Gravity Blanket Taps Ron Chereskin for Its First Design Collaboration
The science-driven home, wellness brand will release its Modernist Collection this summer.
By ​Alexandra Pastore​ on June 22, 2020
In a time of stress and uncertainty, consumer behavior has undoubtedly shifted, looking to find comfort at home to adjust for new daily routines. From adopting a casual bottoms wardrobe to giving the home a more functional or relaxing environment lift, consumers’ spending behaviors saw a large change.
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A consumer favorite in the industry, Gravity, the original weighted blanket that uses SleepScore by ResMed ​technology​, has been a source of comfort to many since coming to market. In 2017, Gravity came onto the market after raising more than $4.7 million in a Kickstarter campaign with
a single product as a science-driven wellness brand. Previously, while weighted blankets were most commonly found being used by occupational therapists who were working with children who had been diagnosed with autism. Research showed that, for anyone, sleeping with 10 percent of your body weight on top of you increases hormones in the brain that induce a feeling of calm for relaxation and sleep.
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“We were sort of stunned at how effective they were, and you get this feeling of relief,” said Mike Grillo, cofounder and chief executive officer at Gravity Products. “But they had never been proposed to the general consumer, and they weren’t anything that you would want to be lying around your house. So, the concept originally was we were going to bring this blanket product to market with a revised construction and a new style and then under this broader wellness brand.”
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Gravity products are sold direct-to-consumer at ​Target​, Bloomingdales, Macy’s and ​Amazon​.
More recently, the company has expanded across more skews including collaborations with sleep app Calm for a sleep mask, travel blankets, pillows and bamboo sheets for cooling. And during the recent stressful time of quarantine, Gravity has also reconsidered its social strategy to focus on tips and tricks to stay healthy and stress-free.
Always staying true to its core line, Gravity’s most recent move has been to bring its weighted blanket to meet consumers who love home design. “It was important for us to have that as an offering because the category got more saturated,” Grillo said. “If you’re first to market, most of the folks are just going to keep copying whatever you do. All the competitors that sort of cropped up in the waited space all sort of look like our original design, which was that sort of like space gray quilted duvet cover approach. And for us, we were very proud to be first to market but how do we make the brand stand [out]?”
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In its first “style-centric” outing, the company tapped Ron Chereskin as its creative leader. Chereskin, who was a magazine illustrator before starting his career in fashion, shared his excitement for the partnership saying he felt it was an amazing opportunity in the wide-open nature for creativity, saying further he felt he had the advantage to offer in the home market in ways of prints, color and inspiration.
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“It’s a great collaboration because they have a great marketing company, but they needed someone [like me], and I like that,” Chereskin said. “They really accepted my creativity, which is very important in a great collaboration.”
Chereskin told WWD his first visit to Gravity’s offices in Brooklyn was inspiring. “When I get in, I really, really like to get involved,” Chereskin said. “So, we did the first deal and we’re just about to launch the summer collection which is very exciting. And it brings another aspect to take their company. But more than that, you know, working together to develop lots of great new products and bring more designs as they grow.”
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As the company develops into a full-line home wellness company, Chereskin says he is excited to collaborate on many interesting things that go into the bedroom. “I’m an outsider looking in,” Chereskin said. “And I’m looking at their company and [creating new concepts]. So it’s not just using my prints. It’s really great working together with them as a great marketing team.”
The Gravity x Modernist Collection will launch online on June 23.