What Does BedVoyage Mean?
BedVoyage (pronounced like Bon Voyage) initially launched with a line of luxury bamboo travel linens meant to enhance your trip. This way you knew you were sleeping on clean and luxurious sheets. The winter of 2008 was when BedVoyage first launched at a travel-writers convention in Ireland. Why a travel convention you may ask? Because that’s how our story began. With the search for a a fabric that met the needs of luxury sleep when traveling.
Why Bamboo Sheets?
Sharon Stuart, the CEO, had traveled quite extensively and enjoyed staying in 5-star resorts as much as staying in motels on a beautiful beach. But having been a bit of a linen snob, often the bed sheets and towels did not stand up to her scrutiny. Sharon went looking for a fabric that was both luxurious and had anti-bacterial properties. This mystical fabric took a while to find, until she stumbled across bamboo textiles. It was not a well-known fabric for bedding, there was only one commercial company offering bamboo at the time. The initial concept was to offer clean, luxurious, anti-bacterial sheets to take on your travels. You would then place them over the hotel sheets and pillowcases.
Why Take Sheets With You On Your Travels?
Our first US event was the Las Vegas Travel Convention. We showcased our unique connected design, where the sheets were attached at the foot of the bed. This way the Fitted and Flat sheets completely encased you, to keep your body away from the well-used hotel mattress. The Pillowcases had an invisible zipper, so that your head was safely protected from the pillow, and any germs or mites.
We began introducing our new design at street fairs and tradeshows in WA state. Although we only had 2 colors and 2 sizes; we sold over $18,000 in one weekend at a local street fair. Towards the end of the fair, we started asking people if they were buying them because of the new design, or because of the feeling of the bamboo. Almost all answers were because of the luxuriously soft feel! We realized we were making our market niche too small. Why not widen our horizons to everyone, not just travelers? We quickly moved to a traditional bedding design and stopped offering the connected sheet sets. At one tradeshow, we wanted to have a bed-topper, so we had a local seamstress sew a couple of Twin Sheets into a Duvet Cover. The duvet cover was such a huge hit that we immediately added it to our product line!
What Other Travel Linens Did BedVoyage Offer?
Also meant for taking on your travels; we offered a Travel Blanket and Pillowcase Set. The pillowcase fit travel-size pillows and had an invisible zipper closure. People were loving them for their sofas and as a children snuggly. So again, pivoting to our customers needs; we created Bed Blankets that were silky soft and super breathable.
Best Bamboo Sheets At Costco:
In the fall of 2010, our CEO met with the bedding buyer for Costco road shows. Ironically, he’d been looking for a line of bamboo bedding, as an alternative to cotton. As BedVoyage was a WA state brand, where Costco is headquartered; it worked out fabulously to participate in their road show program. We hired and trained dozens of sales representatives. They’re job was to sell the bamboo linens through first educating the members on the natural benefits of bamboo textiles. Some of the best reasons to sleep on bamboo bed sheets is that they’re cooling, breathable, indescribably soft, and resistant to bacteria and odors. People who suffer from skin conditions are very soothed by the smooth round fibers of bamboo. The anti-bacterial properties of bamboo make the towels virtually resistant to all mildew scent and odors. And they truly DO dry you off faster than cotton towels!
BedVoyage Was The First Bamboo Sheet Brand At Costco:
Very few Costco members had ever heard of bamboo bed sheets or towels and were extremely surprised at the softness. We quickly expanded our road show program into multiple states, and then across the entire country. Our narrowed down our focus to the states in which we had our best sales: WA, OR, CA, ID, AZ, and TX. We love to see that most of our online sales still originate from those states, as we made a big impression on Costco members! They still call us to confirm we were the company selling inside Costco, as a couple competitors were added to the road show program, but the members felt our products were the best. BedVoyage was proud to sell over $12 million in sheets and towels during our time at Costco! BedVoyage offered the best bamboo sheets at Costco. Many our our sales representatives still will only sleep on BedVoyage sheets!
What Does BedVoyage Offer?
We have since expanded our bamboo bed sheet line to include 100% Bamboo Sheet Sets, Bath Towels in all sizes, Duvet Covers and Coverlets. We also offer extra Pillowcase Sets, Euro and, Quilted Standard Shams, and Decorative Throw Pillows. For the little ones: we offer Crib Sheets, Hooded Towels, Baby Washcloths and Swaddles. We like to say we have a little something for everyone, from Babies to Boomers!
Make the switch from cotton to Bamboo, and we promise that you’ll never go back to cotton!
