Brief: Get younger consumers (millennials) to try the Serta’s all-new iComfort mattress.

Serta R&D told us, “If we can just get people to try this mattress, they’ll buy it.”

Problem: Younger consumers refuse to set foot in mattress stores. And it’s not just the convenience of shopping online; in the United States mattress stores are seen as the equivalent of a shady used car dealership filled with sleazy salesmen ready to take advantage of anyone who walks through the door.

Scale and Volume: 300 pairs of iC1’s were made and they sold out in less than 48 hours.

Instead of getting younger consumers into mattress stores, we created a revolutionary way to experience the mattress: by wearing it. Introducing the Serta iComfort iC1. Limited-edition sneakers made from actual Serta iComfort mattress materials. Rather than going into a mattress store to try the iComfort, you simply lace them up.

Partnering with legendary sneaker designer DJ Clark Kent and Serta Product Engineers, we created the iComfort iC1, a limited-edition sneaker made from actual Serta iComfort mattress materials. DJ Clark Kent brought his expertise to the design, while Serta Engineers and Garrixon Studio crafted a sneaker that recreated the feeling of lying on an iComfort.

To further enhance the experience, each pair of Serta iC1’s came in custom designed packaging that included a wooly Serta sheep-inspired bag. Each numbered pair was identified by a numbered livestock tag. We even took a poke at the rest of the mattress industry with a lengthy ‘Do Not Remove’ label resembling the ones found on mattresses.

The iC1 grabbed headlines and was featured in prominent culture and media outlets including Hypebeast, Maxim, Esquire, Footwear News, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Daily Mail, among others. Pre-orders for the iC1 sold out in under 48 hours and social conversation around Serta increased by 4500% (yes, you read that correctly), the highest social engagement in the history of the brand.