TAMARAC, FL / ACCESSWIRE / June 5, 2018 / The hallmark of the hippie, disco, and boomer generation, the waterbed is making a big comeback. On the 50th anniversary of its creation, the iconic sleep solution is enjoying a revival that promises to bring a host of health and style benefits for the next generation.
Three icons of the waterbed era, including the original inventor, have created a new and improved product that was officially introduced today at City Furniture in Tamarac, Florida. Sales launches are also planned for the West Palm Beach store Wednesday, June 6, and City Furniture in Ft. Myers, Thursday, June 7. The AFLOAT™, by Hall Flotation, features a reimagined design that delivers more comfort, appealing aesthetics and a temperature control system.
"We were able to solve some issues with the old waterbeds using technology and materials that didn't exist years ago," said Charles Hall, who invented the waterbed in 1968 and holds the original patent. "Now, I believe we've created a more contemporary product with enhanced health benefits that will provide an optimal sleep experience that waterbeds are meant to provide."
"Waterbed sales evaporated in the early 90s, but now, nearly 30 years later, we think the timing is right to bring the beds back," said Keith Koenig, CEO of City Furniture, which started in South Florida in 1971 as Waterbed City. "We think there's an opportunity to appeal to a whole new health-conscious generation who has heard their parents speak fondly about their past experiences sleeping on water."
Koenig and Hall have teamed up with Michael Geraghty, a former waterbed manufacturer and supplier, to re-introduce a wholly redesigned line of waterbeds to the market. Their company, Hall Flotation, has created the AFLOAT™ brand.
The Pure Flotation model maximizes the skin pressure reduction and precise temperature control that made Hall's original waterbed famous. The Firm Flotation is the only mattress that allows users to determine the temperature of the bed's memory foam. Both Pure and Firm Flotation king-size models are available in a choice of single or dual temperature control systems.
The waterbed mainstream arrival in the late 1960s changed the sleep industry. The comfort was immediate and undeniable.
"The beds were adopted and promoted by the pleasure culture during the 1970s and sales started to soar," said Geraghty. "At its peak in the late 80s, one in five mattresses sold in the U.S. were waterbeds. But traditional mattress manufacturers caught on and learned to make their beds less firm and contour more naturally to the human body."
At the same time, Geraghty said, newer waterbed models added excessive padding between the water and body, which compromised their two main advantages: precise temperature control and unrivaled body contouring.
"It got to the point that there was little difference between the feel of a traditional mattress and a 1990's-era waterbed, so sales dried up," he said.
Hall's new waterbed design incorporates significant innovations. Gone are the hard and heavy wood or plastic frames. Protective vinyl to prevent leaks incorporates a sturdy foam frame for more comfort and more pleasing aesthetics. New, high-density fiber vastly improves motion suppression and a temperature control system provides more pleasurable sleep.
Hall said the health benefits are innumerable. "The human body's specific gravity is near that of water, so sleeping or 'floating' on a waterbed allows the body's muscles to relax more quickly and naturally than when lying on a traditional mattress," said Hall who grew up on Miami Beach and attended the University of Miami before transferring to college in California.
He also said impermeable inner layers eliminate build-up of dust mites, bedbugs and other allergens common to traditional mattresses.
AFLOAT™ waterbeds are priced starting around $2,000 and rising to around $3,299 for a Firm Flotation dual king. By comparison, a waterbed in 1975 would have cost around $450, or around $2,300 in 2018 dollars. Entry-level memory foam mattresses today cost on average of about $2,500.
Online media kit with images: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/i4gqh9dqh2sao8u/AABWyfhnh91Uzu7oPJvykfITa?dl=0
AFLOAT™ launch locations and dates:
June 5th Launch Site-Tamarac
Sawgrass furniture store
6701 North Hiatus Road
Tamarac, FL 33321
June 6th Launch Site-West Palm Beach
2121 Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard
West Palm Beach, FL 33409
June 7th Launch Site-Ft. Myers
9951 Interstate Commerce Drive
Fort Myers, FL 33913
About Hall Flotation:
Hall Flotation is a company that manufactures and markets a newly designed waterbed line that is sold under the AFLOAT™ brand name. The company is led by Charles Hall, a Washington State resident who invented the original waterbed in 1968; Keith Koenig, CEO of City Furniture, a full-line furniture store that started in South Florida as Waterbed City in 1971; and Michael Geraghty, a former manufacturer and supplier of waterbed parts and accessories. For more information on the company and its products, please visit www.hallflotation.com.
About City Furniture:
Ranked among Furniture Today magazine's Top 100 U.S. Furniture Stores, City Furniture leads the industry in its trading area by providing shoppers with an outstanding array of styles and choices at great values. The company has 17 City Furniture stores in its network, which stretches from Miami through Vero Beach in southeast Florida, as well as Naples and Fort Myers on the state's west coast. As the Ashley HomeStore licensee in southeast and southwest Florida, it owns and operates 12 Ashley HomeStore locations. For more information visit www.cityfurniture.com.
Media Contacts:
Todd Templin, ttemplin@boardroompr.com, 954-290-0810
Lauren Berger, lberger@boardroompr.com., 954-551-0757
Office: 954-370-8999
SOURCE: Boardroom PR
