Myles Garrett Highlights Big Fig’s Expansion Beyond Plus-Size Market

Before setting the NFL’s sack record for a season, Browns All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett needed to make sure he was getting better rest and he needed a better mattress. 

To find one, Garrett did not have to go far. He, along with his chiropractor and physical therapist, was presented with Big Fig, an offshoot of White Dove, a 104-year-old Cleveland-based, fourth-generation family-owned mattress manufacturer. 

“(Garrett’s team) was incredibly invested in his ability to recover, to get a great night’s sleep, to heal and to make sure that he was supported,” says Jeff Brown, Big Fig’s president. “If you get a bad mattress, it can have just the opposite impact on your health and on your sleep health. (Garrett’s team) definitely recommends a more firm mattress.”

A firmer mattress is exactly what Big Fig provides, but athletes like Garrett weren’t Big Fig’s target audience when it was founded in 2016. 

Big Fig co-founder and White Dove CEO Bruce Goodman saw that plus-sized individuals were repeat customers for buying a mattress before anyone else because retailers were exploiting them. They were being promised mattresses with support and longevity but the mattresses were not actually built for plus-sized people.

“(Goodman) saw that that specific collection of folks were being taken advantage of by retailers over and over again,” Brown says. “So instead of just sitting by, he thought that that would be a great place for him to kind of step in. He saw a need and said, ‘Hey, let’s build something from the ground up.’”

With modern manufacturing technology, including high-density foams and high-quality coils, Big Fig’s mattresses are designed to handle the weight loads and limits that plus-sized folks and couples tend to put on mattresses.

Big Fig says by operating as a direct-to-consumer model it not only improves the health of plus-sized sleepers but it also saves people money by eliminating middlemen, reducing doctor visits and avoiding the need to buy a new mattress every two to three years that is not specifically designed for their body types. It also gives Big Fig a direct cash flow from their mattresses, which range in price from $1,699 to $2,149.

With an expanded target audience including athletes, bodybuilders and others in need of sturdier mattresses, Big Fig has experienced consistent double-digit growth, making the brand the largest customer of its contract manufacturer and parent company.

This level of growth has enabled the company to expand without external investment or debt, allowing it to remain autonomous and nimble in its decision-making. That’s particularly important as it navigates future market changes, such as weight-loss drugs shrinking its original target audience. 

“I’m not going to buy a mattress right now for a plus-sized person because someday I won’t be plus-sized,” Brown explains, with GLP-1 drugs that some plus-sized people might delay purchasing a plus-size mattress. 

That’s another reason Big Fig is expanding its audience. With its nimble and independent direct-to-consumer model, it can design, build and launch new mattress models in a matter of months versus years and ship them to customers in three to five business days.

Big Fig is also looking to make the industry more sustainable through greener manufacturing and mattress disposal methods.

“We think there’ll always be a need for a solid, well-built mattress, whether you are an athlete or a bigger person,” says Brown.

But since the beginning, Brown says that working at Big Fig has been a unique and rewarding experience because of customer feedback. (Very different from his days working in consumer goods at companies like Rubbermaid and Newell.)

At Big Fig, customers have said the mattresses helped improve their ability to go to work, saved them money on chiropractor visits and even changed their sex life.

“I can tell you, in all my years in consumer goods,” Brown says, “no matter what brand, no matter what product, I never had reviews that people put literally with tears in their eyes would tell you, ‘Your mattress changed my life.’”  

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