Bedding is a big business, and it’s been getting bigger with the growing market of increasingly large king mattresses. Now there’s a king mattress on the market as big and wide open as Wyoming.
The Wyoming King is the latest addition to the ever-larger king mattresses, which includes California, Texas and Alaska king beds. The 84-by-84-inch mattress is relatively new to the “bigger is better” market. It’s larger than two queen-sized mattresses pushed together.
It’s also bigger than the California king, which is 72 inches wide and 84 inches long. The Texas king is narrower at 80 inches, but longer at 98 inches. None of them, however, hold a candle to the gigantic Alaska king bed, which is a full 2 feet longer and wider than the Wyoming king at 108 inches by 108 inches.
Adding a Wyoming king to the choices when furnishing the bedroom might not be possible for many, with a bed that might be too big for its namesake state.
“People like big things in their bedrooms, and having a bigger bed is just another thing on that list,” said Zack Haskell of Haskell Furniture in northwest Wyoming. “Wyoming kings could become a thing in Wyoming, but it’ll be very specific to the buyer.”
Kings Are King
The history of state-named king mattresses predates the standard 76-by-80-inch king mattress.
The California king was a trend that originated in the 1960s. Contrary to popular belief, California Kings aren’t bigger than conventional king mattresses. They’re just proportioned differently.
“They’re taller, not bigger,” Haskell said. “California kings are narrower than conventional king mattresses, so they have about the same square footage.”
California high rollers wanted bigger beds to fill their massive homes, creating a thriving market that continues today. However, the rest of the United States decided that wider was better than taller, leading to the standard “Eastern king” mattress, which is more widely available today.
California kings are the most common variant of king mattress sold now. Hager and Haskell said they regularly sell and stock California kings in Wyoming.
“People have been familiar with the California king for years,” Hager said. “They made one for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar because he was tall and skinny. They’re on the periphery of normal for anyone looking to buy a mattress.”
California kings are among the standard mattress sizes available at most retailers. Haskell is a seller and owner of the longer king-sized mattress.
“I’m 6 feet, 5 inches tall, and my younger brother is 6 feet, 10 inches tall,” he said. “For tall guys, having a mattress where your feet aren’t hanging off is nice.”
State-Sized
With the growing awareness and popularity of the California king mattress, companies have attempted to capitalize on that success by offering larger mattresses with geographic names.
“There’s Texas kings, Florida kings, Vermont kings, and Alaskan Kings,” said Tony Hager, owner of Slumberland Furniture in Casper. “Naming mattresses after states is a marketing strategy to get attention from people who live in those states. It’s a niche marketing thing.”
The Alberta king is even larger than some of these at 96 by 96 inches.
The largest mattress on the market is the Alaskan King, a whopping 9 feet squared. It’s appropriate that the largest state has the largest mattress, even if that logic doesn’t hold up for the rest of the king-sized variants.
The Wyoming king isn’t the king of the mattress market. At 84-by-84 inches, it’s in the middle of the “conventional” oversized king mattress variants, bigger than a Texas king but smaller than Alaska or Alberta kings.
At 84 inches by 84 inches, the Wyoming king bed is more than the size of two queen-sized mattresses combined. Few people have heard of the Wyoming king, but that's changing. (Wyomingkingbeds.com) 
At 84 inches by 84 inches, the Wyoming king bed is more than the size of two queen-sized mattresses combined. Few people have heard of the Wyoming king, but that's changing. (Wyomingkingbeds.com) 
At 84 inches by 84 inches, the Wyoming king bed is more than the size of two queen-sized mattresses combined. Few people have heard of the Wyoming king, but that's changing. (Wyomingkingbeds.com)
King Makers
While California Kings are well-known and widely available, Wyoming kings are a relatively new addition to the mattress market.
Hager said the Wyoming king became a thing once the internet became widely used for shopping, which allowed niche markets to offer custom-built products.
“There’s a company called Wyoming King Beds that are taking advantage of a niche group of customers,” he said. “Those customers have larger margins, so the company can charge more for custom sizes. It’s not a high-volume business, but some people are willing to pay for it.”
The Wyoming King Bed Co., under the umbrella of the Custom Mattress Factory, offers a variety of Wyoming king mattresses with different layers of luxury. Despite the name, the Wyoming kings are “handcrafted” in a warehouse in Conover, North Carolina.
“The Original,” the first Wyoming king mattress produced by the company, has a starting price of $2,600. Bed frames for the Wyoming King range from $1,750 to $8,500, and a set of cotton sheets cost $245.
That’s the business strategy behind mattresses like the Wyoming king. If someone’s already interested in getting an extra-large king mattress, the company makes the entire bed you'll lie in.
"The provider provides everything," Haskell said. "They offer mattresses, pillows, sheets, mattress protectors and everything else because they have to do it for the mattress they're making."
Big Bed, Small Market
Neither Hager nor Haskell have ever sold a Wyoming king mattress in their Wyoming locations. Hager believes it’s unlikely that he will ever sell or stock them.
“There’s no demand for them,” he said. “They’re impractical for most people. When you buy a standard 76-by-80-inch king mattress, you can buy matching furniture that’ll fit with everything. You can do that with these bigger mattresses.”
Haskell noted that a Wyoming King would be impractically large for most homes in Wyoming. Logistically, a mattress that large only makes sense in a room that’s large enough to accommodate it.
“None of the top-brand companies are mass-producing Wyoming Kings because there isn’t a big enough market for them,” he said. “I don’t think most people have the space for a 7-by-7-foot square mattress in their master bedroom.”
Haskell has received requests for the even-larger Alaskan king, but those came from people building new homes that could be tweaked to allow the owners to have a 9-foot-square mattress and still have room to maneuver around it.
“When you have a bigger mattress, you have to have a bigger master bedroom, and I don’t think most people in Wyoming have the space for a Wyoming King,” he said.
A standard king mattress is less expensive and allows owners to customize and accessorize at their discretion. You can't get Wyoming King-sized sheets at Walmart, which is a reason why the demand for super-sized mattresses is small.
“Everything has to be custom-made,” Hager said. “It’s tough to find sheets and comforters that fit something that size. That’s why it's only a very small group of mattress manufacturers that make them.”
Is Bigger Better?
Could there be a bigger market for Wyoming King mattresses in Wyoming? Haskell thinks it’s possible, especially since it taps into a truly American trend.
“People like bigger things,” he said. “Wyoming’s getting a spotlight right now, and becoming more interesting to people throughout the country, so they might want a Wyoming King if they move to Wyoming.”
Companies like Wyoming King Beds promote their extra-large mattresses as family spaces as much as sleeping spaces. The Wyoming King is advertised as ideal for couples that co-sleep with their children, dogs, cats, or any menagerie that resides under their roof.
A bed that big might be ostentatious for one or two people, but modern families can have several bedfellows. That’s why Haskell isn’t ruling out the potential for Wyoming Kings in Wyoming.
“A standard king is plenty big for a couple,” Haskell said, “A Wyoming King could be more practical if you share your bed with small children or multiple pets. That’s something that’s becoming more common, and Wyoming Kings are fairly new, so I could see a market for them in the future.”
Hager is more skeptical. Sleeping on a Wyoming King in Wyoming might sound nice, but he believes these extra-large king mattress variants are too large and impractical for Cowboy State sleepers.
“I don’t think there’s a big-enough market for Wyoming Kings in Wyoming,” said Tony Hager, owner of Slumberland Furniture in Casper. “It’s already a niche market, and there’s not a lot of demand for them. For most people, that bed’s too big.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
