03.10.2025

How Can a Mattress Be Vegan?

Live green with a vegan mattress

Veganism has become increasingly popular in recent years, dominating the food and fashion industries. Ethically sourced vegan products and materials can help people lead a more sustainable lifestyle. Your mattress can be part of this. But you might be asking, “How can a mattress be vegan?” The answer is: easily. It just takes the right materials and the right manufacturer, such as Gardner Mattress.

Veganism Defined

Before exploring how mattresses can be vegan, it’s important to define the term. When a product is determined to be vegan, it ultimately means that the product was developed free from any animal products or testing. In the case of mattresses, this means avoiding mattresses that are made with feathers, wool, or horsehair. 

Those who live a vegan lifestyle typically have a great love for animals. To many vegans, an animal not being killed or harmed in the process of harvesting a material, such as shearing a sheep for its wool, isn’t enough. It can be seen as abuse or exploitation, so they avoid these materials, seeking plant-based alternatives. 

Shopping for a Vegan Mattress

For people who are looking to switch their consumption habits to be vegan friendly, finding a mattress that is 100% vegan can be very difficult. The majority of mattresses on the market contain some kind of animal product, such as wool and feathers. This is because many manufacturers find them to be cheaper and easier to source for mass-producing mattresses, allowing them to turn more of a profit.

That’s why you need to go to a mattress manufacturer who respects handcrafted quality as well as different sleep needs and lifestyles. At Gardner Mattress, we offer a 100% Organic Vegan mattress. Instead of using animal products, our mattresses consist of multiple layers of organic cotton batting, organic flax, and pocketed coil units, all wrapped up in a hand-tufted, soft woven organic cotton fabric. In addition to offering a fully vegan and organic mattress, we make sure to ethically source all materials used in our mattresses

Gardner Mattress employee hand crafting a mattress in Salem, Massachusetts.

It’s also not enough for us to know the materials themselves are vegan. We respect the spirit of the lifestyle as much as the letter. When we handmake your vegan mattress, we put in extra care to avoid any factory cross-contamination. Our mattresses are handmade with the utmost consideration for comfort and longevity. We use only high-quality vegan materials for your mattress to ensure you’re getting a great product that will last for years, further helping your sustainable lifestyle. The longer the mattress lasts, the longer it stays out of landfills, and many of our vegan materials are biodegradable.

Chemical Free and Cruelty Free 

Oftentimes mattresses that are coincidentally vegan or claim to be made of vegan materials are still treated with chemicals that were tested on animals. Although these mattresses technically qualify as vegan, they do not align with the animal ethics of veganism. However, many manufacturers feel they must treat their mattresses with chemicals to meet the federal safety standard for open-flame fire resistance.

Yet there is a chemical-free way to ensure your mattress is fire-resistant, and that comes down to the materials. The organic materials we use in our vegan and non-vegan mattresses alike are naturally flame-resistant, so there’s no need to treat them with any chemicals. This not only lets you enjoy your vegan lifestyle, but prevents exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), allowing you to live and breathe healthier.

You can be assured that when shopping with Gardner Mattress, you’re getting a vegan mattress that is both high-quality and accommodates your lifestyle choice. Visit one of our showrooms to test out the Organic Vegan mattress for yourself and experience a deep, green sleep.

Showrooms

Visit one of our three conveniently located showrooms. Our original factory and showroom in Salem, and our showrooms in Needham and Woburn.

Massachusetts Locations

Gardner Mattress Showroom in Salem, Massachusetts

Hours of Operation

Sunday: 12:00pm – 4:00pm
Monday-Saturday: 9:00am – 4:00pm

Hours of Operation

Sunday & Monday: Closed
Tuesday-Saturday: 10:00am – 4:00pm

Hours of Operation

Sunday: Closed
Monday-Thursday: 10:00am – 4:00pm
Friday: 10:00am – 2:00pm
Saturday: 10:00am – 4:00pm