Mattress startup Big Fig’s brand refresh repositions its body-inclusive messaging for the Ozempic era

Debuting this month, the brand refresh features a redesigned logo, website and photography. Big Fig says its updated branding and mobile-first website will offer a more accessible shopping experience. The new logo features an all-caps wordmark and a fig icon centered by its pit to symbolize strength and support, according to the company. The company has also released two new variations on its flagship mattress and recently rolled out new digital campaigns that feature plus-sized creators and athletes, including football players.

President Jeff Brown came on board in 2019 to help turn around Big Fig, which had been losing money until that year. Brown told Modern Retail that, while Big Fig has grown at a slower pace than many mattress startups, it has managed to do so profitably over the past five years. 

Since turning a small profit in the second quarter of 2019, Big Fig has managed to grow its topline revenue year-over-year. The company now generates over $50 million in annual sales, with the goal to bring that to $100 million within the next two years. 

Brown said the mattress category is so busy that there is constant temptation to create new products as a growth lever. “The mattress space is particularly skeevy,” Brown said. “Whenever somebody feels like their brand is running out of steam, they come up with a new technical attribute to ride that until it runs out of steam.” 

Big Fig wants to avoid this slippery slope by keeping its offerings focused on a niche demographic. While its product positioning remains unchanged, Brown said the brand’s messaging is evolving to be more wellness-oriented. He also added that even though more people are taking GLP-1 drugs, they aren’t necessarily losing so much weight that they don’t need plus-size products altogether.  

“The plus-size landscape continues to change with the advent of Ozempic and weight-loss drugs,” he said. “We’ve gone from body positivity to body neutrality to, in some cases, plus negativity.” 

Brown said Big Fig wants to hold on to its niche market share as the plus-size demographic keeps changing.

But, while selling luxury mattresses in cities like Los Angeles or New York is one thing, Brown said, “trying to sell mattresses in Alabama at a $2,000 price tag is tougher.” So, the company is also looking for more ways to reach a wider demographic, such as athletes and what Brown refers to as the forgotten plus-sized folks in Middle America. “These customers aren’t the typical target for luxury products,” Brown said. 

Part of the challenge is that the conversation around body positivity has evolved significantly since Big Fig launched. But Brown said the company sees this refresh as a way to reposition itself more broadly in the marketplace. The fact remains that larger sleepers typically need a mattress that can support them and won’t sag in a few months, Brown said. “We are trying to speak to this audience more directly and a little more plainly,” he said.

“We’re also leaning further into working with plus advocates, fat advocates, the African American community and the LGBTQIA+ community,” Brown said. 

Big Fig’s new logo, website and imagery more prominently showcase the way larger-sized customers can benefit from the mattress. The company also has some advantages in targeting a more niche audience. “From an SEO perspective, we get to spend our money wisely on very targeted audiences,” Brown said.

“I wish I could afford the Ashley Grahams of the world,” Brown quips. But Big Fig is increasingly working with a network of size-inclusive creators and athletes to center its products on health and fitness. For example, the company recently ran a social media campaign with several Ohio State offensive line players by having them test Big Fig mattresses’ toughness. And Brown said Big Fig is in talks with another football team to be its official mattress provider.

The company is also tweaking its mattress offerings to capture more plus-size demand. Leading up to the refresh, Big Fig added two new mattress SKUs in early 2025 to support a wider range of sleep needs, Brown said. For the first time, the company is offering an extra firm version of its classic mattress, as well as its luxe mattress, which offers a softer cushion top designed for side sleepers.

But crucially, Big Fig is also focused on maintaining healthy growth. “We don’t overspend on marketing,” Brown said. The company has kept costs down by keeping overhead minimal and outsourcing. Brown said, on the corporate side, Big Fig only has 10 full-time employees, who handle marketing and customer service support. The team is also integrating more tech to keep things lean. “We’re weaving AI into our performance marketing at every turn, including email and SMS,” Brown said.

“And we are not in brick-and-mortar, which is a margin killer,” Brown continued. The decision to not sell through third-party retailers has slowed the brand’s scale. “But that has also managed to keep us able to control our margins and costs,” he added.

In the last few years Big Fig gradually moved its production to be vertically-integrated through its Ohio factory. The steel used in its coils, for example, is sourced domestically from mills in Cleveland’s Steel Valley. Big Fig still buys some raw material from abroad, such as fabrics from Mexico. “But the mattress itself is about 96% domestically sourced, with all of it assembled here in Cleveland,” Brown said.

As more brands enter the DTC mattress space, there is pressure on existing companies to continue to differentiate themselves.   

Shay Luo, partner in the strategic operations practice of Kearney, said mattress brands have to compete both on quality and value. Indeed, there is an advantage to being able to hyper-target a specific demographic’s sleep needs. 

“The global mattress market is growing steadily and is projected to continue this trajectory in the coming years, with the rising consumer awareness of sleep health,” especially among households with growing disposable incomes, Luo said. Luo said that some of the top-tier mattress brands have to be tailored to customers’ needs to avoid price comparison and being viewed as a commodity product.

For Big Fig, this revolves around a refocused attention on what it means to be size-inclusive in 2025. “We’re still loud and proud in wanting to support bigger figures,” Brown said. “We just think that the bigger figure and plus-size community is not a monolith.”