accounts for menstrual phase in its guidance.

“The Oura Ring, Apple Watch – they’re all based on a man’s relatively stable hormonal cycle,” [Incora co-founder Dr. Lindsey Calcutt] explains. “The insights you receive are identical every day, regardless of where you are in your cycle, which is actually your fifth vital sign.”

This tailored approach enables more specific recommendations. Where a typical device might suggest better sleep hygiene, Incora might recognize that progesterone levels are affecting REM sleep and recommend specific interventions like magnesium supplementation or adjusting caffeine timing.

I’ve been impressed with Oura’s cycle tracking, and while I can only speak about the previous-gen WHOOP Watch, I don’t find it reliable for that purpose. Perhaps a pair of smart earrings designed with women’s health in mind could offer insights that my current stable of wearables isn’t able to provide.

(Plus, I constantly misplace my Oura Ring because I take it off to wash my hands. I’ve had to retrace my steps at businesses and friends’ houses to retrieve my ring more times than I care to admit. A pair of smart earrings? I can keep those on for sure.)

These earrings have a post backing, but I wonder if Incora Health will develop a clip-on version for women who can’t fathom going under the piercing gun. In any case, I’ll be keeping an eye on this (and bracing myself for the cost).

Head over to Incora Health to join the waitlist for product updates.

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In other news…

✈️ For The Sleep Tourist: Casa Palermo in Pebble Beach now includes a Wellness Mini Bar in all of its suites, featuring wares from Hyperice, HigherDose, and Sleep Well. Sounds dreamy, but what type of mattresses are in the rooms?

🪳Do you scope out unwanted travel guests? According to a survey conducted by The Harris Poll in cooperation with the National Pest Management Association, only 28% of Americans check their hotel rooms for bed bugs before staying overnight, and 44% of them would leave if they found bed bugs in their room. I refuse to disclose which camps I fall into.

🐑 Dreaming of expensive sheep: Sleep tech company Somnee secured $10 million in a seed extension round led by Khosla Ventures with help from Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures and the NBA’s Orlando Magic ownership group, among others. This funding will allow Somnee to develop the next generation of its AI-powered neurotech headband.

Note: I tested a first-gen Somnee last year. While I could understand its merit, it missed the mark for me. That said, I’d be interested to see if Somnee 2.0 improves on its weaknesses. Stay tuned.

🥵 Do menopause hot flashes wreck your sleep? An independent study by SleepScore about the efficacy of Rest Evercool bedding for women aged 40 to 60 will be published as an abstract in the peer-reviewed journal SLEEP. A highlight from the study: 61% of participants experienced less intense night sweats after using Rest Evercool products.

🎧 Based in Nashville? Visit wellness club Framework for a Sava Sound Pod session. Now, when is the Sava experience coming to the Philadelphia area? Speaking of which…

The Sound Pod Review Google Doesn't Want You to See

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Finally, a short view back to the past…

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Like this post? Here’s another story you may want to check out:

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Coming next week…

Your questions: answered, by me, a mattress tester! If there’s anything you want to know about the work I do or you’re looking for some buying advice, send me a question on Substack or LinkedIn.

1. I say this in jest. Forza Ferrari!