There are hundreds of mattress companies flooding the market today, and many can even be delivered by mail. However, there are still some artisan mattress makers out there. Of course, their mattresses may run you from $1,600 to $4,500, but one thing you can be sure of is that it’s been well tested. While most mattresses are tested with machines, high-end mattress companies still employ “mattress jumpers.” McRoskey Mattress Works in San Francisco is one of the companies who still use mattress jumpers. Their jumper, Reuben Reynoso, knows that people find it amusing that he jumps on mattresses for a living, but what he wants people to know is that it’s work. “It’s not for everybody. There’s a right way and a wrong way to do it.” Jumping on a mattress is one of the final steps in making a handmade mattress, but a machine can’t do what Reynoso and his toes can do. His 10 toes are not little piggies going to market. They are trained members of the team, and they're not jumping on a trampoline, they're jumping on a $2,750 mattress. Reynoso's job is to expertly compress no fewer than 28 layers of fluffy cotton batting, while seeking to detect pea-size mattress lumps or other imperfections. A foot can feel those lumps, while a machine can’t. McRoskey mattress bouncers keep bouncing along, even surviving the 1906 earthquake. The company turns out only a dozen or so mattresses per day.
