How it All Began:
Honeydew Sleep began as a passion project between husband & wife Jonathan and Evita Kunke.
Initially we set out to create the perfect pillow for ourselves, and before we knew it, our lives had changed forever.
We come from a background of brick and mortar mattress stores, with a heavy focus on alignment and the science of sleep. Fred Kunke, Jonathan's father, founded The Sleep Shoppe in 1987, growing from a small storefront to several large flagship locations. Jonathan grew up in the stores, and worked full time alongside Fred after graduating college in 2005. When Jonathan & Evita got married, she joined the team as well. In her late teens, Evita developed a debilitating back condition, and was told by multiple doctors that surgery was her only option. After seeking yet another '2nd opinion', she had a doctor recommend a certain type of mattress for her. Within 90 days, she was back on her feet, and quickly continued to improve over time, ultimately regaining all mobility without surgery. Inspired by how life changing this was for her, she had also developed a passion for helping people improve their lives through sleep, and when she and Jonathan started dating, it immediately felt like it was meant to be.
We were in a unique position, because we literally had access to all of the top rated pillows available (We sold well over 50 different pillows in our stores, from every name brand there was). Despite all the pillows available to us, we were personally unsatisfied with all of the options on the market. Even more than this, we knew exactly what they were missing, and what it would take to provide the alignment and support that would finally relieve our morning neck pain. As crafty people by nature, we knew we could do better and embarked upon a journey to create our perfect pillow.
This proved a much more difficult challenge than we had imagined, but at some point it became our passion project - something halfway between a hobby and an obsession. We had convinced each other that we could do it, and each failure just felt like we were getting closer. Since we had no deadline or budget constraints, we kept at it, year after year. Finally, after dozens of prototypes, and countless combinations of fill materials and formulas, our hard work had paid off - we knew we had something truly special and unique.
From there, we made some as gifts for our family and friends, and before we knew it word of mouth started spreading. We started making them in small amounts for our stores, and soon had people driving over an hour just to get their hands on one of our “scrumptious pillows”. Our email started filling up with messages from customers telling us that our pillows had changed their lives, and we knew we had to make them available on a wider scale. In 2017, we founded Honeydew Sleep, and built our own factory here in Southern California where we could produce them to our ridiculously high standards and specifications.
When we launched Honeydew Sleep, we had one pillow available for purchase.
In the time since, we have expanded our product line to a total of 8 pillows, luxury sheets, and pillowcases available in both 100% silk and organic bamboo fabrics.
We still can't believe that we get to do this every day, and we know that we couldn't do any of it without you. THANK YOU, from the bottom of our hearts, for supporting our family business.
