By Demetrios Rhompotis
For the last eight months mainstream media have outdone themselves in bashing Greece and her people after the country’s economic fallout. With exceptional relish “experts” of all kinds concluded that nothing good can come out of Greece and in their zeal to sound convincing, they went as far as to blame-nature-by attributing the problem to the people’s Mediterranean traits, e.g. their “natural” laziness, their love for oversleeping, coupled with “institutionalized” afternoon naps! Well, poetic justice works in mysterious ways and COCO-MAT, a company founded in Greece by an American 20 years ago, perhaps the leader worldwide in the manufacture of sleep systems made out of 100% natural materials (with more than 60 points of sale in Europe and another 10 in China) has come to a Manhattan staple, the ABC Home, aiming to change the way Americans sleep, alas, even seducing us into sleeping a little longer!
When a friend called me and enthusiastically spoke to me about the first great news coming out of Greece for a long time, urging me to go to ABC Home (888 Broadway) to see with my own eyes those remarkable products and write about them, being as busy as I was, I tried to avoid the commitment, asking him to email me information instead. But he was adamant. “You gotta come down,” he insisted and it didn’t take long before I was in the store’s elevator, taking me up to third floor, where COCO-MAT products are displayed in a soothing, gallery-like environment.
According to Emmanuel Stefanakis, a Greek American from Boston who’s the company’s Director of Operations for the US, “relying on what Mother Nature can provide, COCO-MAT's philosophy of manufacturing relies on sustainability, environmentally-friendly production and natural materials which are derived from 100% biological cultivations and undergo only ecological treatment. Consequently, all of our products are hypo-allergenic.” Based on these principles, the company has managed to produce high-quality sleep products, like bed-mattresses, mattresses and pillows an extensive bed linen range, using absolutely real cotton, seaweed, horse hair, wood etc. As a result, the whole bed breathes, a relief for New York’s hot and humid summers. Moreover, “elasticity is another key element. The mattress adapts to the body, not the other way round,” explains Stefanakis. “COCO-MAT's 4-layer sleep system, consisting of a bed-mattress, mattress and two top-mattresses, offers exemplary comfort and relaxation enabling the body to get the much need rest it needs, thereby allowing us to wake up refreshed and ready to face the challenges of the day ahead.” In addition to their sleep product range, they also make furniture for the bedroom, living room and kitchen.
COCO-MAT's shop-in-shop within the ABC department store is the company's first step into the US. As Emmanuel Stefanakis puts it, “we are looking to expand our ‘sleep on nature’ philosophy into the American market and this place is the ideal starting point. We are dedicated just as much as ABC to making our world a better place to live.” The vision of COCO-MAT’s founders is to become the world leader in the mattress market, to promote a working culture based on sustainability and to provide equal opportunities to all of its employees, irrespective of nationality, race, color, religion or disability.
However, “no matter what one says, it can’t be compared to the experience of seeing and laying on one of these beds or touring around and touching the freshness of the material,” Stefanakis explains, as he insists on literally taking me to bed, which, with all its elaborateness, looks very fragile for my Greek Presidential Guard body, with its equally presidential and much less Evzon-like protruding belly. I cautiously lay down, while the rest of the customers watched with curiosity, waiting their turn, I guess. (In the meantime, I was trying not to wrinkle my shirt completely, as I had another place to go to.) “Oh boy, it feels good,” was my immediate reaction, sensing the smoothness of the garment enveloping my tired body as a protecting aura that put me pretty much at ease with my hypertension-inflicted self. I closed my eyes and it took just seconds before I fell asleep then and there! Before anybody noticed, my cell rang to my rescue and brought me back into reality. Greece had scored her first goal in the World Cup!
